The Root System: Are They Grounding You or Just Tangling Your Life?

Without its roots, an onion can't grow, and neither can you—but your roots don't have to hold you in place. Carl Jung's quote, "No tree can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell," comes to mind, reminding us that real growth demands we face the darker patterns we've inherited. Sometimes, the very foundation meant to nourish us becomes the thing that keeps us small.

The Voice That Sounds Like Someone Else

Look, I need to tell you something about that voice in your head (it sees dead people, just kidding)—the one that whispers you're not working hard enough, not successful enough, not enough, period. That's not your voice. That's your roots talking, and some of those roots have been choking your growth for years.

My father used to always say "play poor" because so many people had taken advantage of him or used him. That advice surely kept me broke for some time. When you grow up in a family company where the patriarch controls everything, you don't actually grow up. They want to give you the life they didn't have, but in trying to protect you, they never really teach you anything. You become a full-time door opener to their empire because they trust no one, and your dreams go on hold while the echoes of "this will all be yours one day" ring hollow when you have to beg to get paid a normal wage, at the least—you never grow up.

What I wish someone had told me is that having a privileged upbringing with a safety net distorts everything. You always feel like your fallback is there to save you, but it comes with invisible chains. Family companies do that—they provide security but with control. To branch out, grow up, and grow your own roots means leaving that safety net behind.

The Guilt of Not Grinding

When I finally quit the family company, I carried this programming that I always had to be working, even when I wasn't. I felt guilty doing nothing. Even now, during the week, I need to always be busy or I feel like I'm not doing anything—like I'm going to get reprimanded by some invisible authority. It took me some time to get over that inherited hustle mentality.

By the second year of building my tech company, entering year three with no salary, I was beating myself up internally. We had begun with a salary, and I also bring in income with my graphic design company, but now with our child, the equation has gotten harder with time. But I kept looking forward like wearing those eye blockers horses use to not get distracted. I used all my teachings, books, coaching, and spiritual practices to stay on course during my darkest moments. Having my wife help pay rent and groceries has been super humbling—I've never been in this situation, and now we have a child.

But here's what I learned, aside from being brutally honest and opening up with your wife, is picking the right partner with deep roots in communication makes all the difference. Talking it through, showing her the team's progress, and always keeping her on top of how we're giving it our all, without these roots with a good partner, this wouldn't work. It's like the Chinese Bamboo tree that takes five years to "grow" (in our case, I hope less) and then seemingly explodes to 50 feet or more.

What Success Actually Looks Like

My family just wants me safe and okay, and maybe smiling more. But my version of success? It's providing a beautiful life, a home in the right neighborhood (or forest or farm in Italy), and giving my wife the choice to stay home and raise our kids—that's what she wants and what I want to provide. It's not about the materialism and shallow Miami living I used to chase years ago. It's about providing, protecting, being close to my son, and building our own empire with my family, one that will allow us to travel the world while I provide the best life I can give them.

The difference between my old roots and my new ones? The old version was about proving I was worthy of my father's sacrifice. The new version is about creating something worthy of my son's future (damn, that's deep—what a purpose).

Choosing Your Ground

Right now, as you're reading this, you're probably carrying money stories that aren't even yours. Maybe it's the scarcity your parents lived through, or the hustle mentality that confuses suffering with success, or the guilt about wanting more than your family had.

Here's what I want you to feel: your roots don't have to determine your direction. You can honor where you came from while choosing where you're going. You can carry forward the work ethic without carrying on the fear. You can build something meaningful without measuring your worth by how much you're suffering for it.

The goal isn't to reject your foundation—it's to consciously choose which parts of your root system serve your growth and which parts are just old programming running in the background. Some roots anchor you. Others tangle you. Learning the difference is how you grow toward the light while staying grounded in what actually matters.

"We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it." - Rick Warren

What money story have you been carrying that isn't actually yours?
Reply and tell me what you discovered.

Being Coached Layers: The Power of the Cull

This week, Dr. Goodman says: This is where the concept of culling comes in, a powerful insight from Dr. Goodman, and it's integral to truly peeling back your layers. He explains that growth isn't just about rooting deep or reaching high; it's also about actively pruning your life. Culling means cutting off the most frail and imperfect branches—those things that "seemed like a good idea at the time" but no longer serve your vision.

The purpose of culling is to allow you to examine what you're growing, determining the purity of your vision and the true strength of what you're creating. It's about letting go of the parts of the process that now only hold you back. As Dr. Goodman emphasizes, this process of Constant And Never-ending Improvement (CANI) isn't easy, but it's essential for evolution. It works, he says, because he does it himself. Don't settle; keep striving.

Bookshelf Peeled - Bhagavad Gita & Your Roots

This week, as we dig into The Root System, a passage from the Bhagavad Gita resonates deeply: the concept of Yoga, rooted in "yuj" – to bind together. It points to a state beyond ordinary experience called Samadhi, leading to Moksha or Nirvana: going beyond the conditioning of Maya (time, space, and causality).

For me, understanding this brought a new layer to my own "root system" and that subtle voice that whispered I wasn't "enough." That feeling, tied to old family programming and the "invisible chains" of my past, was Maya (the conditioning veil) in action—that kept me stuck in a certain perception of reality. The Gita's wisdom reminds us that by consciously understanding and choosing our roots, we can move beyond these ingrained patterns. It's about finding that grounded union within ourselves, so we can finally break free from the past's hold and truly grow toward our own light, without being tangled by outdated beliefs.

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Design Rebel: My CRAZIEST Onion baby Dreams!

My latest video is a deep dive into the "roots" of a baby onion's subconscious – an animated peek into my craziest video, I think, yet! Get ready for some serious dream confessions from this Rebel Onion Baby! 🧅💤 He's sharing his most uprooted dreams, and trust us, something ain't all there. For this Video of the Week, I animated it using Leonardo.AI, crafted the script (shoutout to Gemini for the grammar assist!), and handled all the editing in Wondershare Filmora. It's pure, weird humor, all from me!

Weekly Inspired Insights I liked or found useful this week:

I talked about the Chinese bamboo in this week's newsletter, and if you haven't heard about it, here's the shortest clip I can find for you.

P.S. If this resonates with you, share it with someone whose periscope might need permission to surface. We're all submarines in this ocean together, scanning for the courage to be ourselves.