Is the power I have worth who my job turned me into?

You climbed to the top of the bank, and you are not sure the person who arrived is one you like. The hours took something. You gave up sleep, presence, maybe people who mattered, and now you hold power and wonder at the price. That reckoning is the most human thing about you. Here is the truth: you cannot buy those years back, and pretending the cost was nothing would only deepen the wound. But the person the job made is not fixed forever. The drive, the sharpness, the endurance you built can serve something other than the next deal. Who you become next is still open. Start by taking back one hour that the job has always owned. Give it to a person, not a screen. A call to someone you have neglected, a dinner you actually attend. Power is only worth what you spend it on, and you can start spending it on a life.