I’m obsessed with the latest trend of tech startup docudramas like Super Pumped (Uber) and WeCrash (WeWork). I started my first company at 22 looking up to CEOs like Travis Kalanick (Uber) and Adam Neumann (WeWork). I was desperate to create a cult of personality around me as a “disruptor”, “innovator”, and “maven”. I failed.

Halfway through my first founder’s journey, I got sober.

As you see documented in these shows, I knew how to do two things: work and party. Unlike Uber and WeWork, my startup never took off, and my drinking only got worse. It wasn’t working, and that probably saved my soul.

We can’t stop watching.

Watching these shows isn’t much different than binging serial killer dramas like Dexter. We are captivated by the insanity, in part thinking we could never be like that, half appalled...yet half envious that we’re not. With the egomania comes the helicopters and the houses in the Hamptons.

In hindsight, I can see how more venture funding, acolytes, and traction would have inflated my ego to the point of no return. When I finally hopped on the wagon, I was forced to look at my desire to control and manage everything in my life. Helicopter or no helicopter, an egomaniac is still an asshole.

Can you spot them?

After that company wrapped up, I became a tech consultant. I met countless versions of the WeWork and Uber founders. They’re hard to spot in the moment, as the line between crazy and genius is a thin one, often only revealed in the level of success attained. But I also met the real people they worked for, and I saw how the maniacal pursuit of disruption so often really disrupts people's lives.

I started to look at the companies that don’t dangle absurd carrots and visions for the future, from small businesses to bootstrapped startups where the founders' goal is to create a great business instead of inflating their own egos.

Stop trying to build the next WeWork.

Start trying to change the lives of those around you. Elevating others is a better path toward happiness than a golden parachute.