The Monk Who "Bought" a Ferrari

Recently, I was scrolling through LinkedIn when I came across the profile of a senior ex-colleague of mine who apparently switched careers. She has now added a new credential: Certified Life Coach, from a "Monk" founded Coaching School.

It caught my attention. The name of the school was familiar and actually the "Monk" who founded the school is currently a bestselling author and viral content creator known for spiritual quotes, celebrity interviews, and a book themed around monk wisdom.

I had never looked too deeply into his background although I had watched few of his earlier uploads on YouTube. I stopped watching the moment he started selling tea (the tiniest bit of my logic said, no, monks don't sell Tea!). For some unknown reason, this certification, now showing up on professional spaces made me curious as I did not expect someone in my circle to have this.

So I looked and what I found didn’t quite add up.

This former monk, now the founder of the certification school is known for saying things like “I used to be a monk. Now I help people live with purpose.” At face value, that’s compelling. To mere mortals like me, this man looks more like a model than monk and I kind of convinced myself into thinking that his practices, lifestyle and the wisdom that he gained as a Monk is the reason behind his glow and not cosmetics. Until then for me, Monkhood meant discipline, selflessness, and spiritual depth, the kind of lived wisdom people seek in a life coach or teacher.

Not too far, but when I looked more closely, it raised a simple question: Was he actually a monk?

In most spiritual traditions, becoming a monk isn’t symbolic. It involves a formal initiation, a spiritual teacher, celibacy, renunciation, and years of structured training. This is a calling and not a personal USP. In one interview, the influencer himself admitted “I wasn’t initiated as a full monk… I lived the lifestyle but didn’t take the vows.” For all the followers or listeners, to be clear, that admission itself disqualifies him from being called a monk by any traditional definition.

The timeline to attain monkhood doesn’t add up either. He reportedly graduated university around 2010 and began working in a corporate job by 2013. That is a 3 year window, during which he claims to have been “a monk for 3 years.” Publicly, it’s been said that he also visited ashrams during vacations. So was it full time monkhood? OR Gap year soul-searching? OR Spiritual tourism?

There is no verifiable name of a monastery, no guru, no lineage, no public record from the monastic community he refers to (although it is easy to generate one if you have the finance and if questioned). Yet, that loosely defined experience is now used to sell books on monk wisdom, train others to become life coaches, build an entire lifestyle brand, sell tea..

Today, this person lives in luxury, runs businesses, partners with brands, and is married to a wellness influencer.

All of that is fine but presenting oneself as a “former monk” who gave up worldly pleasures, while now clearly enjoying them creates a confusing message. When spiritual identity becomes a marketing tool, we need to ask if this is authenticity or strategy? At least for me, it goes like the monk who sold his Ferrari and not the one who bought.

The coaching school promises to “help people live with purpose,” and certifies others to do the same. But the issue is if the school is based on wisdom derived from “monkhood” and that monkhood wasn’t formal, structured, or accountable, then what exactly is being taught? This person is still in his 30's and there is no record of having raised a family or life struggles or gone through long term adversity. Surprisingly this same person is now positioned as someone training others to guide lives? We are living in a time where even a routine clerical position is filled only by those who have prior experience. And here we have people who have no real life experience coaching "Life".

I have no doubt that inspiration can come from anywhere and maybe the program is helping people including my ex-colleague in some way. But I do believe and readers will hopefully agree that spiritual authority should be earned, not assumed. Coaching certifications should come from grounded, credible sources. You don’t become a teacher just because people follow you.

We live in a time where well edited videos, great story telling and ancient sounding quotes can build a million-dollar brand overnight. If you are paying someone to be your life coach or guide, it is fair to ask, who trained them? Are they certified by someone who was certified by someone real? As someone said, monk robes and mindfulness quotes are easy to borrow but wisdom cannot be faked. 

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