This video unpacks the creator’s “altitude illusion theory,” explaining why executives in large companies often become detached from reality. As leaders rise, their old playbook stops working, feedback becomes softened through multiple layers, and the board rewards confidence instead of truth. Over time they rely on summaries, sanitized reports, and buzzwords rather than ground-level facts. Eventually failure forces a reckoning, followed by the classic executive line, “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” The real issue is insulation, not ego, and only leaders willing to hear uncomfortable truths avoid this drift.