Founder's Burnout (Taboo #2)

In a past blog, I talked about being the spouse of a founder , an emotional plea. This time I will talk about another type of fire. It is equally self-consuming. For the opposite reason.?

You go up there in front of investors to raise for your company the same day you felt down and couldn’t get up for yourself.

Burnout, and the total lack of emotion it brings, at best, removes the passion to build a startup and, in the most extreme cases, removes the founder herself .

If the bliss of building a startup brings your heart into a passionate roller coaster, suffering from burnout is a flat-lining emotional numbness .?

Burnout I've experienced. So will other founders . Burnout is the mirror image of this all-consuming fire that gets you to build your company.

What once was the empowering light that allowed you to move mountains, becomes a dark force that crushes you with the weight of all that you’ve lifted so far. As they say, the highs are high, and the lows are low.

Burnout is the mirror image of this all-consuming fire that gets you to build your company.

Burnout can be caused by many different triggers. However, one that I experienced and observed, is losing touch with the original vision & mission.

Founders tend to identify themselves with their company. “We invest in the person, not the company”, they say. Yet, when your company fails, you fail… Paradoxical, for some, and convenient for others.

Burnout amplifies itself. The common signs of burnout are the opposite of the public’s expectations regarding what founders are.

Can you really speak up as a founder when you feel down, tired, drained, helpless, trapped, defeated, detached, alone, full of self-doubt, and overwhelmed?

What I just listed are symptoms of a disease! Not the different badges of honour for going through entrepreneurship.?

Burnout neither comes nor goes suddenly, it takes 2 years to recover from burnout , and this is without working and with medical supervision. For founders, this is a problem, especially when you only have a 6 month runway.

Time is the most scarce resource, not capital. So, what do you do? You buy time so that you don’t run out.?

Time is the most scarce resource, not capital. So, what do you do? You buy time so that you don’t run out.?

You go up there in front of investors to raise for your company the same day you felt down and couldn’t get up for yourself. But that’s not how it really works. You didn’t buy time. You borrowed time.

You will need to give a return to that money whilst your health may not come back. This, you didn’t price into your valuation. Not because your health is priceless, but because you were self-less.

This, you didn’t price into your valuation. Not because your health is priceless, but because you were self-less.

It is not just unacceptable, it is unsustainable. To these 7% of founders that fail because of burnout , we are not just destroying value, we are robbing the future of a better tomorrow , because of entrepreneurs' creativity.

That 7% statistic is the tree hiding the forest. Or should I say graveyard? The graveyard where the visions of founders, the dreams of employees and, certainly least important, investor money, is buried with indifference. After all, aren’t 9 in 10 destined for failure??

This is one of the missions of Founders Taboo . Not accepting this statistic as fate. Instead, it feels more like the self-fulfilling prophecy of a start-up ecosystem promoting and abiding by the wrong values.

These statistics are dehumanising the very simple ‘human’ aspirations of entrepreneurs, to improve the world in which they live. What does 7% represent? 1280 in London, 5,970 in the USA… 28,000,000 entrepreneurs in the world.?

Multiply these numbers by 2, and you will see how many spouses are affected. Multiply these numbers by 4, and you will see how many parents are affected. Multiply these numbers by 6, and you will see how many employees are affected.

This “tree” has not just been hiding a forest, but an entire ecosystem which goes out-of-balance as founders become mentally imbalanced.?All of which is manageable, if not avoidable.

It’s not all gloom and feeling down. Fundamentally, founders are optimistic. Burnout is avoidable from the moment you build your first pitch deck. It starts with the mission you choice, the vision you have and the team that supports you.

This is for another blog, next week …?

------

Founders Taboo ?has built a 30h course on the mental health of Founders. We have a few modules on the topic of spouse relationships with a founder and parenthood as an entrepreneur.

If you want access,?please register here for our private beta , which will close this summer.

In the meantime, you can?follow our page ?&?podcast ?to keep receiving our content.

Previous Blog: Being the Spouse of an Entrepreneur (Taboo #1)?

Edits by?Sofia Daley