By # The Kingmaker Principle: Why the Highest Achievement Is Making Others Achieve
**What You'll Learn:**
- The historical and philosophical concept of the kingmaker—the power behind the throne
- How the Buddhist bodhisattva path aligns with the kingmaker principle
- Earl Shoaff's "millionaire maker" philosophy and how it transformed Jim Rohn
- Why making others successful is the highest form of mastery
- The vision for a Kingmaker Academy—and why this article is its first signal
***
In our previous article on Jim Rohn and [The Deserving Distinction](https://proscris.com/blog), we touched on something that deserves much deeper exploration.
We wrote about Earl Shoaff—Jim Rohn's mentor—who transformed a broke 25-year-old into a millionaire by age 31. But here's what's remarkable: Shoaff wasn't just making Rohn wealthy. He was making *millionaires.* Plural. He mentored Zig Ziglar, Mary Kay Ash, and countless others before they became the names we know today.
Shoaff wasn't building his own empire. **He was building emperors.**
This is the Kingmaker Principle. And it represents something profound—perhaps the highest achievement a human can aspire to.
## The Historical Kingmaker
The term "kingmaker" originates from 15th-century England, specifically from Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. During the Wars of the Roses, Warwick wielded such influence that he determined who sat on the throne. He deposed King Henry VI and installed Edward IV. When that relationship soured, he switched sides and briefly restored Henry.
Warwick never wore the crown himself. **He was the power behind the throne.**
This is the original meaning of kingmaker: someone with the ability to create kings without becoming one. Someone who operates at a level above the visible hierarchy—not because they lack ambition, but because their ambition operates on a different scale.
The king rules a kingdom.
**The kingmaker decides who rules.**
Which position holds more power?
## The Buddhist Foundation
Here's where the philosophy deepens.
In Buddhism, the highest aspiration is not personal enlightenment. It's the bodhisattva path—the commitment to help *all sentient beings* achieve enlightenment, even if it means delaying your own final liberation.
The bodhisattva vows:
- *"Sentient beings are numberless; I vow to save them all."*
- *"Delusions are inexhaustible; I vow to end them all."*
- *"Dharma gates are boundless; I vow to enter them all."*
- *"The Buddha way is unsurpassable; I vow to become it."*
Notice the structure: The bodhisattva doesn't seek enlightenment for themselves first. They commit to the enlightenment of others as their primary mission. Their own awakening happens *through* the process of awakening others.
**This is the spiritual DNA of the kingmaker.**
The bodhisattva doesn't hoard wisdom. They transmit it. They don't achieve and stop. They achieve and then dedicate that achievement to elevating everyone around them. Their purpose is not personal transcendence—it's collective elevation.
Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, is said to have a thousand arms because one pair isn't enough to help all beings who suffer. This is the kingmaker energy expressed in mythological form: **infinite capacity dedicated entirely to the elevation of others.**
## The Millionaire Maker
Now let's return to Earl Shoaff.
Shoaff built success in nutritional supplements, rising to VP of Sales at AbundaVita. But his real product wasn't vitamins. It was transformation. He held seminars not on sales techniques but on success philosophy—the fundamentals of personal development that could turn anyone into a millionaire.
When Jim Rohn met Shoaff, Rohn was making $57 a week and lying to Girl Scouts about whether he had money for cookies. He had no education, no advantages, no obvious potential.
Shoaff looked at him and saw something else. He saw raw material that could be shaped.
And he delivered what he called the "secrets"—though they weren't secret at all:
- **Personal responsibility:** Stop blaming circumstances. You attracted your current results by who you've become.
- **Mindset transformation:** Your philosophy determines your outcomes. Change the philosophy, change the outcomes.
- **Disciplined action:** Success isn't luck. It's simple disciplines practiced consistently over time.
These ideas transformed Rohn so completely that within six years, he was a millionaire. More importantly, he became a *teacher*—passing on what Shoaff had given him to Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Jack Canfield, and millions of others.
**Shoaff created Rohn. Rohn created the modern personal development industry.**
This is the cascade effect of the kingmaker. You don't just create one king. You create someone who creates kings. The impact multiplies through generations.
## The Servant Leadership Connection
Modern leadership theory has rediscovered this principle under the name "servant leadership."
