He was in the technology space.
The idea came after a conversation with a friend over a pint.
His friend worked in building maintenance.
Everything was still done with pens, paper, clipboards and checklists.
Things got missed.
Clients got annoyed.
Mistakes happened.
Steve spotted the opportunity.
He built a maintenance management platform.
Things started slowly.
Sleepless nights.
High stress.
Not knowing how to build it.
Fallouts.
Years of wondering if it would ever work.
Then things started to click.
Fast forward.
The platform was being used by some of the UK's largest building maintenance companies.
When Steve started the business, the goal was simple.
Give his family the financial security he never had growing up.
He remembered missing school trips.
Missing holidays.
Watching his parents struggle.
He didn't want that for his two daughters.
That became his fuel.
He built an exceptional team.
He became the driving force.
The ideas man.
The face of the business.
One summer morning he sat on the patio outside his house.
Beautiful home.
Swimming pool.
Summer house.
Rolling hills stretching into the distance.
Life was good.
But something felt off.
He felt tired.
Battered.
Bruised.
As he thought back over the previous twenty years, one thing stood out.
Just how hard it had all been.
The years entertaining prospective clients.
Expensive dinners that led nowhere.
Arguments at home because he'd missed another school run.
The member of staff stealing from him.
The clients who never paid.
The constant pressure.
Was it all worth it?
He'd achieved the goal.
His daughters never struggled financially.
He'd paid for both of their weddings.
Grandchildren were on the way.
So why did he feel worse than ever?
He loved the business.
He wanted to do it forever.
But he wasn't the same man who started it.
He struggled to focus.
He became impatient with staff.
He stopped looking for new ideas.
He started projects and never finished them.
Some afternoons he fell asleep at his desk.
His leadership capacity was a fraction of what it once was.
So what happened?
Steve's story is a perfect example of Executive Health Drift.
Years of sacrificing himself for the business had caused him to normalise how he felt.
Low energy.
Poor focus.
Low mood.
Overwhelm.
It had become his normal.
The old solutions no longer worked.
Pushing through.
Another coffee.
Another drink.
Another sugary snack.
Nothing touched the sides.
This is what so many business leaders experience.
Not burnout.
Not illness.
Something much quieter.
A slow, almost invisible erosion of leadership capacity.
It happens over years.
Which is exactly why most people never notice it.
The biggest challenge isn't fixing Executive Health Drift.
It's recognising that it's happening in the first place.
