You're winning. So why is it so exhausting?

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We’re not completely untethered from reality. We know not all of the work we’re good at energizes us.

In fact, you can be the world’s best financial modeler, client firefighter, or ops expert and still absolutely hate doing one or all of those things.

I learned this the hard way in my corporate role. I was objectively successful: SVP title, nine-figure portfolio, high-stakes M&A integrations. I was good at the work. Really good.

But when I honestly mapped my energy - what work energized me versus the work that depleted - I figured out something brutal: 80% of my week was spent in the 'takes my energy' column.

That wasn't a problem to fix. That was my job.

I wasn't failing. I was succeeding at work that stole my energy. And the work that energized me? It was only a tiny sliver of the role. There wasn’t enough energizing going on to offset my depletion.

The research backs this up: Gallup found that people who work in their core strengths daily are 6× more likely to be engaged and about 8% more productive.

When we spend the majority of our days doing work that doesn't tap into what energizes us, our souls wither and so does our productivity.

And that in no way feels like success.

What makes this particularly insidious for founders and leaders: you likely got to this point by being great at compensating.

When there’s a gap, you leapt over it. You told yourself it's temporary. You assumed once you hit the next revenue milestone or hired the next person, you'd finally get to do more of the work that energizes you.

But the milestone keeps moving. The hire doesn't fix it.

And meanwhile, you're running a successful business on a foundation that's quietly breaking you.

Ambition

I’ve spent months in conversations with founders, in founder forums, and scraping Reddit threads researching. The same question shows up over and over:

"I'm great at sales/operations/finance. But I hate doing it. Do I just accept this is the job now?"

And the responses? Usually some version of "That's entrepreneurship" or "Hire your way out when you can afford it."

But your business doesn't need you to do ALL the founder work. It needs you to do the “rightest” founder work.

The work that's both high-impact AND energizing to you specifically.

Everything else? That's not "just the price of success." It’s execution risk hiding as necessity.

When leaders operate primarily in work that depletes them, it doesn't just harm them, it puts the whole organization at risk. Depleted leaders make slower decisions, miss emerging patterns, and burn out teams using survival-mode leadership.

The data bears this out: 54% of founders report experiencing burnout in the last 12 months. Because they're working too much on the wrong things, and too little on the work that lights them up.

Knowing our superpowers and actively designing our work to allow time to do more of it isn't indulgent. It's risk mitigation.

When we architect our time to give us more time doing the work that's energizing AND high-impact, everyone wins. Decisions get sharper. Teams move faster.

The business scales without breaking people.

The default question is, "Can I afford to focus on energizing work?"

The new ambition is making that question: "Can I afford not to?"

Forward this to a founder or leader who's winning on paper but running on fumes. Naming the pattern is the first step to fixing it.

GO | DO

Estimated time: 30 minutes | Estimated energy: minimal

This week, run the diagnostic to pinpoint why success feels exhausting. 

What’s In It For All Of Us

When we’re slogging through the majority of our workdays doing what depletes us, it doesn't just take a toll on ourselves - it’s setting the tone for everyone around us, too.

The team feels it. Our decisions show it. Our business absorbs it.

But when leaders architect our roles featuring our superpowers - the work that is both energizing AND high-impact - that energetic output has ripple effects.

Clarity compounds. Execution accelerates. We build more companies that actually work for the humans running them.

And that's how we change workplace culture from the inside out.

🔋 Not by telling people to work less, but by helping them work differently.

Get In There

🔰 ”Buy Back Your Time” add this killer book to your must read (or listen) list. From Dan Martell, it’s a handbook on shifting from too busy to well leveraged from an entrepreneur who went from zero to multiple exits, entries, and simultaneous scale ups.

There’s a reason so many leaders and founders find ourselves facing down this moment. Tenacity is in our DNA. But you can redesign your role to both do more of the energizing work AND accelerate the success of the business.

In fact, it’s your job one.

Work with me

If your day to day doesn’t tap into your superpowers, and you'd like to change that without limiting business success, let's talk.