EPISODE 291
When Chasing Success Costs You Everything
with Steven Ringelstein
Could the way you’ve been taught to succeed actually be keeping you stuck?
Steven Ringelstein has experienced both sides of entrepreneurial success. After years of relentless growth, leadership, and achievement, he says the model he was following ultimately cost him his health, marriage, relationships, and business. Bankruptcy forced him to rebuild from the ground up.
Today, as founder and CEO of Evolve Institute, Steven helps purpose-driven founders, executives, and leadership teams look beyond strategy and examine the internal beliefs, emotions, fears, and patterns shaping how they lead.
In this episode, he breaks down what changed when he stopped chasing success the way he always had, and how a new approach to leadership, stillness, and perspective can change the trajectory of a business.
From Hustle to Inner Coherence
For years, Steven believed more work, more growth, and more achievement would eventually create freedom. Instead, he found himself increasingly disconnected from himself and the people and things that mattered most.
His collapse became a turning point. Rather than simply rebuilding another business using the same formula, Steven began questioning the formula itself.
Today, he talks about “inner coherence,” the alignment between our actions, intentions, emotions, values, and purpose. His perspective is that sustainable success isn’t simply about managing time or solving more problems. It begins with understanding the person doing the leading.
Steven also shares why he believes every entrepreneur has a unique “soul code” or “source code,” and why your business can become an expression of that individuality rather than a copy of someone else’s version of success.
Shift the Way You Lead
Steven’s 3D and 5D framework offers a different way to think about leadership. He describes 3D as an operating system shaped by fear, scarcity, urgency, competition, judgment, and constant reaction.
5D, by contrast, centers on presence, connection, stillness, intuition, and a different relationship with uncertainty.
One of the simplest practices Steven shares is his “glasses” analogy: when we’re triggered or overwhelmed, we can recognize that we’re looking through a particular lens, then consciously shift our perspective.
He also explains why he believes leaders don’t always need to solve the problem in front of them. Sometimes the opportunity is to create a new reality in which the problem no longer exists.
Enjoy this episode with Steven Ringelstein…Enjoy this episode with Matt Holman…
Soundbytes
10:06–10:27
“So that’s how my journey has been, and slowly shifting more and more from [an] operating system of 3D — which is based on fear, separation, and scarcity. The hustle culture in business: more and more and more and more. And that’s what I was half my life — into contentment, peacefulness, clarity.”
27:43–28:09
“You forget you have your glasses on, because that’s what it is all the time. You forgot you have a lens that you’re looking through. Now you take off your glasses. You take off the lens, and all of a sudden, everything is brighter. The sun is brighter. Colors are a little more vivid. Everything is more loving and peaceful. That is 5D. So, it is really understanding that the gap between realities is just your perspective.”
Quotes
“Your business will match your fingerprint.”
“Slow down. Sometimes just pause.”
“It’s exercising your sovereignty, the freedom to choose the world you want to live in.”
“The key thing is shifting one little thing, one lever that completely opens up your business.”
“You cannot completely separate the business from the person building it.”
Links mentioned in this episode:
Connect with our Guest Host
Connect with Steven Ringelstein on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenringelstein/
Website: https://evolve.institute/
Email: steven@evolve.institute
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