“No matter how many highs you get, most entrepreneurs feel fatigued and depressed and get some incredibly low times. Almost universally we put on a very positive public face and you would rarely know, but the more time you spend with fellow entrepreneurs after they have left their latest startup, the more they are more open about talking about those dark days”
Contributions form : Nail Habison.
Being an entrepreneur looks more desirable, and I should know because I am one. At 32 I have ticked a good few boxes: I’ve had an exit, failed businesses, raised some seed money for three different businesses and now run two startups and one scale up – all with global ambitions (Yes, Global ambitions)
But despite living what some might think is the cool “entrepreneurial dream”, I have suffered from fatigue, depression and anxiety throughout most of my success and failures.
Given the huge pressure that most founders come under during the early years (0-3 years) of a business, it is actually even more likely that they’ll get drained. I didn’t know what it was before, but now I know the signs, I see it happen to people all the time. It is such a taboo subject though that nobody ever wants to talk about it because of the fear of being seen as a struggling.
Speaking in reality, the odds against a startup succeeding are always slim enough, and those pressures often catch up on founders and result in depression and fatigue.
As an entrepreneur, it can be tempting to develop a front, suggesting that everything about you–and your business–is going well when it isn’t and that’s a dangerous habit. We all suffer a lot of this stuff, the cover up is worse than the crime. All of the things we do to try to prove to the world that we’re fine is what causes all of these problems, and it feeds on itself.
I always Set aside time for mindful reflection.
One thing that has helped me always (advised by my mentor) is the practice of mindfulness and meditation. Whether or not you realize it in the moment, this process will help build muscles you’ll likely need to flex later on. I set aside 20 minutes at least every day for mindful reflection and mediation. When I don’t do that, the feelings don’t go away, they fester. They come out in really weird ways, like emotional outbursts at people I care about or i just lose the mojo and spark and go deep into hibernation-like mode.
I am an entrepreneur, i have the dark side you don’t know, but it is not scaring given the torch to light!
Nicholas Quest - Uganda. 