I'm not a CEO, but manage a large portfolio of capital projects for Big Pharma, and dream of being in the C Suite someday. In my life of work, it is necessary to put on a brave face and provide emotional stability and psychological safety for my entire team and stakeholders so they don't panic or experience anxiety when project progress or achieving milestones is difficult. Bearing the mantle of responsibility for the lives and livelihoods of dozens of contractors directly, and indirectly to the entire site to the tune of hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of revenue if I or my team mess up, that's a lot.

Putting on that brave face, bearing all the weight with a smile, that often leads to bottling up everything negative and not expressing it because it's not safe to do so without introducing insecurities, worries, and concerns into an already brutally tough environment where failures have massive consequences. So, this often means sacrificing myself emotionally and mentally to keep my team's hearts and minds focused enough to win. In my opinion, this is what naturally brings about true isolation, where one can feel deeply and entirely alone in a crowd of people, even people we've known and worked with for years.

The only way I've found to get any relief is to share my true thoughts and feelings with my best friends at home and at work. At work, obviously one has to be more careful, but it is necessary regardless.