From Burnout to Breakthrough: Alejandro Plascencia’s Journey to Healing and Purpose

Success has a way of masking what’s really going on behind the scenes. In industries like logistics, finance, and international trade, leaders are expected to stay sharp, keep moving, and never let anything slip. There’s little room for self-reflection, and even less for emotional honesty. Burnout is often seen as a weakness. Asking for help? Even worse.

Alejandro Plascencia spent years in that world. With a strong background in international commerce, he rose through the ranks as a business executive, led teams across Mexico and the U.S., and became a trusted strategist in high-stakes environments. On paper, he was thriving. But inside, he was running on empty.

The pace, the pressure, and the constant drive to outperform left him disconnected from who he was. That disconnection didn’t happen overnight. It built slowly through long meetings, relentless travel, and the unspoken pressure to always have the answers. He didn’t realize how far he had drifted from himself until the exhaustion became impossible to ignore.

Instead of pushing through, he made a decision that most high performers avoid: he stepped back. Not as a retreat, but as a reset. He left behind the executive path to study psychotherapy, explore human behavior more deeply, and understand the emotional cost of success.

His experience led to the creation of Surviving Me, a book that struck a nerve with professionals across industries. It’s not a self-help manual. It’s a real, honest look at what happens when people chase achievement at the expense of identity. Through his writing, Alejandro offers something that’s often missing in leadership circles: a space to pause, question, and rebuild from within.

What makes Alejandro different is his ability to speak from both sides. He has been in the boardrooms. He has managed the numbers, the pressure, and the people. But he has also done the inner work, the uncomfortable process of facing burnout, anxiety, and the loss of purpose. That dual perspective gives him credibility with people who would otherwise brush off emotional wellness as “not for them.”

In 2007, long before wellness became a buzzword, Alejandro founded MAORAN, a wellness and longevity center in León, Guanajuato. Years later, he expanded it to the U.S., turning it into a space that supports leaders who want to feel whole again, not just productive. MAORAN is not about luxury treatments or surface-level fixes. It’s focused on long-term emotional health, clarity, and sustainable growth. His clients include business owners, creatives, and professionals navigating major life transitions or quiet personal crises.

His work also speaks directly to the Latin American business community, where topics like mental health are still often avoided. Alejandro addresses this head-on by creating programs that support family business leaders, especially those dealing with legacy, succession, and the emotional weight of expectations. He has helped shift the conversation around what leadership can look like, more grounded, more human, and far more sustainable.

Alejandro’s contributions have not gone unnoticed. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by UNAM for his work in emotional education and leadership development. He has been featured in Forbes México for bringing emotional resilience into executive spaces. And through his nonprofit, KALM International, he continues to expand access to mental health resources across borders.

His message is direct: leadership without self-awareness is short-lived. Burnout is not a flaw, it’s feedback. And healing doesn’t mean stepping away from ambition. It means leading with more clarity, intention, and strength.

Today, Alejandro is not just helping people recover from burnout. He is helping them create a new model of success, one that includes themselves in the equation. For professionals who have been stuck in overdrive, his story is a reminder that there’s a way forward. And it starts by being honest, not just with the world, but with yourself.