The Journey to Authenticity: A Love Letter to Corporate America

Building a business is often sold as the ultimate path to freedom—be your own boss, make your own rules, control your financial future. But what happens when the very thing you built to liberate you becomes the thing that traps you?

When the dream you chased so relentlessly exposes cracks in your character—the ones you thought were sealed—pulling you into a mindset of fear? And fear, I’ve come to believe, is the very thing that suffocates who you truly are.

This second installment of The Journey to Authenticity: A Love Letter to Corporate America dives into how I scaled a start-up into a multi-million-dollar professional services company in just three years—only to find myself caught in a relentless cycle of self-sabotage. It’s a story of unchecked ambition, lack of accountability, and the hard lessons that come from prioritizing growth over stability.

We weren’t aggressively expanding, but we kept signing deals. One after another. And without a structured leadership pipeline or technical onboarding system, the weight of it all fell on me. Instead of operating at the strategy and leadership level, I pushed aside everything I had learned about business and leadership and convinced myself I needed to personally save my team. The problem? I wasn’t seeing Limitless as a business—I was seeing it as an extension of myself. Like a third arm. And when a part of my body was in danger, my fear response kicked in. I reacted instead of led. And that reaction set everything in motion.

In Part 1: How I Blew Up My Executive Career, I shared how I climbed the corporate ladder, only to realize the cost of losing myself along the way. But leaving corporate America didn’t fix my problems—it just gave me a new arena to self-destruct in.

Welcome to Part 2a: How I Blew Up My Multi-Million Dollar Business.

Let’s get into it.

How I Blew Up My Multi-Million Dollar Business

First, let’s set the record straight. As of late May 2024, the clear-minded, conscious human being writing this article was finally awoken after spending the prior six months operating with a skewed perspective. I was so caught up in what I thought was saving my company that I failed to see how I was actually tearing it apart.

That being said, Limitless Connect is still operating. The company has active contracts, a skilled team, and—most importantly—I am completely out of the way. I’ve stepped into a strategic advisor role, solely to help the team manage and plan their P&L, while the day-to-day leadership and execution rest in their hands. If you have a contract with Limitless or want to do business with them, know this—they are fully capable of setting expectations and delivering results.

I titled this piece How I Blew Up My Multi-Million Dollar Business for consistency; there remains in place a dedicated, highly skilled, and experienced team keeping things moving forward. These are the same people who helped scale Limitless Connect from four to 50 employees in three short years. And now, with a partnership between Limitless and GetDunamis (another great professional services firm), the company has an established physical presence in the U.S. and access to seasoned, U.S.-based engineers.

The Blessing in Disguise

Looking back, I see it now—this was a blessing in disguise. If there are prisons within my mind that are holding back my inner calling, I feel that life will expose them. I have constantly observed that the universe doesn’t let you outrun your own work. It reveals itself in what you chase—money, validation, control—and in what you resist.

Psychologist Carl Jung called this the "Shadow"—the parts of ourselves we suppress, yet project onto others. The things we judge and detest in others? Often, they’re the very things we refuse to acknowledge within ourselves. And once you recognize that, the real work begins.

We can fool ourselves into thinking we’ve got it all figured out—especially when we measure success by titles, wealth, status, or physical attributes. We can drown in the illusion that "consumption" will bring us peace.

However, my experience is that once you get the big dopamine hit from a pay raise, new house, new car, new title, it wears off after a week or two and I find myself in the same position emotionally and mentally that I was in prior to the big accomplishment or purchase. I’ve learned that consumption promises peace but it does not deliver (a lesson I tirelessly preach to my three boys).

But here’s the truth:

No matter how high you climb, how much you acquire, or how far you run, if there’s unfinished business within you, it will surface—again and again—until you face it.

And the real risk? It’s not losing money or status. It’s never finding, never connecting with, and never expressing your inner truth. I don’t know exactly what that regret looks like, but I’d bet that if I make it to 90, I’ll look in the mirror and know. And I refuse to wait until my final breath to figure it out.

Love

Limitless Connect has been operating for five years, and while my self-sabotage pattern lasted only six months, the rest of the journey was filled with incredible experiences and amazing people. I was so personally invested in the company’s success—to my own detriment later—that when the first team members joined, and we started working with our first customers, I felt an overwhelming sense of love and appreciation for the people who helped turn a concept in my head into a company that employed 50 people and serviced over 100 customers.

