Who I am

I’m Ed Essey, founder of High Performers Academy, coach to high performers, and author of The Inside Job.

I spent 24 years at Microsoft, including serving as a senior director, before retiring from the company. Today, I help people understand the human systems around their work, make thoughtful career decisions, and use their gifts to create meaningful change.

My calling is to empower people to know their worth and use their gifts to make meaningful change.

Inside High Performers Academy, we connect that work to the situations happening in your career right now. We examine what is happening, prepare a useful next step, and keep learning as you put it into practice.

Ed Essey smiling, bald man in a green suit and white shirt

Why I Do This

High performers are often the most powerful people in the room—and the least supported. They hold organizations together, create breakthroughs, stabilize teams, and carry responsibilities no one else sees.
But worth isn’t always something people feel, even when they’re extraordinary.

I’ve lived this. I’ve coached this. I’ve watched brilliant people doubt themselves simply because the system didn’t know how to value them.

That’s why I do the work I do.
I teach people the political skills, clarity frameworks, and inner foundations they need to stop surviving and start creating impact on their own terms.
Not by grinding harder—but by grounding deeper.
Not through force—but through alignment.
Not by becoming someone else—but by becoming more themselves.

If you feel called to create something meaningful, you don’t need permission. You need power. And power begins with knowing your worth.

Fun Facts

– Former 5-guys-in-a-basement startup kid who spent 24 years at Microsoft
– MIT grad who applied to exactly 1 school
– Dad to 2 extraordinary kids who teach me more about leadership than any book
– Former DJ, music producer, and lifelong lover of heist movies and fantasy
– Deadlift enthusiast and functional-movement geek
– Head coach of 2 youth soccer teams
– Second country is Vietnam, through my lovely partner
– Cocktail experimenter, mindful minimalist, and spiritual shapeshifter guided by a wolf
– Once scheduled a product launch on 9/11 (yes, that one)
– Proud creator of all the internal art in The Inside Job