When Having It All Isn’t Everything

At long last! There you finally are--at the top of the heap, right where you always wanted to be. You’ve worked hard, beaten the odds and been propelled by passion to the pinnacle of career success.

So, how come you’re not feeling elated? Why does the term “ennui” ring a bell? Why is it you’re even feeling a little resentful?

Could be you’re on the brink of “supernova burnout,” says Steven Berglas, psychologist and author of a new book called “Reclaiming the Fire--How Successful People Overcome Burnout” (Random House, $25.95).

Supernova burnout, he writes, is that time when a high flier feels “chronic trepidation, distress, despondency or depression attributable to the belief that he is trapped in a job, or on a career path, from which he can neither escape nor derive psychological gratification.”

Those who expect such gratification from work (not everyone does) are particularly at risk, he says, and come from all walks of life--from athletes to business owners to science teachers to chess players.

So why the disconnect? It’s because a person’s success may be functioning as a cage, keeping him or her from the joy of scaling new heights. The better you become at doing something, the more you are called on to repeat it. And the more you are viewed as a winner, the less willing you may be to accept the risk of being perceived as a loser by branching out into something new. Not to mention, for some anyway, the financial rewards they would have to sacrifice.

You end up getting “heightened rewards, but less gratification.” If not attended to, the toll can be great. Berglas has seen those he counsels suffer from resentment not only toward their organizations, but their loved ones--the very people for whose sake they stay in those lucrative positions. And worse still, he sees such high fliers act out through the use of drugs, alcohol and extramarital affairs.

Wonder why a seemingly “has-it-all” executive--usually a man--engages in white-collar crime? “Too much security drives people to seek challenge,” Berglas says. “You find ways to add risk to your life. . . . You’re daring the devil.”

So, if all of a sudden you find yourself running stoplights, coming in late or bullying the new hire, you may just want to stand back and ask yourself: Underneath it all, are you just looking for one more little thrill in your day?

Berglas first noticed this phenomenon while he was tending bar at swanky weddings and bar mitzvahs. He says he saw “highly successful pillars of the community” engage in fistfights and “booze-fueled screaming matches.”

Later he researched success-induced burnout at Duke University in North Carolina, where he earned his doctorate, and went on to teach at Harvard Medical School. He now teaches at the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA.

So, what’s an on-the-brink-of-burnout supernova to do? People ask him for five easy steps, but he says, “I wish I had them. That’s not real. That’s why this isn’t a self-help book.”

What works best, he says, is what he calls the “ ’60 Minutes’ cure.” If you examine what’s behind the making of that TV show’s most compelling segments, he says, you find regular people powered by anger, fighting for a cause. Find a cause you feel passion for, he tells those he counsels, and work it into your life. A high-powered lawyer might do pro bono work; a chief financial officer could help a charity or house of worship manage its funds; a communications expert could write for a nonprofit.

As for finding the time? Many professionals regulate their own schedules--and besides, the added kick you get will spill over into your work life. One thing he emphasizes: Don’t expect a hobby to help much. “Doing what we love has far too many narcissistic overtones to be rewarding in a long-term manner,” he writes, referring to pleasurable pastimes that don’t make a real difference in the world.