Spiritual Accountability and Life Transition Conversation

July 5, 2025

Opening: Ien Chi's Spiritual Practice and Sabbath

Balanced Living Philosophy

Ien's Current Season:

"I had in my life from like February to like a month ago... I was like oh you know what? I need a little more balance in my life in terms of like working out, like quiet time, like reading"

Family Grounding:

"Coming home has been really great just being with family, like grounding a bit"

Spiritual Discernment Approach

Listening to Divine Will:

"Just trying to listen to what wants to be birthed, you know? Like, what God is trying to create rather than, like, what I want to create"

Attachment Awareness:

"Anytime something feels like grabbing, I'm just trying to be like, conscious of it... any time something feels like I'm trying to, like, get something done versus like letting it happen"

Service-Oriented Creation:

"I still have these, like, threads of attachment to, like, things I want, but I've been down that road and it just doesn't lead to, like a place where I feel fulfilled... what is it that God wants, you know? Like, not my own self creation, but a creation I can serve"

Ien Chi's Faith-Based Financial Experiment

Prague Nonprofit Trip Investment

Financial Risk-Taking in Service:

"This trip I have next week to Prague is for this nonprofit where, like, they were, like, asking for, like, a large donation to cover my own cost as well as the young people there that I'll be mentoring"

Exponential Return Experience:

"Let me experiment with this and just, like, give away a good chunk of money in service of this nonprofit... And then less than two weeks later, I got like 4X 5x times that money in like new work"

Stewardship vs. Ownership Mindset

Clear Conscience Approach:

"When I do things from a clear conscience and not for self gain, and have faith that I'll be supported, I like. I do the thing first, and wade into that, like, fear territory like, courageously, and then it like, has like an exponential return"

Money as Flow:

"If I think of myself as a steward of this money and not the owner of the money... I'm like, I'm practicing just, like, living more in faith like that in terms of, like, I don't know how the hell it'll work out, but just knowing it'll work out"

Spiritual vs. Strategic Mindsets

Higher Level of Faith

Beyond Control and Strategy:

"I think you and I are both familiar with, like, um, taking the strategy and the control all the way top notch, but then hitting a ceiling. But then when you totally let go of that, there's, like, a higher level of faith"

Spiritual Physics:

"There is like an order of reality that's like, it's just like physics, except on the spiritual level where it's like, all right, just like, follow your gut and be in service of God, and everything will work out, basically"

Natural vs. Forced Orchestration

Flow vs. Effort:

"A natural, a natural orchestration versus, like, a getting it versus like an individual, like getting it done mentality"

GodWave Concept: Gary: "Godwave is a great name, dude" Ien: "Like, just flowing with a God wave is riding the wave, basically, you know? Right Riding the wave. With faith, with faith"

Faith as Enabling Factor

Belief Creating Reality:

"People's faith in a scarce world means that they're enabling a scarce world and people's belief in an abundant world enables an abundant world, or whatever it is that people have faith in"

Ien Chi's Confrontation: Pride and Energy Assessment

Observation Period and Timing

Delayed Feedback Approach:

"I felt like... I just saw a level of energy that I didn't feel like was sustainable for anyone... I thought that the words wouldn't be very useful if it were said at the time that I felt that energy"

Specific Behavioral Observations

Energy Quality Assessment:

"In D.C., too, when I saw you, like, going around, out of the room and meeting people and, you know, like, the very assertive kind of talking. I was like, I don't know. It just felt in energetically, like it was driven by an immense amount of pride versus joy"

Individualistic vs. Service Energy:

"There was like a little energy of, like, like, Gary's the best in the world, basically... It felt more individual than it did, like, a part of something greater"

Misunderstanding About Drinking

Alcohol Assumption: Ien: "When we were talking about some of the alpha stuff and you were like, you know, drinking straight on the bottle... does that mean? What does that mean? So, like, when I've been on overdrive, I start to like self-medicate"

