Alex Charfen — “Billionaires Meditate”: Why Top Performers Use Mindfulness and How to Make It Work for You

In conversations about high performance, a simple phrase keeps popping up Alex Charfen — “Billionaires Meditate” It’s catchy, evocative, and easy to share on social feeds. Yet beneath that headline is a more useful conversation about why accomplished leaders and entrepreneurs—people with huge responsibilities and constant pressure—turn to practices that still the mind. Alex Charfen, a business coach, author, and speaker who works with high-performing entrepreneurs, has long emphasized meditation and related practices as core habits that support clarity, resilience, and better decision-making. This article explores Charfen’s approach, the evidence behind meditation’s benefits, practical ways to adopt the habit, and cautions about overhyping any single practice.

Who is Alex Charfen and what does he mean by “Billionaires Meditate”?

Alex Charfen is a coach and educator who focuses on helping entrepreneurs scale businesses while maintaining personal health and purpose. He’s known for frameworks such as the “Billionaire Code,” which lays out stages of entrepreneurial growth and the habits that help leaders move through them. In Charfen’s talks and podcast episodes, he frames meditation not as spiritual fluff but as a tactical habit that supports sustained performance. He points to the reality that the people who operate at very high levels commonly use strategies to manage the nervous system, increase focus, and sustain creativity—and meditation is one of those strategies.

When Charfen says “billionaires meditate,” the intended message isn’t that meditation directly creates billion-dollar companies. Rather, it summarizes the observation that many ultra-high performers use some form of contemplative or regulatory practice—meditation, breathwork, “time in neutral,” or tactical mindfulness—to stabilize attention, improve judgment, and recover faster from stress. In short: meditation is framed as a performance tool in Charfen’s model.

Why meditation? The performance argument

Charfen’s emphasis on meditation aligns with broader research and practical experience across business and neuroscience. The core argument breaks down into a few interlocking claims:

1. Clarity and focus. Meditation trains attention. For leaders who must navigate complex choices and sift signal from noise, improved attentional control reduces wasted energy and improves the quality of decisions.
2. Emotional regulation. Entrepreneurship places founders in high-adrenaline cycles. Regular practice helps stabilize mood and reduce reactive behavior, making leaders more strategic than impulsive.
3. Stress resilience. Chronic stress undermines creativity and health. Practices that downshift the nervous system reduce long-term wear and help people recover quicker after setbacks.
4. Creativity and insight. Quieting habitual thought patterns can make room for new associations and “aha” moments—things that drive innovation.

Charfen translates these benefits into practical claims for entrepreneurs: short, consistent daily practice often yields more benefit than occasional long sessions; the aim is habitization, not perfection; and meditation belongs inside a broader system of performance habits.

How Charfen frames meditation in his coaching

In Charfen’s coaching and podcast material, meditation is rarely presented as an isolated prescription. Instead, it sits within a systemic approach to personal optimization. He describes an “Entrepreneurial Personality Type” (EPT) that tends toward hyperdrive—people who start many initiatives, tolerate high chaos, and often neglect self-care. For this group, Charfen recommends regulatory habits to prevent burnout and maintain the capacity for strategic work.

He also uses the language of “tactical meditation” and “time in neutral.” Tactical meditation emphasizes short, repeatable practices that fit into a busy schedule—five to ten minutes of focused breathwork, a quick body scan, or guided centering before a high-stakes meeting. “Time in neutral” reframes meditation as purposeful downtime: a state in which the nervous system is not pushing or pulling but resting and recalibrating. This makes the practice accessible to entrepreneurs who resist conventionally long meditation sessions.

Additionally, Charfen stresses that meditation must be paired with other performance levers—clear priorities, limitations on what one tolerates, delegation, healthy sleep, and a culture of accountability—so that the practice scales beyond the individual.

Practical routines inspired by Charfen’s recommendations

If you want to adopt the “billionaire’s” type of meditation without spending hours a day, here is a simple, practical routine inspired by Charfen’s tactical approach:

1. Start small and consistent. Commit to 5–10 minutes daily rather than waiting for the perfect block of time. Consistency beats duration.
2. Anchor the practice. Pair meditation with an existing habit—right after waking, before your first meeting, or at the end of your work day.
3. Use a simple technique. Breath awareness (counting in and out), a 3–5 minute body scan, or a brief visualization can work. The technique matters less than repetition.
4. Practice “time in neutral.” Give yourself a brief period—10 to 20 minutes if possible—to do nothing goal-directed. No problem-solving, no planning. Just be still and observe.
5. Measure subjectively. Keep a very short log: pre-practice mood (on a 1–5 scale), post-practice mood, and one-line notes on whether you felt clearer or less reactive during the day.
6. Scale intentionally. If short sessions yield benefit, add one more short session at a different time of day (for instance, pre-lunch) rather than jumping to an hour-long commitment right away.
7. Combine with “active” practices. Breathwork, walking meditations, cold exposure, or short movement sequences can complement seated meditation and support nervous-system regulation.

