Ashish KothariMake flourishing your competitive edge

Are you ignoring the warning signs until your body literally forces you to stop?

24 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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In this first-person narrative, the speaker recounts a decade-long tenure as a vice president during which they experienced escalating burnout, loneliness, and disengagement. The once‑exciting work became a drag, and despite recognizing the warning signs, they ignored them. The culmination was a severe physical collapse caused by dehydration and fatigue while preparing for a flight, resulting in a fall that broke their jaw and required emergency medical care. The story highlights the dangerous consequences of neglecting mental‑health warning signs and the tangible health risks that can follow.

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I found myself after probably about a decade in an organization. I was the vice president at that time, and I started to feel this, this burnout, loneliness, disengagement with my work. But I knew that something felt— what, what used to be exciting and fun and energizing was a drag. I ended up collapsing as I was getting ready for a flight before work one day from a combination of dehydration and fatigue, and I ended up landing face first on the hardwood floor of my house, breaking my jaw, and I ended up in the ER instead of where I was supposed to be headed that day.