What Happens When Success Doesn’t Feel Like Success?

Success doesn’t always feel like success—especially when it comes at the cost of your time and energy.

Strategic Coach member Nicholas Schwarz had the title, the income, and the opportunity most would envy. But behind the scenes, his days were packed, his nights were restless, and his freedom was nowhere to be found.

That’s when he made a bold decision: to walk away from the life he had built and start designing one that actually worked for him.

When time isn’t your own.

Nicholas didn’t set out to become an entrepreneur. In fact, the idea felt “unthinkable.”

“I was making a lot of money. I was well paid, I had a good job, but I just didn't like it anymore,” he says.

He had just moved from Switzerland to Austria to open a new branch for his company—a major opportunity, but also a major challenge.

“I was working 60, 70 hours per week, came home, and then my daughter was already in bed, and I left the home before she woke up. So it was incredibly difficult, and there came a point where it really didn't make any more sense for me to continue there.”

Nicholas had to choose: continue down the same path or create something completely new.

Choosing uncertainty over burnout.

The decision to leave his job wasn’t easy—and the road to self-employment in his industry came with real challenges.

“In my line of business, it's incredibly difficult to get clients because it takes two, three years to acquire a new client, and then until you're finally paid, it's not unusual to see three or four years pass.”

Despite the risk, he chose to stop working. And that decision opened up space he never expected.

“I had my little office next to my daughter's bedroom, and at the same time, while learning how to program, I also got to play a lot with my daughter,” he says. “We played with Playmobil and Lego and I brought her to kindergarten and picked her up from kindergarten, and all those little mini interactions were possible for me to have.”

Those years weren’t a detour—they were a turning point.

“Looking back, it was probably the best two, three years of my life, just doing that, learning how to program and spending a lot of time with my daughter.”

Nicholas came to see uncertainty in a whole new light.

“Are you afraid of risk, or are you afraid of uncertainty? Risk is always perceived as something negative, and uncertainty can go both ways. You can have a positive outcome, you can have a negative outcome, but uncertainty also gives you the possibility of something positive happening.”

Rebuilding around time, energy, and community.

Today, Nicholas leads The Cecily Group, a small team spread across Vienna and Bulgaria. The company’s mission? To help clients achieve—and pass on—the Four Freedoms: Time, Money, Relationship, and Purpose.

“Applying the tools of Strategic Coach, I was able to carve out a lot of time for myself, and what I've done with those hours that I carved out for myself ... I'm spending it on a doctorate that I'm doing in Milan, Italy.”

Rather than filling every hour with busyness, he focuses on what energizes him—like exploring the link between family values and financial advice through academic research.

As his company grows, Nicholas has taken a new approach to leadership. It’s no longer about doing everything himself.

“I try to keep myself out of it as much as possible. Delegate whatever is possible,” he says. “I actually just listen to what the other people have to say. And then when things start to get out of control, I then unmute myself and say something, and then bring it back into a certain lane that I would like this to progress on.”

Community plays a big role in his current thinking—especially the community he’s found at Strategic Coach.

“I find the Strategic Coach community very helpful as a sounding board, but also as an emotional support group, because what we do as entrepreneurs is sometimes very lonely.”

Your time and energy are not just resources—they’re the point.

Nicholas’s story is a powerful reminder that freedom isn’t just something you earn. It’s something you build—intentionally, and often against the grain.

By prioritizing his time and energy, he didn’t just change his schedule. He changed his life. He reconnected with his family. He reimagined his career. And he built a business that works for him—not the other way around.

All of that started with a simple—but bold—decision: to think differently about what success could look like.

What might become possible if you did the same?