Brooke Taylor is a former Google executive turned researcher and coach who has spent years studying a phenomenon called the success wound —interviewing more than 5,000 women to understand why so many accomplished, capable people still feel like it’s never enough.
Her new book, Healing the Success Wound: Align Your Ambition, Find Lasting Career Fulfillment, and End the Cycle of Never Enough, puts language—and solutions—to something I think so many of us have felt but couldn’t quite articulate.
In our conversation, we unpack
- What the “success wound” really is…
- Why achievement can become a stand-in for self-worth…
- The five archetypes of high achievers who struggle with fulfillment…
- And how all of this shows up not just in our careers, but in our finances, our relationships, and even how we parent.
We also talk about Brooke’s own turning point—what she calls her “spiritual awakening breakdown”—and how it led her to rethink everything she thought she knew about work, ambition, and identity.
