How a Highly Successful CEO Can Spiral from Peak Performance to Personal Crisis

In 1996, Gor­don Lownds was at the pin­na­cle of suc­cess. He had co-found­ed Sleep Coun­try Cana­da, a high­ly suc­cess­ful retail busi­ness that would become a house­hold name. But behind the scenes, he was spi­ral­ing into a life-threat­en­ing crack cocaine addic­tion that would cost him near­ly three years of his life and over $700,000.

This is not just a sto­ry about drugs. It’s a wake-up call for every high-per­form­ing CEO and exec­u­tive who believes they can out­run their demons with success.

Lownds described him­self as a high-func­tion­ing addict. His team and investors had no idea what he was deal­ing with. He con­tin­ued to lead the busi­ness, and even launched a sec­ond one, Lis­ten Up! Cana­da, while nav­i­gat­ing recovery.

The truth is: you can lead a thriv­ing com­pa­ny and still be falling apart inside. I’ve seen it with CEOs and exec­u­tives who oper­ate at the high­est lev­els — some­times I’ve only caught it right before they crashed.

That’s why I wrote Your Oxy­gen Mask First. Because the best strat­e­gy, the most tal­ent­ed team, or the biggest mar­ket doesn’t mat­ter if the per­son at the top is secret­ly drowning.

You don’t need to hit rock bot­tom to change. You just need to rec­og­nize when the pres­sure is silent­ly crush­ing you, when you’re using busi­ness suc­cess to avoid deal­ing with your emo­tion­al junk, and when you’re slip­ping into habits that soothe stress but sac­ri­fice your health, clar­i­ty, or integrity.

Lownds’ Sto­ry High­lights a Bru­tal Truth

Suc­cess doesn’t pro­tect you from self-destruc­tion. It often hides it.

If you’re read­ing this and some­thing feels uncom­fort­ably famil­iar — pay atten­tion. The time to act is now, not when you’re arrest­ed or over­dose like Lownds did. I always rec­om­mend work­ing with a coun­sel­lor or psy­chol­o­gist to unpack the behav­iours dri­ving your stress or avoidance.

Chal­lenge

Are you putting your oxy­gen mask on first? Or are you a few deci­sions away from your own spi­ral? If you are in cri­sis, con­tact your local men­tal health hot­line, your doc­tor, or anoth­er trust­ed pro­fes­sion­al for imme­di­ate support.

Resources

• Chap­ter 6 — Your Oxy­gen Mask First: Deal with Your Emo­tion­al Junk
• Men­tal Health Hotline
• Com­plete the Resilience Self-Assessment
• Watch the Resilience Webinar
• Reflect on David Greer’s Sobri­ety Story