How do I handle being trusted for advice but not owning the outcome?

You can guide almost any executive to a decision, and you are worn out from carrying that trust while never owning the result. You do the hardest thinking, then hand the choice to someone else and live with whatever they do. That split, all the responsibility for the counsel and none of the control over the ending, is a real and tiring place to sit. But consider what your role actually is. Your work is the quality of the advice, not the outcome. Once you have given your clearest, most honest guidance, you have done your whole job. What they do with it, and how it lands, belongs to them. Holding yourself responsible for outcomes you do not control is a weight that was never yours to lift. After your next big call, draw the line on purpose: name what was yours, the thinking and the honesty, and release what was theirs, the decision. You are the advisor, not the owner. Let the outcome go home with the person who chose it.