‘Sustainable Ambition’ Drives Founder’s Success After Burnout Wake-Up Call

Amanda Goetz, a longtime marketing executive and two-time startup founder, says her once relentless drive nearly cost her her health. The 39-year-old entrepreneur, best known as the creator of the newsletter Life’s A Game and founder of the CBD-based product company House of Wise, now advocates for what she calls “sustainable ambition.” Her shift in mindset came after severe burnout left her hospitalized during a crucial phase of her career, leading her to embrace a more deliberate balance between work and rest.

Goetz began her career by wearing her determination as a “badge of honor,” often pushing herself beyond reasonable limits. “I always took it as a sign of pride that I could push myself,” she said. But the toll of nonstop work came to a head during the pandemic, when she left her corporate role, built her second startup, and managed a difficult divorce while raising three young children.

Outwardly, she appeared to be thriving, but the pace proved unsustainable. While raising capital for House of Wise, she was hospitalized twice in one week for what doctors later identified as panic attacks. “You can handle a lot, until your body just says ‘no,’” Goetz recalled. That moment forced her to reassess her life and her approach to ambition. “I realized that you can have it all, just not all at once, and I needed to shift things around and reprioritize my life.”

Exhausted woman in front of a laptop | Source: Pexels

From “Toxic Grit” to Sustainable Ambition

Goetz describes her former mindset as “toxic grit,” which she defines as “hustle without intention.” The danger, she said, lies in pursuing goals without pausing to confirm whether they are still meaningful. “So many of us, especially as ambitious people, are running towards these goals with no checkpoints to understand if that’s even still something we want,” she explained.

Her solution was to replace burnout cycles with intentional rhythms of work and rest. Instead of waiting for her body to shut down, Goetz schedules periods of intense work followed by planned recovery. “I realized that I needed to alleviate the intensity that was happening in my life before my body would force me to do it,” she said.

Building Rest Into the Hustle

According to Goetz, sustainable ambition does not necessarily mean maintaining perfect balance. Instead, she views ambition as a rhythm that shifts around major life events. Currently, she is in what she calls a “hustling” phase as she prepares to release her first book, Toxic Grit: How to have it all and (actually) love what you have, scheduled for publication in October. Afterward, she intends to slow down for several months to focus on rest and family time.

“It’s about building a rhythm into your life of proactive rest instead of waiting until your body demands it,” she said.

Happy woman | Source: Pexels

Goetz evaluates her priorities every few weeks and has found success in a “2:1 cadence” of effort. “It can mean two weeks of really pushing at work, and then one week where you kind of take the foot off the pedal and say, OK, I’m going to leave every day at 5 o’clock on the dot, I’m shutting my computer, and I’m going to go see friends,” she explained.

Those “bare minimum” weeks provide space for other aspects of life, she added. “If I just let the ambitious side of myself call all the shots, I would work all the time,” she said. “But that’s not what I want for my full life.” By redefining ambition as a sustainable pursuit rather than an endless grind, Goetz has turned a personal health crisis into a guiding principle for her work and life.