There still are powerful people who embrace her philosophy.

[snot]

I went through a phase myself many years ago, but gave it up when I realized I was alienating all my friends and becoming an a**hole.

But the biggest realization I took from the experience was that the best way to test the merit of a philosophy was to "try it on" and see for yourself what actually works and what doesn't.

Maybe Rand's philosophy works for sociopaths who only hang out with other sociopaths, but it didn't work for me.