How to Live Life

by Soulman — Souleymane Yo

The Architecture of a Frozen Heart

I stepped away from the world I had built before I reached the age of 39.

To the outside world, this is the ultimate triumph. It is the glossy, high-definition dream sold in every boardroom, the finish line of the modern rat race that everyone is sprinting toward but few ever cross. For years, I lived in the agonizing juxtaposition of my professional peak and my internal void. I was a Power Systems Engineer by trade, a man who spoke the language of voltage and impedance, managing the literal current that kept cities alive. In the corporate world, my peers respected me, but directors viewed me as something else entirely: a formidable threat. They saw a man with a level of discipline and a mechanical drive they couldn't fathom.

Mentors and colleagues would look at the trajectory of my career, see the impossible obstacles I had systematically dismantled, and tell me...”