So Money with Farnoosh Torabi · Farnoosh Torabi

1961: The Psychology of Never Enough. Why High-Achievers Still Feel Empty and How to Fix It

March 25, 2026·36 min·3 clips

Brooke Taylor describes being sexually harassed at Google and choosing to stay silent to protect her shot at a promotion.

Okay, this one names the ache plainly. Farnoosh frames the success wound as the pain of confusing success, productivity, and achievement with actual worth. The conversation stays personal. Brooke talks about nervous systems that learn to run hot, especially in corporate life where the next level keeps moving. Doing becomes proof. She shares how her husband spent 10 years at McKinsey, left to start a drywall business, and needed a year to stop treating his inbox like the center of his value. That story does some work. Brooke's reset is less about quitting ambition and more about moving from constant output to presence, expertise, leadership, and trust in who you are. Farnoosh then slows things down and asks Brooke to go back to the moment she knew she was not okay before she began helping other people name it. Brooke remembers it clearly. She grew up in Silicon Valley, where intellect was king, hustle and sacrifice were queen, and ordinary felt unacceptable. That pressure followed her. At Google and YouTube, by 24 she was managing 80 million dollars in ad spend with huge brands. The gold stars were not free. The episode treats career success as something that can get emotionally expensive when money, power, and prestige decide whether you feel validated. Farnoosh does not scold ambition. She and Brooke keep nudging it toward fulfillment and support for people tired of never feeling like enough. Brooke's forthcoming Healing the Success Wound becomes the next step, with Farnoosh noting that 10,000 people have taken the survey.

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