The Sacred Side of Success: One Entrepreneur’s Path to Conscious Leadership

StevenMiyao
May 20
4 min read

You're not alone if you’ve ever hit a milestone that looked great on paper but left you feeling oddly unsatisfied. Many leaders I coach experience this: they reach a goal they’ve been chasing for years, only to find that it doesn’t quiet the voice inside asking, Is this it?

I had an invigorating conversation with Bruno Del Ama on my podcast, during which we explored that very moment. Bruno built Global X into a multi-billion-dollar asset management firm. From the outside, it was a clear win. But the part that stayed with me was what happened after the win.

“We got to two billion in assets. And for a little amount of time, I was thrilled. And soon enough, my mind was like, well, you know, we got to three billion… then five.”

That moment of awareness pulled Bruno out of autopilot. It forced him to ask a question I work through often with clients: What does success mean if it never feels like enough?

In the following conversation, you'll get a closer look at how Bruno redefined success, how intuition shaped his biggest decisions, and what it takes to lead with purpose instead of pressure. We explore intuition, conscious leadership, redefining success, managing growth, asking for help, and integrating inner work into real-world impact.

A Pattern of Knowing—And Choosing Differently

Bruno’s story of inner clarity didn’t begin in a boardroom. At 16, he was nearly recruited into Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic sect. The pressure was intense, but something in him said no—even as he said yes out loud.

“My entire body said no way… There was just a deeper sort of inner wisdom that shined through.”

What struck me most was how that moment shaped his trust in intuition. As a coach, I often see people trying to think their way out of big decisions. Bruno had learned early on to listen for something deeper, and that skill served him over and over again in life and business.

Building Global X: A Pivot That Changed Everything

Global X started small: just Bruno, his partner, and an intern. After a year and a half, they had only $11 million in assets under management and no clear path to profitability. Then Bruno proposed a major pivot: launch six new ETF products. Investors said no, but they allowed two.

“In that month, December of 2009, when we launched, we went from 11 million in assets to 100 million.”

That line could sound like a lucky break, but it’s a window into the kind of leadership I admire: being informed by data but led by conviction. I guide many clients through this shift, learning when to move beyond strategy and trust themselves to act, even without a guarantee.

Rethinking Leadership as Human Work

As Global X grew, Bruno realized something familiar to many of the executives and founders I coach: when your job changes, suddenly you’re spending most of your time managing people, not always the part you signed up for.

“Wow, my job sucks… I’m self-defining my management of my team as a pain in the neck.”

We talked about how that reframe, seeing leadership not as a burden but as a space for growth, changed his entire approach. He began treating every relationship as a learning curve, and leadership as a skill you expand, not a fixed identity you perform.

That shift, from managing to truly leading, is one of the most transformational levers in my work with clients.

Getting Support: Rethinking Strength and Asking for Help

One of the most powerful moments in our conversation was Bruno’s honesty about hesitating to get a coach.

“It felt like therapy… And there was so much negative connotation in the family that I grew up with to do therapy.”

That belief is common among high performers I work with. But someone asked Bruno a question that flipped the script:

“What would you say if Rafael Nadal, one of the best 50 tennis minds in the world, did not have a coach?”

It landed. He hired two coaches and later made coaching available to his leadership team. That decision didn’t just make him a better leader; it helped shape the company's culture. In my experience, the most impactful leaders don’t have all the answers. They’re the ones willing to reflect and evolve.

From Founder to Community Builder

After selling Global X, Bruno took a step back from business. He spent several years exploring spiritual traditions and asking deeper questions about how leaders grow professionally and personally. What emerged from that reflection was Sangha.

Sangha is a curated, invitation-only spiritual community for experienced leaders, founders, executives, and changemakers who are actively committed to their inner development. Members meet monthly in small, peer-based circles (typically 6–9 people) to support each other’s growth in consciousness, purpose, and presence.

“We’re the opposite of that top-down structure… Everybody’s a sovereign, powerful being. The circles are self-sovereign entities in search of truth.”

There’s no guru, doctrine, or playbook, just a shared commitment to real, grounded transformation. As someone who coaches leaders navigating identity shifts, I see how rare and needed spaces like this are. Many of my clients are quietly craving something deeper, but don’t know where to go to explore it without judgment or jargon.

Sangha offers that space. It reflects what becomes possible when leadership includes, not hides, spiritual exploration and inner work.

A Different Kind of Success

Bruno’s definition of success changed, but not because he slowed down or stepped back. He simply started asking a different question: What’s actually worth striving for?

“The old paradigm of success is really a hedonic treadmill that has no end point… That’s not the train that I want.”

What train are you actually on? Has come up in dozens of coaching sessions. It’s not about abandoning achievement. It’s about aligning it with who you actually want to become.

Bruno’s story is one of conscious leadership and personal responsibility. He didn’t wait for burnout or breakdown to change course—he made a choice. And that’s what I work to help my clients do: choose their next chapter with clarity, purpose, and a deeper kind of ambition.

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