I built a company that broke people. Now I’m choosing capitalism with love
I built a company that broke people. Now I’m choosing capitalism with love
Published on Fast Company, Aug 12, 2025, by Shayne Fitz-Coy.
I spent four years grinding down my best executive, then acted surprised when he had nothing left.
The day he quit, he said: “I’ve forgotten how to want things.”
I looked away. I knew I’d done this to him.
THE SLOW TOLL OF EXCELLENCE
It took 48 months to transform a brilliant human into someone else.
Month 8: Joe (not his real name) volunteers for everything. He works 60- or 70-hour weeks with energy to spare. His wife jokes about being a “work widow” at company events. We all laugh.
Month 14: Seventy-hour weeks become his baseline. His wife stops coming to events.
Month 29: His wife moves to a different city and doesn’t ask him to come. He mentions it between pitch decks. I tell him to take the afternoon off. He doesn’t.
Month 34: His birthday. I’d forgotten until 7 p.m. Over reheated Thai food at 8:47 p.m., I say, “Happy birthday.”
That night, I’m 90 minutes late to my own engagement party. “Making sure Joe’s okay,” I tell my fiancée’s father.
Joe wasn’t OK. I wasn’t OK, either.
I was revising Joe’s financial model, second guessing his elegant formulas. That’s what excellence looked like to me then.
THE COST
When Joe quit, I did the math:
• Replacing him with a team of people: $1.2 million
• Lost team cohesion: $800,000
• Three related departures: $500,000
$2.5 million in quantifiable year-one losses.
And that didn’t even count the culture.
WALKING BACK TO HUMAN
After Joe left, he tried to save his marriage. It was too late. He went on a long hiking trip and eventually met someone new.
Joe wasn’t unique - rather the first to say it out loud. Within six months of Joe’s departure, I’d lost 40% of my senior team to the lives they remembered they had.
That was my wake-up call. Not just Joe leaving, but watching everyone else who stayed slowly burn out alongside me.
THE BUSINESS CASE AGAINST BRUTALITY
Last quarter, we passed on buying a company. It was a great business on paper, but a terrible company in real life. They hit their numbers, but they burned through humans (like I used to). Lots of management turnover and dissatisfied customers.
A few years ago, I would have done the deal. Today, I have no interest in businesses built on tears and exhaustion. I don’t want to chase maximum yield or most capital deployed. I want to bet on companies that still have their people and their soul in five years.
I’m a patient capital, forever owner in an industry built on fast exits. My LPs ask about IRR, but I also dream about human return: energy, longevity, loyalty, art.
My investors are learning to speak my language because the results so far are proof. We’re trying to prove that sustainability starts with people.
WHAT CAPITALISM WITH LOVE MIGHT LOOK LIKE
Capitalism with love means grace. KPIs that include sleep scores and kids’ soccer games. Growth that doesn’t devour the grower. Retaining talent by not grinding them down.
But capitalism with love isn’t just policy. It’s about proximity to one another and integrating the business into a community.
Our investment firm is located in a neighborhood retail space with doors open to the community. Kids wander by, and we hand out stickers and invite them to doodle on our whiteboard. We know the security guard’s name and eat at the corner restaurant.
You can’t practice capitalism with love from a distance; you need to see the faces, know the people, and notice when the humming stops.
And capitalism with love is about admitting our imperfections. I preach boundaries while checking emails at the skating rink while watching my daughter practice.
Capitalism with love is not perfection, but catching people before they crash.
FOUR TOOLS TO PREVENT YOUR NEXT JOE
- Set the line before burnout begins.
Define what “too much” looks like. If someone cancels a vacation, intervene. If a partner calls them a “work widow,” notice and take action.
- Operate with slack.
Build buffer into systems schedules, budgets, and hiring. Overstaff by 5%. Close one Friday a month. MIT Sloan professor Zeynep Ton says slack means employees can rest without disappointing their team and managers have time to develop people.
- Create places for truth inside your firm.
These may include anonymous surveys, exit interviews or trusted third parties. Silence is fear. People need a safe place to say what Joe eventually said out loud.
- Compete on wellness.
We track sleep scores alongside sales growth. One portfolio CEO sends me his daily step count with his P&L. Another includes “hours spent on hobbies” in her bi-weekly reporting. Look for full lives, not just productive ones.
THE CHOICE YOU’RE MAKING RIGHT NOW
Your Joe is already rehearsing their exit. Their partner is making “work widow” jokes. Those jokes are warnings.
Look around. Find your Joe. Say: “I’ve been asking too much.” Then shut up and listen.
Next Tuesday at 6 p.m., someone may ask for one more revision. Say, “It’s good enough. Go home.”
Watch their face. You might see the first flicker of something they forgot they could feel: relief.
The bill always comes due. Pay now, or pay in people. There is still time to change.
Joe and I talk occasionally. He’s different now. More careful, guarded. He tells me I’m the best and worst boss he’s ever had. We both know it’s not a compliment.
We joke about working together again. I don’t think he ever would.
We know each other’s lives now. Real lives, not just work lives.
Maybe that’s what capitalism with love looks like - not getting your people back, but helping them remember how to be full people.
Originally published in Fast Company.