I'm a 42-year-old tech executive making $400K a year. On paper, I've "made it." Corner office, stock options, respect in the industry. I feel nothing. I wake up at 5am for calls with Asia, spend my days in meetings that don't matter, come home too exhausted to play with my kids. Last week I sat in my Tesla in the parking garage for 20 minutes, unable to make myself go inside. I keep thinking about just... walking away. Selling everything. Maybe teaching high school math. Maybe just traveling until I figure out who I actually am. My wife thinks I'm having a midlife crisis. My therapist says I'm depressed. My father says I'm ungrateful. But something in me is dying, and I don't know how to save it without burning down everything I've built. Is there wisdom in walking away from success? Or am I just running from problems that will follow me anywhere? — Burning Out on the Treadmill in Denver
I'm a 42-year-old tech executive making $400K a year. On paper, I've "made it." Corner office, stock options, respect in the industry. I feel nothing. I wake up at 5am for calls with Asia, spend my days in meetings that don't matter, come home too exhausted to play with my kids. Last week I sat in my Tesla in the parking garage for 20 minutes, unable to make myself go inside. I keep thinking about just... walking away. Selling everything. Maybe teaching high school math. Maybe just traveling until I figure out who I actually am. My wife thinks I'm having a midlife crisis. My therapist says I'm depressed. My father says I'm ungrateful. But something in me is dying, and I don't know how to save it without burning down everything I've built. Is there wisdom in walking away from success? Or am I just running from problems that will follow me anywhere? — Burning Out on the Treadmill in Denver
Siddhartha
"True wisdom comes not from teachers or scriptures, but from experiencing life fully"
49 votes
Benjamin Franklin
"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest—small, consistent habits compound into great change"
43 votes
92 votes total
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From Siddhartha
"True wisdom comes not from teachers or scriptures, but from experiencing life fully"
I once had everything—wealth, pleasure, status—and found it empty. Only by walking away and experiencing both luxury and poverty did I discover what cannot be taken. Your restlessness is not weakness; it is the soul recognizing that something essential is missing.
From Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest—small, consistent habits compound into great change"
Before you burn down the house, consider whether the problem is the house or how you have arranged the furniture. I have found that industry and purpose need not conflict. Perhaps the issue is not success itself, but the particular path you have chosen to achieve it.