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Realistic expectations and caveats

It’s important to be clear-eyed about what meditation can and cannot do:

• It supports but does not replace structural change. Meditation helps leaders operate better, but it won’t correct a broken business model, patch a toxic culture, or substitute for meaningful delegation.
• Correlation is not causation. Many successful leaders meditate, but meditation is one of many habits they use. Wealth and achievement arise from a complex mix of talent, timing, resources, and relationships—not merely quieting the mind.
• Not every technique fits every person. What resonates with one entrepreneur might be off-putting to another. The key is experimentation—try multiple short routines and iterate.
• Beware of overbranding. Marketing messages that present meditation as a magic path to extreme wealth oversimplify and can mislead. Charfen himself frames the habit as one tool among many, not a standalone guarantee.

Examples of how leaders use meditation (typical patterns)

• Pre-meeting centering. Ten minutes of breath work before an important investor call to reduce reactivity and increase clarity.
• Micro-reset during the day. A two–three minute breath-counting exercise between meetings to prevent decision fatigue.
• Nightly integration. Brief reflective practice to process wins and losses, which aids sleep and consolidates learning.
• Group practices for teams. Short meditations at the start of full-team meetings to bring focus and reduce conflict potential.

These applications show how meditation can be tactical and tightly integrated into an entrepreneur’s workflow rather than something mystical or detached from daily obligations.

The science in brief (what research shows)

Meditation and mindfulness research supports many of the performance claims: improved attention, reduced perceived stress, and better emotion regulation are among the most consistently observed benefits. Studies also show that regular practice can change neural networks related to attention and emotional response. That said, effects vary by style, frequency, and individual factors, and the clinical findings often focus on mental health and cognitive markers rather than direct measures of business success.

Ethics and leadership considerations

Charfen’s model includes an ethical subtext: regulation and clarity should be applied responsibly. Leaders who use meditation to become more persuasive must also avoid manipulative uses of mental mastery. In short, practicing internal regulation should increase empathy and ethical leadership, not merely performance at others’ expense. Transparency and a sense of collective benefit should guide how mindfulness practices are used at organizational scale.

How to evaluate whether it’s working for you

Adoption without evaluation leads to ritual without effect. Use these simple indicators:

• Subjective clarity. Do you notice fewer reactive messages and clearer priorities within a week or two?
• Decision quality. Are your decisions less noisy and more aligned with long-term goals?
• Stress baseline. Does your baseline stress feel lower across weeks?
• Sustainability. Can you maintain short sessions consistently for at least a month?

If you can answer “yes” to several of these, the practice is likely yielding value; if not, adjust technique, timing, or frequency.

Final synthesis: meditation as a lever, not a miracle

The phrase “Billionaires meditate” is rhetorically powerful, and Alex Charfen uses it to make a practical point: high performers often use nervous-system regulation and attentional training as part of a broader system of habits that enable sustained momentum. Meditation, practiced tactically and consistently, can be a high-leverage habit for entrepreneurs—but only when it’s integrated with structural work: team design, business strategy, sleep, physical health, and ethical leadership.

For busy founders and leaders the takeaway is straightforward: adopt a small, repeatable practice; measure its effect; integrate it with other habits; and treat it as one important tool in a comprehensive performance toolbox. When approached this way, meditation stops being an aspirational badge and becomes a practical habit that supports clearer thinking, better decisions, and a calmer capacity to handle the wild swings of entrepreneurial life.

Quick start plan (7 days)

1. Day 1: Five minutes of breath awareness on waking. Note mood pre/post.
2. Day 2: Five minutes on waking + two-minute micro-reset mid-day. Log both.
3. Day 3: Add a one-line nightly reflection after work. Total ~12 minutes/day.
4. Day 4: Experiment with “time in neutral” for 10 minutes. See how it feels.
5. Day 5: Try a walking meditation for 7 minutes and compare energy levels.
6. Day 6: Practice pre-meeting centering for a small call and observe performance.
7. Day 7: Review the week’s logs; keep what worked, drop what didn’t, and set a 30-day habit target.