Episode 162: Unlocking Human Potential Through Soulgery with Ahmet Bozer

Ashish Kothari:

Welcome to The Flourishing Edge, the podcast where we share weekly tips on making flourishing your competitive edge. I’m Ashish Kothari, your host, and each week we’ll dive deep with flourishing experts, changemakers, and executives to share best practices that can help you unlock higher performance through science-based interventions.

Let’s step together into the edge of what’s possible and live, work, and lead with more joy, health, love, and meaning.

Hi Ahmet, so delighted to have you on our Flourishing Edge podcast. Thank you for joining us.

Ahmet Bozer:

Ashish, it’s wonderful to be here, and thank you for having me as your guest.

Ashish Kothari:

You’ve had such an amazing journey, Ahmet. We were just discussing earlier—25 years at Coca-Cola as a senior executive, leading international business for a big part of it. I’m curious how that journey and those leadership roles shaped your thinking about human potential and flourishing.

Ahmet Bozer:

Somewhere around the midpoint of my career, it dawned on me more deeply that every business is a people business. If you want to honor that belief, you have to work in ways that create environments where people flourish—because when they do, the business does well.

This may sound like the softer side of business, but it’s true. I believed in that, and I realized it had to start with me. Whatever role I was in—at Coca-Cola, in my family, or in my community—I viewed it as a platform to become a better person, a more capable professional, and more resilient.

That mindset led me to reflect on how I grow myself and how I model growth for others. I tried to reflect that in my leadership approach, and it worked wonders. Yes, we had strong results, but the fulfillment I experienced was at least as important.

When my corporate career came to a close, I became deeply fascinated with this topic. I asked myself: if I could scale this approach in my own life, could I scale it globally?

I attended a presentation that gave me a profound insight. The speaker said that three- or five-year business plans often don’t change much, but what truly matters is a long-term vision—10, 20, even 40 years, possibly beyond your lifetime—and anchoring short-term actions to that vision.

That sparked the idea: what if I could create a model that helps individuals unleash their potential, lead their own growth, and resonates across cultures and life stages? That’s when this journey truly began.

When I retired from Coca-Cola, I had the flexibility to pursue what mattered most to me—unleashing human potential. I worked on this for eight years, about 8,000 hours. It was painful at times, full of learning, but incredibly rewarding. That’s the story behind the book.

Ashish Kothari:

I love that. This idea that helping people become the best version of themselves is the real job of leaders. Leadership isn’t just running a business. When you do this well, you get higher productivity, lower attrition, and stronger results—but it all comes through people.

That belief has shaped my own research and my mission to help a billion people flourish through business. Awareness and self-awareness sit at the heart of that work.

You spent eight years developing Soldiery. The word itself is intriguing. Tell us how you define it and what makes it different from traditional personal growth or leadership development.

Ahmet Bozer:

I’ll start with how the word came about. I was reflecting on what personal growth really feels like. My belief is that growth happens both inside-out and outside-in.

Inside-out growth involves awareness of thoughts, emotions, and mental models—and evaluating whether they help or hinder us. That requires introspection and reflection on lived experiences.

At one point, I thought this process felt like self-surgery—but not surgery on the soul. We can’t operate on the soul; we can only connect with it. When we do, we relinquish control to something greater than ourselves.

What we’re really operating on is the psyche—our thoughts, emotions, and mental models. As we work on those, we facilitate a deeper connection with the soul, and that’s what makes us whole.

This work isn’t meant for a cave or a monastery. It’s meant for everyday life. We won’t do it perfectly, but we can do it better each time. That’s the spirit behind Soldiery.

Ashish Kothari:

That resonates deeply. We are more than our thoughts, feelings, or bodies. There’s a witnessing awareness beneath it all—the actor, director, and observer of our experience.

Your model captures that beautifully: the inner self, the outer self, and growth as a lifelong journey—not accumulation, but becoming.

Ahmet Bozer:

Exactly. Growth is discovering more of our unbound potential every day. That’s why the model starts with defining growth as becoming increasingly capable, impactful, and resilient.

From there, I explore what a human being consists of—the inner self and outer self. The outer self is the roles we play: parent, leader, partner, professional. Through these roles, we engage with our human ecosystem.

The inner self is more complex. At our core, we are four-dimensional beings—physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. The spiritual dimension is our ability to connect with something greater than ourselves.

This core is governed by what I call a “council of three”: will, conscience, and sense of self. The will drives us forward, conscience guides right and wrong, and the sense of self—our identity and ego—can either serve growth or dominate it.

Growth requires keeping that council in balance.

Ashish Kothari:

That framework aligns so closely with awareness work and positive psychology. It’s an invitation to live this growth now—not later, not after retirement.

Let’s walk through the four acts of Soldiery. Start with the first: finding your direction.

Ahmet Bozer:

Finding your direction is about meaning, not arrival. Meaning isn’t a destination—it’s an evolving process.

I describe three inward journeys that cultivate the conditions for meaning to emerge: opening your heart to love, harvesting wisdom from lived experience, and forming a personal philosophy of life.

Meaning becomes a compass. When it emerges, the question becomes: how do you align every role in your life with that direction?

Ashish Kothari:

That echoes Viktor Frankl’s work—meaning through contribution, love, and making sense of suffering.

Your second act is aiming for impact.

Ahmet Bozer:

Yes. Impact asks: what do we do with all this inner growth?

We often ask, “What’s in it for me?” too early. That limits our potential. Impact orientation is about trusting that serving others intelligently leads to fulfillment—both basic and higher-level.

It’s about approaching life roles with a legacy mindset, not a transactional one, and embodying human qualities as we act.

Ashish Kothari:

Doing and being—both matter.

Your third act is performing with excellence.

Ahmet Bozer:

Excellence, not perfection. Excellence is continuous improvement—competing with your previous best.

That requires rhythm, not rigid discipline. Rhythm shows up in personal planning, time management, performance preparation, and overall well-being.

When rhythm settles, excellence follows naturally.

Ashish Kothari:

And finally, hacking your growth.

Ahmet Bozer:

Life isn’t just offense—it’s defense. Challenges will come.

Hacking growth is about reading challenges constructively, responding rather than reacting, and reflecting afterward to renew yourself.

Over time, your default mode shifts from reaction to growth.

Ashish Kothari:

If there’s one simple place for listeners to start, what would you suggest?

Ahmet Bozer:

Read the book once. Notice what resonates most with your current life. Start there.

You can begin anywhere. Stay with one practice until it becomes internalized, then move to the next. Growth isn’t linear—it’s personal.

Ashish Kothari:

Thank you, Ahmet. I’m deeply grateful for this conversation and your work.

Ahmet Bozer:

Thank you, Ashish. Your questions are the greatest reward of my eight-year journey.

Ashish Kothari:

Thank you for joining me on The Flourishing Edge. If today’s conversation inspired you, share it with someone ready to flourish. Subscribe, leave a review, and keep growing into your fullest potential.