Robert Greenleaf, who coined the term, defined the servant leader with a test: *"Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?"*
Notice that final clause: **more likely themselves to become servants.**
The true test of the servant leader—the kingmaker—is not just that they elevate others. It's that those they elevate become elevators themselves. The pattern replicates. The philosophy transmits. The chain continues.
This is why kingmaking is the highest achievement: **It's the only success that scales beyond a single lifetime.**
Personal achievement dies with you.
Legacy through children extends one generation.
**But ideas, properly transmitted, propagate indefinitely.**
Shoaff died in 1965. His ideas are still transforming lives in 2026 through the chain of transmission he set in motion.
## Why I Resonate With This
Let me be personal for a moment.
Throughout my career, I've noticed a pattern in what brings me the deepest satisfaction. It's not building things for myself. It's not achieving personal milestones. It's **watching someone I've helped achieve something they couldn't have achieved alone.**
When a client implements a system I designed and their business transforms—that feeling.
When someone reads something I wrote and it shifts their perspective—that feeling.
When I teach a concept and see the moment of understanding click in someone's eyes—that feeling.
**That feeling is the kingmaker resonance.**
It's the recognition that my highest purpose isn't my own achievement. It's the creation of conditions in which others achieve. Not because I'm selfless—I'm not—but because I've come to understand that the leverage of helping others far exceeds the leverage of helping myself.
If I become a millionaire, I have a million dollars.
If I help ten people become millionaires, I have something far more valuable: **a network of successful people who know what I did for them, and the satisfaction of watching excellence compound through others.**
## The Vision: Kingmaker Academy
This brings me to something I've been developing.
The Kingmaker Academy.
Not an academy where you come to learn skills—though skills will be taught. Not an academy where you gain credentials—though competence will be built. But an academy built on a different premise entirely:
**The purpose of the Kingmaker Academy is to create people who create success in others.**
The curriculum isn't just about becoming successful yourself. It's about developing the capacity to transmit success—to see potential in others, to develop that potential, to set in motion chains of transformation that outlast any individual.
Think about what this means:
- Not just learning AI systems architecture, but learning to teach it so well that your students become teachers
- Not just building businesses, but building people who build businesses
- Not just achieving Digital Sovereignty, but creating Sovereigns
The graduate of the Kingmaker Academy isn't measured by their personal accomplishments. They're measured by the accomplishments of those they've elevated.
**The king is visible. The kingmaker is legendary.**
## The Overlap With Everything We've Written
If you've been following the Proscris articles, you'll notice how the Kingmaker Principle weaves through everything:
**[The Warrior of Light](https://proscris.com/blog):** The Warrior doesn't just burn for themselves. They become a beacon that helps others find their way. The highest expression of the Warrior is not personal victory—it's creating other Warriors.
**[Stop Chasing, Start Becoming](https://proscris.com/blog):** Jim Rohn's philosophy, inherited from Shoaff, isn't just about personal transformation. It's about becoming the kind of person who can transform others. The steady, constructive energy attracts—and then elevates.
**[The Beacon](https://proscris.com/blog):** What is a beacon but a kingmaker in signal form? The purpose isn't just to burn—it's to be found by those who need the light, and to ignite their flames in turn.
**[Shipping Code](https://proscris.com/blog):** When you ship solutions that help others, you're being a kingmaker. Your code elevates everyone who uses it, forever. The solution exists once; the elevation is infinite.
**This has always been the thread.** I'm just now naming it explicitly.
## The Selfless Selfishness
Let me address something that might seem like a contradiction.
Isn't all this talk of "making others successful" just disguised selfishness? After all, the kingmaker benefits from the success of those they elevate. Rohn's success reflected back on Shoaff. The student's achievement validates the teacher.
**Yes. And that's precisely the point.**
The highest form of selfishness is selflessness. This isn't paradox—it's alignment.
When your success is measured by the success of others, you are incentivized to genuinely help them. Not for show. Not for credit. But because their genuine success is your genuine success.
The kingmaker who elevates puppets gains nothing—puppets don't build empires. Only authentic elevation counts. Only genuine transformation compounds.
**The bodhisattva understands this.** By vowing to save all beings, they're not sacrificing themselves—they're aligning themselves with the largest possible mission. Their enlightenment happens *through* the process of helping others enlighten.
The kingmaker understands this too. By dedicating themselves to making others successful, they're not giving up success—they're plugging into a larger success than any individual could achieve alone.