Now, “love” can mean a lot of different things to different people, so let me attempt to describe the type of love I experienced while building Limitless Connect.

When I worked with mid-level leadership as an executive, I used to tell them, “Your days of being an effective individual contributor are over.” What got them to where they were—being top performers in their roles—was no longer enough.

Their job now was to lead, communicate, and guide their teams to harmoniously work in support of team responsibilities aligned with organizational goals. They had to invest in their team, implement standards and processes to save time and eliminate errors. Leadership 101.

And yet—despite knowing this—I completely ignored my own leadership principles when I went into hero mode trying to “save” Limitless Connect. Instead of leading, I reacted. Instead of trusting the team, I took everything on myself. And it damn near broke me mentally and emotionally.

But let’s back up. None of this would have been possible without the three founders of Limitless Connect Philippines.

For two years, we spent countless hours on conference calls, building something from nothing. I watched each of them grow in confidence, skill, and leadership, and I was in awe of what we accomplished together. We became a get-it-done squad, and while we worked hard, we made sure to have fun along the way.

One of my proudest moments as a team? Filling a 24/7 staffing contract for 18 people in less than a month. We had zero leads, zero interest, and zero responses from candidates that we reached out to over the first two weeks. Nothing. We sent LinkedIn messages, emails, DMs, phone calls, SMS, online job postings—every outreach method we could think of. No one responded.

So we got creative. We started tapping into non-traditional talent sources and networking differently. Once we got a few people interested, word-of-mouth kicked in, and soon, we were interviewing 10+ candidates a week for months. The team executed flawlessly, and when I had to step away for seven months of military training, they ran Limitless Connect without me.

I share this context because that experience changed me.

For the first time in my life, I was experiencing love from a different perspective. It wasn’t just brotherly love, fatherly love, romantic love, or friendship—it was all of those things at once. It felt free. It felt unconditional.

In that freedom, I caught a glimpse of what life could be—a life where I could move through the world with love instead of fear.

This experience resonates with the concept of agape love, as discussed by cognitive scientist and philosopher John Vervaeke in his "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis" series. Vervaeke describes agape as a form of love that is creative and transformative, akin to the unconditional love a parent has for a child. This love is not based on consumption or cooperation but is a selfless act that helps bring a person into full realization. meaningcrisis.co

Reflecting on this, I realized something simple but profound:

Love doesn’t need conditions.

Love doesn’t need judgment.

Love doesn’t need to be reciprocated.

People will make mistakes. They will hurt me—intentionally or unintentionally. But choosing love over self-pity, over resentment, over hate? That’s where the real freedom is.

In episode #425 of "This Past Weekend" podcast, comedian Louis C.K. shared an insightful observation inspired by his dog. He admired how his dog simply sat there, content to receive love without any effort. This led him to reflect on human relationships, suggesting that perhaps we, too, should be present and open to receiving love in its various forms from those around us. By being receptive, we can fully experience the affection and connection that others offer, intentionally or unknowingly, through our relationships.

Imagine loving someone fully, expecting nothing in return—and feeling that love was enough.

I don’t claim to live in that space all the time. Not even most of the time. But I’ve seen the path, and I know it’s there.

And now? I want to keep walking toward it.

Thank you for joining me in Part 2a of The Journey to Authenticity: A Love Letter to Corporate America. If my experiences have resonated with you, I invite you to continue this exploration of healing, growth, and authentic living.

Here’s How You Can Stay Connected and Engaged:

OurHealing.Help: Your resource for mental and emotional well-being. Discover insights, tools, and practices to support your healing journey and self-discovery.

ChrisHoweComedy.com: Join me as I navigate life’s ups and downs through comedy, turning experiences into stories that inspire laughter and reflection.

LimitlessLifestyle.io: Explore curated products, science-backed solutions, and personal testimonials aimed at fostering a limitless mindset and lifestyle.

Upcoming Chapters in This Series:

Part 2b: How I Blew Up My Multi-Million Dollar Company – Releasing on monday

Part 3: The Path to Expressing My Authentic Self – Coming next week

Let’s delve deeper into what it truly means to succeed, fail, and live authentically.

Stay in Touch: Let’s Spark a Conversation

Follow me on social media to stay updated, connect, and share your thoughts:

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Let’s make this journey about more than just words—let’s build a community that uplifts, inspires, and supports one another.