How to protect your mental health as an entrepreneur

By Sam Marchant , Investment Associate at Hambro Perks

Being a founder is hard. Very hard. There is no constant; you roll between extreme highs to deep lows without warning and, at the early stages of launching a start-up, often with no clear explanation as to what contributed towards causing the high or low.??

However, with this lack of stability comes endless creative opportunities and the fluid thinking space required to build solutions to humanity's greatest challenges. Human beings are curious and progressive creatures. We cherish the pursuit of innovation and increase in all we have, do, and are.?

Naturally, this leads many incredibly talented individuals down the path of entrepreneurship. But at what cost to them? According to Forbes, 72% of entrepreneurs stated that they suffer from mental health problems and 77% of founders shared that running a business has negatively affected their mental health; this is nearly three times the average prevalence of mental health issues in the standard population.?

As a founder turned investor, I have a deep understanding and relatability with founders battling bad mental health. I now spend a great deal of time asking founders in my investment portfolio, ‘how are you? No, really, how are you?’. From my personal experience as a founder to the conversations I now have with founders every week, I believe there are three key things founders can do to support their mental health:?

1. Ignore hustle culture. I worry that self-professed leaders and gurus pushing the ‘hustle till you can’t take anymore’ culture have an audience who actually believe this is the right way to operate. It is not. How much you sleep, what you eat, and when you disconnect from your start-up are all incredibly important in managing your mental health. Put it another way: If you had a racehorse that you thought could win The Saudi Cup (a $20m prize in 2022), would you keep it up all night after training and feed it bad food? No, you would not. As a founder, you can create more value than $20m, so prioritise your health.?
2. Get and keep friends that have nothing to do with business. Friends who care about you, not what you do. Invest in these relationships and allow them the time and space to flourish. Entrepreneurship is lonely at times, so having friends you can connect with outside of your start-up will provide you with a support network when things get rough.
3. Confront your mental health concerns quickly. It can be easy to push bad mental health aside by prioritising your customers, team, or investors, but there’s a long tail price to pay for doing this. Bad mental health compounds and the worse it gets, the longer your recovery will be. So be truthful to yourself and those around you on how you feel.?

As an investor, I’m glad we have more open conversations with founders about mental health. The entrepreneurship journey is difficult, demanding, and fraught with failures, but by allowing founders the space to share how they’re feeling and the support they need, I believe we can create a better environment for founders to manage their mental health.?

If you feel you want to chat with a mental health professional or you’re worried about someone else, please call either CALM (0800 58 58 58) or Samaritans (116 123).?