What Burnout Reveals When You Finally Listen | with Chef Mark "Gooch" Noguchi
The Story
What if success isn’t measured by expansion, but by alignment? For Chef Mark “Gooch” Noguchi, that truth began long before the restaurants or the recognition. It started in hula.
He danced for Hālau o Kekui under Aunty Pualani and Aunty Nalani Kanaka‘ole, where humility, discipline, and giving yourself to something larger were the foundation.
“That’s when you really flourish.”
Food followed him through connection. Families drove hours to bring laulau and poi to performances, showing him that food is community. It is pili.
A friend nudged him toward culinary school, and at KCC he earned his first B+. “That blew my mind,” he said. Strict kitchens taught him grit and teamwork. “Cooking is not an individual sport.”
As his competence grew, so did his intention. He and his wife, Amanda, formed Pili Group to honor three values: community, education, and food. Spaces like He‘eia Pier and Mission House became kipuka, where families, activists, politicians, and keiki found connection.
From the outside, everything looked perfect. “We were cranking… top of the world.” Inside, he felt himself unraveling.
He was losing staff, losing sleep, and losing time with his daughters. His marriage strained. Then came his mother’s diagnosis: stage-four pancreatic cancer. “I was so mad… at everybody.”
Nothing felt aligned anymore.
So he made a different kind of choice. He went to therapy. He slowed down. His cooks noticed the change before he did. And eventually, he and Amanda made the decision that saved their family: they closed every restaurant.
What followed was alignment. Time with his mother. Healing with his wife. A new calling in education, using food to deepen learning at Punahou. And a return to his north star: serving the Lāhui.
Gooch didn’t rise by doing more. He rose by returning to what mattered.
The insight
Renowned Swiss psychologist Carl Jung wrote that every person carries three inner forces:
The Persona – what we show the world.
The Shadow – what we avoid facing.
The Self – who we truly are.
Real growth, which Jung called Individuation, begins when these three collide and demand alignment.
Gooch reached that moment in 2015 and 2016. From the outside, “we were cranking… just top of the world,” yet inside he felt miserable, angry, and overwhelmed as he struggled to be the husband and father he wanted to be. The Persona of the successful chef was strong. The Self was asking to be heard. The Shadow — burnout, fear, exhaustion, loneliness — was rising to the surface.
Individuation requires meeting that Shadow with honesty. Therapy became the doorway that allowed him to confront the parts of himself he had been pushing down: the frustration, the pressure, the belief that he had to hold everything alone. He realized that even leaders need to be uplifted, and that alignment matters more than image.
Closing his restaurants was not a collapse. It was integration. He chose family and health, but he also chose a deeper form of service. Through Chef Hui, the nonprofit he co-founded, Gooch helped address food insecurity across Hawai‘i, work that became essential during the COVID pandemic, when thousands relied on community-centered support.
By aligning his inner values with his outer actions, he shed a persona that no longer fit and stepped into a life shaped by purpose, connection, and truth.
As he said, “Our kuleana is to serve our community first.”
the application
We all know what it feels like to drift out of alignment.
To work hard, show up, push through, and still feel something tugging at us from the inside.
A quiet sense that the way things look on the outside doesn’t match how they feel on the inside.
It happens to students trying to meet expectations.
To educators carrying the weight of their classrooms.
To parents who want to be present while managing the demands of daily life.
Gooch’s story reminds us that alignment isn’t a luxury.
It’s a form of integrity with yourself.
When your work honors your values, competence feels meaningful instead of draining.
When you choose what matters, you reclaim your voice.
When you stay connected to people and purpose, you don’t have to carry everything alone.
Real growth doesn’t come from expanding outward.
It comes from choosing a life that fits who you are becoming.
What We Can Steal
Choose alignment over appearance.
When your actions match your values, the pressure to perform begins to loosen its grip.Step back when life feels loud.
Reflection isn’t retreat; it’s how you find clarity in the noise.Ask for help before you break.
Seeking support is not weakness — it’s leadership rooted in humility.Protect the things that matter most.
Autonomy grows each time you make choices rooted in your well-being instead of expectation.
Mahalo for reading this week’s Mana‘o Bomb.
Next week, we’ll drop another idea from Hawai‘i. A story that sparks growth, resilience, and purpose.
Keep rising. Keep learning.