Breaking Burnout: How High Achievers Break the Success Myths Driving Exhaustion, Overwork, and Burnout

A former C-suite executive exposes the success myths driving the burnout epidemic and offers a proven roadmap for high achievers to break the cycle and build success that doesn’t cost them their lives.

Most people are exhausted, burned out, and chasing a version of success that leaves them empty. But work isn’t the enemy—the real problem is what we’ve been taught to believe about success.

Breaking Burnout uncovers insights from conversations with some of the world’s most accomplished leaders who seemingly “have it all,” yet quietly struggle with the shadows of achievement. Author Nabeela Elsayed—a former barista who rose to the C-suite of Walmart and IKEA—has lived this story and spent two decades leading others through it.

This is not another wellness book telling you to meditate your way out of burnout. It’s a field guide for high performers who want to excel without losing themselves. Nabeela reveals the seven success myths keeping you stuck, introduces the Burnout Loop framework, and unveils the Re-Imagine Success Roadmap—a system for building sustainable success rooted in clarity, meaning, and personal wellbeing.

For anyone who identifies work as core to their identity, Breaking Burnout provides the language to name what you’ve felt—and the tools to finally change it.

Because success was never meant to feel this hollow.