Plant Medicine and the CEO

Business has become the modern altar — but most don’t realize what’s actually being sacrificed there. From the janitor to the CEO, the system exploits the same thing: human wounds.

I Zoomed with an ex-CEO recently — a man who’s led multiple Silicon Valley companies.

He is a visionary and powerhouse. The kind of leader you read about in Forbes.

He told me that every year, without fail, he disappeared.

Not for offsite strategy sessions.

Not to write his next book.

No, he left to heal — with plant medicine.

He retreated to recover from the very system he helped build.

“It’s the only way I could survive it,” he said.

I looked at him as I felt the resonance of his statement arrive with his words — without judgment, but with reverence for his transparency and honesty. Then I told him, “This is exactly why Illuminated Entrepreneur exists: to show business culture what’s possible and to prove that business itself can be the sacred healing retreat we all need.”

I continued, “Business should not be the thing we escape from. It should be the thing that restores us. The thing that calls one back to our center, to truth, to soul, to wholeness. It should be the thing that dissolves one’s need for retreat.

“Business should excite your dream, fuel your potential, and awaken your passion.

It can be that. It was always meant to be that.”

But somewhere along the way, we got lost in something unreal.

And now even the most “successful” businesses are failing — not only in profit, but in the things that matter most.

They’re failing the people who give their lives to them.

Failing the dreamers, the creatives, the leaders who quietly bleed in boardrooms.

The entry-level employee is pushed past capacity, their nervous system worn down by schedules that deny rest and dignity. The manager overrides intuition daily, forced to choose efficiency over empathy. And the executive? Often admired, but quietly unraveling, running empires built on unsustainable transactions, knowing in their body something is deeply off.

And the machine runs on.

Not because people are bad but because the business system is built on misunderstanding and suffering. It leverages trauma to drive profit. It normalizes disconnection. It turns ancient human needs for validation, purpose, and belonging into metrics, quotas, and quarterly KPIs.

When we exploit wounds to drive results, the damage doesn’t stop at the office door.

It leaks.

Into our families where absence becomes a parenting style, where burnout creates short fuses and broken presence.

Into our communities where fear, competition, and scarcity become cultural defaults, making collaboration feel risky.

Into our ecosystems where the rush for more leads to clearcuts, poisoned waters, and a disconnection from the Earth’s intelligence.

This isn’t just about mental health at work.

This is about the spiritual and ecological consequence of a business culture that’s lost connection with the original soul of business.

So let’s change that. We can change that.

Let’s make business a living practice.

A ceremony.

A community of transformation.

A healing epoch — not just for the lucky few, but for everyone building something that matters.

That’s what Illuminated Entrepreneur is here for.

Not just better strategies.

But sacred architecture.

Structures that serve life — not just scale.

If that speaks to you, come closer.

You’re not the only one dreaming of a different way.

We are not interested in tweaking the old system to make it more palatable.

We are here to create something entirely different.

A movement. A culture. A remembrance. A different sort of transaction.

We are here to be the catalyst of a new business model.

Where work becomes a place of reverence, not depletion.

Where commerce becomes a sacred exchange, not manipulation.

Where strategy and soul sit at the same table.

Where healing isn’t something you need to escape to.

Where the retreat is built into the way you work, lead, and create.

This isn’t a fantasy.

This is a choice.

And many are already choosing.

We call it Illuminated Entrepreneur — a new venture, a new way forward.

A field for those ready to build businesses that serve life, not just the bottom line.

A gathering of souls who know that true success cannot come at the cost of our humanity.

If you feel the tremble of this truth in your bones — you’re not alone.

We’re here moving forward.

We’re remembering.

And we’re ready to build what comes next.

Be the Medicine