## The Multiplication Principle
Here's the mathematics of the kingmaker:
If I personally achieve X, I have X.
If I help 10 people achieve X, and each of them helps 10 people achieve X, after just two generations there are 100 people who have achieved X—all traced back to my initial transmission.
If the chain continues for three generations: 1,000.
Four generations: 10,000.
**This is how ideas change the world.**
Shoaff taught Rohn. Rohn taught Robbins. Robbins taught millions. The "millionaire maker" label understates Shoaff's impact by orders of magnitude. He didn't make millionaires—he made millionaire-makers.
**This is the leverage that personal achievement can never match.**
One person's success is bounded by one person's capacity.
A kingmaker's success is bounded only by how well the idea transmits.
## The Invitation
If this resonates—if you feel the kingmaker principle stirring something in you—I want you to consider something:
**What if your purpose isn't your own success?**
What if the reason you've been building skills, developing wisdom, accumulating capability isn't so you can achieve more, but so you can *transmit* more effectively?
What if the highest use of everything you've learned is to create the conditions in which others can learn it faster, better, more completely?
What if your legacy isn't what you build, but who you build?
This is the kingmaker question. And answering it changes everything.
Because once you see yourself as a kingmaker, your relationship to knowledge shifts. You don't hoard—you transmit. You don't compete—you elevate. You don't measure yourself by your achievements—you measure yourself by the achievements of those you've helped.
**The king rules a kingdom.**
**The kingmaker rules the future.**
## The Academy Is Coming
The Kingmaker Academy isn't just a concept. It's a project in development.
A place where the warriors who have learned to burn learn to teach others to burn.
A place where the Sovereigns who have built their arks learn to help others build theirs.
A place where the entire Proscris philosophy is not just learned but transmitted—creating a chain of kingmakers who create kingmakers who create kingmakers.
**This article is the first beacon for that Academy.**
If you're reading this and something is clicking—if the idea of dedicating yourself to the elevation of others feels not like sacrifice but like alignment with your true purpose—you might be a kingmaker in embryo.
You might be exactly who the Academy is being built for.
Watch this space. The signal is broadcasting. The kingmakers are gathering.
**And the chain that began with Shoaff continues.**
***
### The Kingmaker Framework:
| Achiever | Kingmaker |
|----------|-----------|
| Measures personal success | Measures others' success |
| Builds for themselves | Builds people who build |
| Legacy ends at death | Legacy compounds through transmission |
| Limited by personal capacity | Limited only by idea propagation |
| Visible authority | Invisible influence |
### The Philosophical Lineage:
| Tradition | Kingmaker Expression |
|-----------|---------------------|
| **Buddhism** | Bodhisattva delaying nirvana to enlighten all beings |
| **Historical** | Richard Neville making kings without wearing the crown |
| **Business** | Earl Shoaff creating millionaires, not becoming one publicly |
| **Leadership** | Servant leader measured by the growth of those served |
| **Proscris** | Warrior of Light becoming beacon for other Warriors |
### The Transmission Chain:
```
Earl Shoaff
↓
Jim Rohn
↓
Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen
↓
Millions of students worldwide
↓
Ongoing...
```
### Kingmaker Academy Principles (Preview):
1. **Transmission over accumulation:** Knowledge hoarded is knowledge wasted
2. **Elevation as metric:** Success measured by the success of students
3. **Chain integrity:** Creating kingmakers, not just kings
4. **Authentic transformation:** Genuine elevation, not puppet-making
5. **Infinite game:** Playing for legacy, not for lifetime
### Sources:
* [Proscris: The Philosophy of Digital Sovereignty](https://proscris.com)
* [The Deserving Distinction: Jim Rohn and the Millionaire Mindset](https://proscris.com/blog)
* [Jim Rohn and Earl Shoaff](https://www.nightingale.com/news/art-of-exceptional-living)
* [Bodhisattva Principles](https://www.lionsroar.com/best-practices-for-bodhisattvas/)
* [The Warrior of Light: Becoming a Beacon](https://proscris.com/blog)
* [Stop Chasing, Start Becoming](https://proscris.com/blog)
---
**The Kingmaker Academy is being built.**
If you felt something resonate—if the idea of dedicating your capabilities to elevating others feels like coming home—the signal has found you.
[Join the gathering. Become a Kingmaker.](https://proscris.com/contact)
