You're not too much. You're at the wrong company.

'You're too ambitious for this role.' 'You come across as too direct for our team.' 'You're actually overqualified.' Sentences like these sound like criticism of you. Mostly they're a description of a culture that doesn't match your energy.

Companies, consciously or not, have a certain range of personalities they work well with. If you fall outside that range, it doesn't mean something is wrong with you. It means this particular environment isn't the right place for your strengths.

The tricky part: if you hear this feedback often enough, you start making yourself smaller to fit in better. That's exactly what I want to warn you about. Anyone who bends for an environment loses, in the long run, exactly the energy that made them strong in the first place.

Better: use such feedback as a filter, not a verdict. If someone tells you you're 'too much', ask yourself: too much of what exactly? And is that something I really want to change, or is it a sign that I'm better off elsewhere?

The companies that see your so-called 'too much energy' as a strength exist. They may be rarer than those who want to keep you small, but they're out there. It's worth searching for them instead of adapting to the wrong ones.