Clarification and Correction: Gary: "I don't drink alcohol, bro... It's a non-alcoholic wine bottle... It's just like juice" Ien: "Well, I guess that changes things... I sincerely apologize... it looked like a wine bottle, so I assumed it was alcohol"

Gary's Response and Self-Reflection

Appreciation with Frustration

Mixed Reception:

"I feel appreciation, but also a lack of understanding. Because if you if you're curious, you could have asked"

Timing Concerns:

"If you think I'm on a bad path, you wait two months... if that really bugged you, that you thought I was [drinking]... if a friend is concerned about my soul waits, you know, two and a half months to say anything about it"

Acknowledgment of Growth Area

Excitement and Learning:

"I was very excited. I didn't I learned a lot about getting overly excited about things I don't even understand. I felt dumb after, but, like, I just stopped doing so much. I just started chilling more"

Energy Management Recognition:

"I think it is cool that I can run in a sprint and I have it in me to do that. But that's going to be rare... I can't rely on like the five hour, four hour a night sleep energy"

Gary's Alpha Schools Organizational Critique

Surveillance and Fake Productivity Culture

Mass Surveillance System:

"Part of why I know Alpha is not long term healthy for me is because they have mass surveillance on all their devices... I've not turned it on once in the last like three weeks. Haven't got fired yet"

Forced Busyness:

"I don't really need to be involved in a system where I'm forced to practice a busyness that's not actually not productive. So I can't endorse a culture like that. That's led to so much waste and fake work"

Internal Politics and Merit Issues

Politics Over Merit:

"There's just so much internal politics that's just not associated with merit or truth or anything"

Leadership Quality Problems:

"I've been super disappointed by the leadership... very, very low quality people... Joe himself is kind of mediocre in a lot of ways, in terms of how he's leading this"

Specific Leadership Failures

Power Consolidation Example:

"One guy after he met me, went out of his way to consolidate power of everything that I wanted to do under his control and cancel this one thing I was doing"

Sales Manipulation Attempt:

"A big sales opportunity I brought in... This one sales guy, head of sales of this one division, tries to cut us out of the opportunity that I brought it, trying to pretend that it was his opportunity"

Joe Liemandt's Unreliability

Strategic Inconsistency:

"Joe... he'll say he wants something done and then some other thing that he thinks can make more money quickly gets his attention and he totally just ignores the thing that he said he wanted to do"

Money-Focused Leadership:

"It's such a money-making endeavor for Joe... it's just so not soul-focused, it's not like mission focused beyond making money"

Educational Philosophy Critique

Marketing Over Substance

Shallow Project Development:

"They were focusing more on practicing, presenting, but not building the apps that they were presenting about... The products themselves are kind of bullshit. They're like, they sound good for like an ad. like AI Teddy bear or whatever. Sounds good for an ad. but like doesn't, is not useful like at all"

Training Con Artists:

"The depths of substance, just like, they're basically training. I don't want to even say salespeople... There's just like no substance... They're like literally... basically training con men"

Image vs. Depth Problem

Frequency Mismatch:

"The entire organization of just.. Image versus depth... And that, yeah, it's almost just like a frequency that for me"

AI Industry and Hype Cycle Analysis

Bubble Recognition

Unsustainable Foundation:

"The AI world, for example, runs on hype, and like, you just don't need to be on that train. There's so many, like, almost all the startups in the AI are gonna fail"

Lack of Deep Need:

"They're not really rooted in like deep need of this company to exist. It's like, oh, we need to compete and gain market share in this bubble before the bubble pops"

Alternative Approach

Patient and Sustainable Strategy:

"My thinking has shifted a lot more towards, like directions that feel a lot more patient and solid and sustainable"

Utility of Hype:

"The feeling and emotion of hype is useful at different timings, but especially for longer term endeavors, something to feel something to integrate consciously and not go, like, all in"

Living Situation and Geographic Transitions

Apartment Transition

Natural Resolution:

"My roommate's wife has got a job in Austin, and they want to take over the two bedroom, which is great"

