Success: How to Redefine it Without Losing Purpose

When Fleur Marks speaks about leadership, she’s not talking spreadsheets and boardrooms, she’s talking about real people, real exhaustion, and what it costs to keep pretending you’re fine.

Key points:

“I was completely and utterly exhausted… my body was actually shouting and I was choosing to ignore all the signs,” Fleur says of her years in advertising.

“On the outside, I looked like the definition of success… but I was burning out faster than you could say ‘burnout’.”

Facing a wake-up call

Fleur’s body finally forced her to stop.

After collapsing during a marathon through vineyards in France, she discovered she had sarcoidosis, a serious autoimmune disease.

“My lungs lit up like a Christmas tree,” she says.

“They told me I had tuberculosis, lymphoma, or sarcoidosis.”

Years of treatment followed — chemotherapy, infusions, and steroids.

“On the outside, I looked like the definition of success… but I was burning out faster than you could say ‘burnout’.”

Just as she began to recover, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Still, Fleur’s will to live only grew stronger. “I’m stronger than I ever thought I would be,” she says.

“My will to live is stronger.”

Choosing a new kind of leadership

Stepping away from advertising, Fleur retrained as a leadership and mindset coach, determined to help others avoid what she’d endured.

“Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish,” she says.

“You have to be self-full to be selfless.”

“Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish… you have to be self-full to be selfless.”

Through her work with business leaders, Fleur helps people recognise that sustainable leadership starts with self-awareness.

“If your mindset as a leader is in a good place, you’re a much better leader,” she explains.

“Most of us are just empty by the end of the week, because we’re giving everything away.”

Learning to live differently

Fleur’s health journey changed not just her career but her family’s life, too.

Fleur’s two children, now adults, grew up seeing her battle illness and resilience side by side.

“It’s made them wise,” she says.

“Most of us are just empty by the end of the week, because we’re giving everything away.”

“They know that life is precious.”

She’s honest about the guilt that lingers.

“I used to feel I had to make it up to them.

“But I can only show them that they’re never alone, and that we celebrate every good bit of life.”

Finding contentment

These days, Fleur measures success differently.

“I had to redefine what success really meant to me,” she says.

“It’s not about the next achievement anymore.

“It’s about being present, enjoying what’s here.”

Listen to this episode of ‘She Wasn’t Born Yesterday’ in the player above.

Now living in Byron Bay, Fleur runs leadership programs and is writing her book The Overachiever Reset.

Her mission is clear: to remind leaders that there’s a better way to live and lead.

“You get 4,000 weeks in your life,” she says.

“How are you using them?

“Are they a blur, or are you actually living them?”

Her message is simple but powerful: fill your own cup first, and you’ll have more to give the world.

Listen to this episode of ‘She Wasn’t Born Yesterday’ in the player above.

Feature image: CanvaPro