The Cost of Success: What Nobody Is Talking About

Key Takeaway: Financial success often comes at a cost that doesn’t show up on a spreadsheet—missed moments, strained relationships, and personal well-being left behind in the pursuit of “enough.” It’s a cost worth recognizing before you’ve paid too much.

How Many Weeks Do You Really Get?

The average person lives around 4,000 weeks. That’s it. If you’re in your 40s or 50s, you’ve likely burned through over half of them. And that’s assuming good health and good luck.

Now let’s dig deeper:

• By the time you’re 30, you’ve already spent 93% of the in-person time you’ll ever have with your parents.
• As adults, we see our closest friends maybe a few times a year, meaning that from now until the end of your life, you might share only a few dozen more meals, weekends, or laughs with them.
• With children, the window is even narrower. The average parent will spend 75% of their total time with their child by the time they turn 12.

We often talk about success as if it’s something we’ll enjoy after. After the business is more stable. After the next deal. After the market calms down. After the exit.

Sometimes, after quietly becomes too late.

What We’ve Observed

Spending time with business owners, healthcare specialists, and other high-performing professionals—people who’ve built real success by nearly every definition. The businesses are thriving. The accounts are full. The lifestyle looks great from the outside.

And yet, it’s not uncommon to hear:

“I thought it would feel different.”
“I wish I hadn’t missed so much.”
“Now I’m not sure how to slow down.”

These aren’t regrets about money. They’re realizations about time.

The Quiet Cost of Getting Ahead

The real cost of success often isn’t financial—it’s emotional, relational, and physical:

• The soccer game you missed.
• The vacation you paid for but never mentally joined.
• The hobby you abandoned.
• The conversation you meant to have but postponed one too many times.

What once felt like temporary trade-offs can harden into permanent patterns. And somewhere along the way, success begins to resemble a well-appointed trap. Comfortable, impressive, but confining. And deeply personal to unwind.

This Isn’t About Guilt—It’s About Awareness

If any of this strikes a nerve, that’s not a bad thing. It means you’re paying attention. And it means you still have time to make different choices—before you trade away more than you ever intended.

Here are a few prompts worth sitting with:

• How many meaningful experiences are on your calendar in the next 90 days?
• Are you still living to build—or just building out of habit?
• What would reclaiming 10% of your week look like—and where would you put it?
• If your time were a portfolio, would you be happy with how it’s allocated?

Success shouldn’t come at the expense of the things that matter most.

We’re all managing resources—money, yes, but also time, energy, and attention. It’s worth reviewing whether those are flowing in the direction of what you actually value.

Final Thought: Redefining “Enough”

You’ve already built the financial success. That box is checked.

But maybe it’s time to ask:

Is your life delivering returns in the ways that actually matter now?

Because here’s the truth—money can buy comfort, access, and even time. But it can’t buy back lost memories and experiences.

And those moments are dwindling, whether we track them or not.

The good news? You don’t need to overhaul your life to reclaim some of them. A few intentional shifts—reallocating time, making space, reconnecting to what matters—can change everything.

You’ve earned the right to slow down.

To recalibrate.

To build a version of success that’s not just admired but actually lived.

The opinion of the author is subject to change without notice and must be considered in conjunction with relevant regulation, as well as subsequent changes in the marketplace. Any information from outside resources has been deemed to be reliable but has not necessarily been verified. Each individual has unique circumstances to which this information may or may not be relevant. Under no circumstances will this information constitute an offer to buy or sell and it does not indicate strategy suitability for any particular investor.