The Real Cost Of Climbing The Corporate Ladder

Issue #001

“Money doesn’t buy happiness. It buys crazy *ss happiness.”

That Eminem line stuck with me for years. I believed it. I built my career around it.

The formula seemed simple: earn more, live better.

I’ve worked since I was 16 in my hometown. For my first job as a waiter, I lied about my age just to work weekends and earn some cash. Under the table, obviously.

My corporate life started much later. At 29, after a messy and troubled academic path. Late to the game, or so I thought. I genuinely believed I wouldn’t make it.

Then my opportunity came up with Amazon. I threw myself into it, full of gratitude.

I worked harder than everyone around me, like I had something to prove. Chase the promotions, stack the raises, climb higher. Each milestone was proof that I was winning. And like everyone climbing the corporate ladder, I wanted to become a director there.

December 2022: I earned 12,578 euros in a single month. The biggest paycheck of my life. Far beyond what a kid from the Naples suburbs could have imagined.

But there was a problem:

I was miserable.

That should have been my victory lap. Instead, it was my breaking point. I had the money, but I’d lost everything else.

A few weeks earlier, my career had hit a wall. A few months before that, I had broken up with my ex. By December, I was paying the emotional price for it all.

Here’s what I didn’t understand until that moment:

I wasn’t just losing time or energy. I was losing myself.

We like to think our identity is ours - something innate. But that’s not how it actually works.

Our identity is a social gift, constructed through recognition from others.

Think about it: working weekends as a waiter, I was “the hardworking one.” During my academic struggles, I became “the guy trying to figure it out.” At Amazon, I transformed into “ the one who made it despite the odds.”

Each version of me was built on how others saw me, validated me, recognized me.

Every performance review. Every congratulations from leadership. Every pay raise. They were all bricks in the construction of who I thought I was. The underdog from Naples who proved everyone wrong.

The setbacks before December 2022 were a blessing. They didn’t give me answers, but they gave me the right questions:

If my identity is built on their recognition, what happens when that recognition stops?

Who am I when I’m not climbing? When there is no promotion, no bigger pakcheck, no one applauding?

December 2022 was my turning point.

Those dark moments taught me something critical:

Eminem was wrong.

Money doesn’t buy happiness. Crazy-*ss or otherwise.

Money buys choices. What we do with them, who we become in the process, that’s what makes all the difference.

I walked away from my corporate career after 5 years with no backup plan.

Now? I earn less, but I’m building more of what actually matters.

More ownership. More autonomy. More impact. More life.

That’s what I document here in The Kaizen Way.

If you’re in your own version of my December 2022 right now, this is your reminder:

You don’t need permission to start living a life you love.

You just need to start.

—Ivan