The Higher You Climb

Don’t forget that corruption always arrives dressed as opportunity

Thank you for listening!

Take this reflection into the silence, and I'll see you next time.

Sign Up for Weekly Deep Dives

Transcript

The mannequins stared from the windows of American Apparel's flagship store. Their porcelain faces frozen in expressions of manufactured rebellion. Inside, Dov Charney paced between racks of his company's signature basics, his empire now stretched across 250 stores worldwide.

"Everything about the brand is about sex and youth and energy," he told Inc. Magazine in 2005.

In hindsight, the warning signs were there, coded in plain sight. A CEO who built his brand identity around "sex and youth" might have been telling us exactly who he was all along.

The company's advertisements pushed boundaries deliberately. Models barely out of their teens posed in provocative positions. Their youth was weaponized into marketing gold. Charney positioned himself as the visionary behind this aesthetic revolution, the CEO who dared to challenge fashion's boring conventions.

But behind the scenes, former employees described a nightmare. Allegations emerged of a workplace where the line between creative vision and exploitation was blurred. Where power dynamics twisted into something darker. Where the man who preached liberation allegedly created his own prison of control.

The Yogis understood what Charney never learned. Success arrives in stages, each achievement opening doors to the next. First comes recognition. Then financial reward. Each rung on the ladder brings new temptations. Each one whispers that the rules no longer apply to you.

When worldly success flows toward you, temptation follows like a shadow. It always does. You’ll be tested. And it all comes to whether you possess the strength to hold your course when every corrupting shortcut tempts you.

Charney couldn't resist. What started as edgy marketing descended into alleged predation. The visionary became the very thing his brand supposedly rebelled against: another powerful man using his position to exploit the vulnerable.

The company filed for bankruptcy in 2015. The stores closed. The empire crumbled.

We watch his fall and think ourselves immune. "I would never," we tell ourselves. But the Yogis teach vigilance. Every success you achieve, every dollar earned, every accolade received. Each one tests your commitment to integrity. The higher you climb, the more seductive the whispers become.

Don’t forget that corruption always arrives dressed as opportunity.