Found(ER) Depression: Let’s talk about it …

“Running a start-up is like chewing glass and staring into the abyss. After a while, you stop staring, but the glass chewing never ends.” - Elon Musk — Tesla, SpaceX

               You might have been a little perplexed by the emphasis on (ER) in the title above. ER stands for “Emergency Room” and this is the high price of mental & physical stress that founders across the globe have to pay in the startup & business world. . Several mission-critical entrepreneurial propensities and traits are also clinical features of bipolarity, depression, ADHD, and substance use conditions, suggesting the possibility that these conditions may be more prevalent among entrepreneurs.

When Silicon Valley idols like Marc Andressen says, “In the startup world, you're either a genius or an idiot. You're never just an ordinary guy trying to get through the day,” it should become apparent that starting up is not for the faint-hearted.

            Founders are metaphors to ducks. On the surface they look super cool, composed and completely in control as they glide smoothly across the pond towards their goal. But deep within the water they are haphazardly peddling, frustrated, screaming and praying to survive or reach the next milestone. The typical response that we get from any founder when they are asked about “How are you doing?” is almost certainly one or another version of the word “Awesome” or “Great”! But deep down inside, either the product is average; you are running out of funds; you are not getting along with core team; you just made a bad hire or a bad move; your investors are not happy; if you go back home, maybe your partner is tired of waiting; and you don’t even know whether you are supposed to be a founder or not at times!

               There is a herculean amount of pressure as a founder to never show weakness and to be the cheerleader for both inside and outside world. The world may be crumbling down around you—and it happens a lot of the time when you’re running a company, But still you have to be the Charismatic, strong and portray the optimistic leader that you are. You have to act like a Joker in a circus. No matter how hard the situation is inside. You need to put up with a happy smiling face. People look at a founder and think, this guy’s really got it together! He’s brave! But the man riding the lion is thinking, How the hell did I get on a lion, and how do I keep from getting eaten?

              Despite the enormous stress a founder goes through, none of it is shared with others around. That’s the kind of thing we don’t talk to our investors, we don’t talk about it to our staff, and we don’t talk about it to other founders . Founder depression may feel more like numbness than sadness

              A Harvard Business School study done in 2012 attributed 65 percent of startup failures to personal stress.

Any good sensible investor would prefer the founders to reach out to them with their emotional problems rather than them get into an irreversible state of depression and have an emotional breakdown leading to the collapse of the entire startup. The stress is not just emotional in nature a lot of the founders gain weight and get other chronic diseases due to over fatigue and total negligence towards their health.

The stress can also be induced by culture. In India, we are in a habit of taking too much blame for the mistakes that we make. The Indian parents mentality of never being satisfied and always humming the chores “That you could have done better!” is something that we sub cautiously carry into our adulthood.

              Founders should take a deep look at the stress they have been under during the most hectic of the weeks, and ask themselves: can I live with that kind of stress for the next six years of my life? If you can’t, than you might not be able to build a significant company as it takes an average of six years to build a unicorn.

           It is not necessary to sacrifice your personal life, health, and relationships to build a billion-dollar company. But you need to scale not only the company but also your personal self along with the company. This will enable a better work life balance and lower levels of stress. You need to understand that a lot of our success in our life is not worth dying for. Failing sucks—there is no way to sugarcoat that. But startups are not a matter of life-and-death . It’s passion and it’s work !

 You have a much better chance to succeed in your venture if you can make an agreement with your staff, teammates, investors, best friends, partner/spouse to let them know when things are not going as per plan and seek help. Help is the one of the best way to clear the fog that plagues your mind.

Despite awareness about mental health in recent times, it continues to remain the least spoken about. Founders fear no one will fund their startups, employees fear they may no longer have a job. This fear of “Log Kya Kahenge” continues to remain a major hurdle for mental health to be considered as seriously as other chronic illnesses like heart diseases and cancer.

I really appreciate Mr. Sanchit Sethi, Founder of StayUncle He choose to open up about his depression. “Help!” he wrote, “I have lost the steam.” This was a bold confession in a high-testosterone world of startups where ‘passion’ is your driving force and hustle your mantra. If you lose ‘steam’ midway, you might as well pack up and go home.

We are all experts when it comes to mental health and most of it is flawed. If I have pain in my chest, I do not Google about it. Instead, I seek professional help. So why is it that when it comes to mental health we shy away from seeing an expert and would rather seek help on the internet?

Thus I encourage you all to talk with one another or reach out to an expert, especially about your lowest lows and failures . It’s hard to give anything your all if you’re not healthy -- mentally and physically.

Here are some tips to help entrepreneurs keep founder depression at bay.

• Understand your personality and identify your weak spots with test like IPIP-NEO & Entrepreneur Awareness Assessment
• Decouple your identity from your startup i.e. trying not to equate the entirety of your self-worth with your startup
•  Hire people who complement your personality traits & help you with your weak areas
• Focus on capacity and not just capability
• Take care of yourself so that you are not irritable & exhausted during crisis
• Create a “restorative niche” to reduce stress. Find some quite time daily to restore yourself.
• Get informed about your own mental health, build self-awareness around your own triggers
• Exercise “every single day, no matter what”, even if it’s just a run around the block.
• Know the telltale signs of depression & reach out to an expert if you feel you are depressed .

Final thoughts

Founder depression is a common reality among entrepreneurs of all types. Many founders try to struggle through, or altogether ignore the symptoms of depression , but this can be a very destructive strategy for themselves, their companies, and anyone around them.

It’s important to develop self-awareness and know the clues that you may be experiencing depression. If people close to you are indicating that you don’t seem to be yourself, or you notice that you’re consistently low or have lost enthusiasm , perhaps it’s time to pause and examine what’s going on with yourself.

Just know that you are not alone in experiencing this and don’t have to go through it on your own. In fact, reaching out for social support and seeking professional help are your most important first steps. And for everyone else :

“If you meet an entrepreneur, give them a hug. It’s a lonely job but they are the ones who take the world forward.”

-  Arun Pandit

Founder DontGiveUpWorld.com & Head of Sales ( B2B) Loadshare

Ex: Co-Founder Poku ,

Ex VP Business Operations at TruxApp.com , BDM at Blackbuck , Brand Manager at PayU & Multiple roles at CEAT& RPG Group