“I asked my mum if I was the angel of death, because I thought funerals were a weekend hobby that we just kept going to,” Simpson told Cowan, reflecting on a childhood marked by loss.

She continued, “I’ve always had a lot of death in my life and at some point I realised I had to learn from and overcome that to figure out how to thrive. You either get crushed by trauma or you learn how to come out the other side of it, so I chose the latter.”

Simpson acknowledges that her early career was,in part,a way to cope with emotional pain.She threw herself into work with fervor,seeking solace in professional achievement.

“Part of how I ended up getting my job and being in San Francisco was an output of running away from my life and the trauma that I’d been through,” she told Real Life.

“[But] I didn’t get depressed, because I’d seen what depression had done to so many of the peopel that I loved and the impact of not getting the help that you need,” she added, highlighting her determination to avoid the pitfalls she witnessed in others.

Early Career and the Drive to Succeed

Simpson’s ambition became clear early on. After being passed over for a promotion at Vodafone at 19, wich she attributed to her age, she decided that moving abroad was the best way to advance her career.

“I actually say conned,but I convinced these two entrepreneurs to give me internships. But I had a condition: I said if I do really well and do great work for you, you have to hire me – but you have to hire me remotely. This was totally before remote working was a thing.”

“So I travelled around the world,worked online and then got a job at the Kiwi Landing Pad. My boss and I had a deal: he said you can do your job as long as you’re in San Francisco when you need to be there, but otherwise travel around the world, do your work.”

Since then, Simpson has held senior positions across various industries, including telecommunications, banking, AI, and venture capital, earning recognition as a promising business leader. However, this success came at a cost.

“I think achievement is still one of my biggest values, which is why I did end up sleeping under my desk, and sometimes I definitely did hustle.”

“Ultimately I ended up breaking my body and being really unhealthy,” she admits.

“I learnt the hard way that if we drive our bodies and minds into the ground, you pay the price for that. I’ve burnt out twice.”

“Burnout for me, I was just so tired and literally allergic to my emails. It took me about six months to want to open my computer again.”

The Path to Recovery and a Bountiful Life

“One of the last jobs I had,I worked myself so much into the ground that I actually nearly lost my marriage,several relationships,friends,and my health really suffered. So I had to leave that job to rebuild,” Simpson revealed.

Taking a long break from work was crucial for her recovery. “Burnout for me, I was just so tired and, I hope people don’t laugh at this, but literally allergic to my emails. It took me about six months to want to open my computer again, which tells you how much screen time and computer work I was doing.”

Therapy has become an essential tool for Simpson as she strives to balance her personal life with her strong work ethic. “I was actually the last person in my family to go to counselling, so that was one of the first steps I took was to get a therapist to talk about what was going on,” she said.

“Fundamentally, what I realised is that my self-talk cycle was really negative and was doing me no favours… and to figure out what was going on, I had to go within and tune into myself.”

This journey of self-discovery led her to create bountifull, a podcast where she interviews leaders from various fields about living a bountiful life. “It’s crazy to me that a little Kiwi girl from the North Shore gets in front of all of these experts from the top universities and some unbelievable entrepreneurs as well,” she told Cowan.

One of the key lessons from her podcast is that joy is a choice. “Your contribution to those people around you,beyond yourself,is what ultimately leads to fulfilment”.