Geographic Distribution Plans

Multi-Location Strategy:

"I'm thinking like 50% in Tulsa, 25% in Austin, were even less than 25%. Or maybe it's like 15% in Austin in like 35% elsewhere. So 50, 15, 35. Something like that. or maybe like 60, 15, 25"

Organic Partnership Development

Thoughtful Relationship Building:

"The more that I let things flow as the pace that they need to flow... when it comes to partnerships, letting that come organically form... it's going this like if it's just too excited, it's going to be a lot of like switching gears more than I would like"

Spiritual Work Philosophy Evolution

Detaching Activity from Productivity

Personal vs. Divine Activity:

"I realized that I still associated in my mind the amount of personal activity I was up to with productivity of what basically God could do"

New Experimental Approach:

"The next level that I'm now experimenting with is basically trusting that with less running around, more ease and more flow that God gives can make more happen, actually"

Internal vs. External Fruits

Redefining Success:

"Sometimes, too, it's like my own definition of fruits might be really different from God's fruits because, like, maybe the fruit is completely internal for me versus like an outer result"

Spiritual Priority:

"This is all a journey to get close to God at the end of the day"

Balanced Pace Strategy

Intentional Rhythm:

"I'm basically stepping into a new chapter where I'm intentionally going at a grounded and balanced pace. and then, like, like, hands off, just like trusting it'll work out"

Integrity at High Levels Discussion

Mentor's Industry Assessment

Declining Quality Recognition:

"She went from thinking that about 50% of the people at the high level in [global health field] were high quality, then she's downgraded to 10%... maybe it's probably even less than that"

Spiritual Purification Requirements

High-Level Integrity Challenges: Ien: "To be truly integris and working at a high level requires that much depth of spiritual purification... Not a lot of people have done that or do that. Or even consider that"

Gandhi as Role Model

Power Through Integrity: Ien: "Gandhi's one of my heroes, dude. Like, he was so capable and talented and effective at what he he did with such enormous integrity that like, that's power. That's the true definition of power"

Surrendered Leadership:

"It comes from the humility of those people knowing that it's not of their own nature that they're able to do that. They're surrendered to some higher power to be able to do that"

Conclusion: Mutual Growth and Accountability

Role Model Recognition

Personal Responsibility:

"We severely lack those kind of role models today... You have to be the role modeler... be the change"

Friendship and Support

Continued Prayer and Support: Ien: "I'll be praying for you in your next chapter, dude. Sounds like you're on another kind of transition period like discerning what's next and what most fulfills your soul"

Mutual Availability:

"If you ever need any venting We're talking about anything that you're thinking of. Like, I'm always here for you, dude"

Key Themes and Insights

1. Spiritual Accountability in Friendship

Ien Chi demonstrated the courage to confront Gary about perceived prideful behavior, showing the depth of their friendship and spiritual commitment to each other's growth.

2. Faith-Based Financial Stewardship

Both discussed practical application of spiritual principles to money management, emphasizing stewardship over ownership and trusting divine provision.

3. Organizational Discernment

Gary's detailed critique of Alpha Schools reveals sophisticated ability to recognize toxic organizational culture and make strategic exit decisions based on values alignment.

4. Energy Management and Sustainability

Recognition that high-intensity work approaches can be effective short-term but require balance and intentionality for long-term effectiveness.

5. Industry-Wide Integrity Challenges

Discussion of declining leadership quality at high levels across industries, emphasizing need for spiritual purification and surrendered leadership models.

Strategic Implications

This conversation reveals Gary's continued spiritual maturation and strategic thinking about organizational engagement. Ien Chi's willingness to provide difficult feedback demonstrates the quality of accountability relationship that supports spiritual and professional growth. The discussion of Alpha Schools provides important documentation of organizational dysfunction patterns and strategic exit planning.

The conversation also shows both individuals' commitment to faith-based approaches to business and life decisions, prioritizing spiritual discernment over purely strategic calculations while maintaining practical effectiveness.