Your Measure of Success is Keeping You Stuck
The Hidden Cost of Corporate Conditioning
After three decades in the medtech industry, trotting around the globe, I really thought that I had corporate life figured out.
I was wrong.
I don't have a corner office; in fact, it's halfway along a hallway in a converted industrial building, but it's still my little oasis of relative calm.
Mostly.
I do have more direct reports than I should, and the Vice President title, which, to be honest, does still give me a fair amount of pride.
I think my parents would have been proud, too, had they still been around to read this.
As an industry, healthcare remains a resilient one.
It's treated me well, and I was lucky to have stumbled into it all those years ago and stayed on the path this long.
Also, mostly.
So why then have I started to dread the thought of walking into the office in the morning?
Not every morning.
But enough mornings, to make me question, "Why am I here and why am I doing this to myself?"
I felt off, and that feeling was really starting to nag at me.
Being a curious soul, I began to dig into these feelings a bit more to see if I could start to understand what was going on and, importantly, to me at least, what was changing?
Let me start to unpack what I found.
The answer, it would seem, lies in what I've come to call corporate conditioning.
Corporate conditioning, CC, is invisible programming that rewrites our definition of success, worth, and fulfillment until we're optimizing for metrics and KPIs that have nothing to do with our actual happiness.
Not something insignificant, then.
The Metrics Hijacking My Mind
Corporate conditioning starts slowly.
For example, I have a performance review that introduces a new language: "exceeds expectations," "meets requirements," or perhaps, "needs improvement."
Suddenly, my worth becomes measurable through KPIs, OKRs, and quarterly targets.
My brain and its operating system, wired for survival and acceptance, quickly learns to chase these external cues.
Before I knew it, I was measuring my life's success through:
Salary increases and bonus percentages
Job titles and reporting lines
Hours worked and projects completed
Recognition from superiors and peer comparisons
The size of the corner office
These metrics quickly became so deeply embedded that I forgot they were simply arbitrary and, in the big scheme of things, largely meaningless.
These metrics were not measuring my creativity, my impact on people's lives, my personal growth, or my alignment with what actually mattered to me.
And for me, that was becoming a growing problem.
The Comparison Trap
"Comparison is the thief of joy," so said Theodore Roosevelt.
Corporate environments thrive on relative performance.
How I measured up against my peers.
The older I got, the more stressful LinkedIn became when I sought out where my past colleagues were now in their careers.
Was I ahead of them?
Were they getting promoted before me?
Who had the CEO title?
In reality, though, there will always be someone getting promoted faster, earning more, or seemingly having it all together.
This creates a perpetual state of "not enough."
I felt that I was never quite successful enough because success was always measured against others rather than my own values and goals.
However, I chose to ignore the other side of the story, that there will always be someone worse off. Someone earning less, with a lesser title, fewer benefits, flying in Economy.
The job I have now, the one that is making me feel the way I do, is the same job that others dream of.
The power of gratitude cannot be understated.
The Golden Handcuffs Effect
Perhaps the sneakiest aspect of corporate conditioning is how it creates dependency.
The safety net of the monthly salary, health insurance, retirement contributions, and social status becomes golden handcuffs.
I started believing I "couldn't afford" to leave, even when staying cost me my mental health, relationships, and authentic self-expression.
This isn't about money, it's about identity.
When my job became my primary source of self-worth, leaving felt like losing myself.
Corporate conditioning convinced me that my value was tied to my productivity, my title, and my ability to climb the ladder.
The Real Cost
While I was spending my waking hours, busy optimising for corporate metrics, I was neglecting the measures that determine real-life satisfaction:
The quality of my relationships with family and friends
Physical and mental health
Personal growth and learning
Creative expression and purpose
Time freedom and autonomy
Contribution to causes I care about
These aren't tracked in spreadsheets or discussed in performance reviews, so they get deprioritized, or in my case, often ignored altogether.
I ended up successful on paper, but in reality, empty.
Breaking the Conditioning
The first step to corporate detox is recognising that my current success metrics were keeping me stuck in a life that looked good from the outside but felt superficial from the inside.
I needed to ask myself:
What would I consider a successful life if no one else could see what I'd accomplished?
When was the last time I felt genuinely excited about my work?
What aspects of my current "success" was I maintaining for others' approval?
If I designed my own performance review, what would I actually want to be measured on?
What will my legacy be, and how will I be remembered?
The Way Forward
Breaking free from corporate conditioning doesn't mean abandoning success; it means redefining it on my own terms.
It's about shifting from external validation to my internal compass, from climbing someone else's ladder to building my own.
True success might look like work that energises rather than drains me, financial stability without golden handcuffs, or impact that aligns with my values rather than just my job description.
The corporate world will continue spinning its narrative about what success looks like.
The question is: will I keep optimising for its metrics, or am I ready to discover what success means to me?
My corporate detox starts with this simple recognition: the game I'm playing might not be worth winning.
I’m Richard Holloway, The Nomad Executive, a three-decade global Medtech leader, proudly unretired and actively crafting my next chapter.
I help executives, entrepreneurs, and midlife professionals navigate their professional and personal journeys and thrive beyond just corporate life.
Because your best leadership happens when you're operating from a place of strength, not depletion.
Follow me for my hard-earned lessons in health, leadership and performance, plus the mindset behind my own Corporate Detox.