I negotiate deals all day — have I built anything?

You can get the price down on almost anything. You know every lever, every clause, every point where a supplier will bend. And still, at night, you wonder if a career of shaving margins adds up to anything a person would call a life's work. Here is the honest answer: the savings were never the point. They were the proof you were allowed to do the actual work, which was building something that outlasts the contract — a relationship, a stable job somewhere, a person who learned from watching you. You have been keeping the wrong books. Your team likely carries the same quiet doubt and has never said it out loud, because saying it feels like admitting the job is hollow. It is not hollow. It has just never been asked to account for itself honestly. Start there, together.