In 2006, Kristi Coulter left her cosy but dull job for a promising new position at the fast-growing Amazon.com, but she never expected the soul-crushing pressure that came with it. In no time she finds the challenge and excitement she'd been craving - along with seven-day workweeks, lifeboat exercises, widespread burnout, and a culture driven largely by fear.

But the chase, the visibility, and, let's face it, the stock options, proved intoxicating, and so, for twelve years, she stayed - until she no longer recognised the face in the mirror or the mission she'd signed up for.