Running a Business While Managing a Chronic Disease (Myasthenia Gravis)
Let us take you through the experience of living with an autoimmune disease. Myasthenia Gravis (MG) is a chronic (long-lasting) and rare disease that affects the way muscles respond to signals from nerves, leading to muscle weakness. This means the body's defense mechanism, the immune system, begins to attack the body's own tissues instead of foreign invaders, such as viruses. When asked: Is there a correlation between managing a chronic disease and running a business? The answer to this is YES!
When we talk about an entity and a business entity, we are aware that each are subject to internal and external forces that can have a lifetime impact on their existence. For instance, a person living with Myasthenia Gravis goes through a kaleidoscope of emotions, experiences, and tends to have good days as well as bad days. Similarly, a business has an equally comparable path where it undergoes different experiences, experiments, trends that have both good and bad impacts on it. Therefore, it is safe to say that living with a chronic disease and entrepreneurship both require, a lot of patience, faith, hard work, and risk. Living with a chronic disease or illness does not have to stop you from running your own business. So, to be fair, people fighting with a lifelong disease like MG have a better chance to excel at their businesses. In fact, dealing with constant health concerns can prepare oneself for the ups and downs of business ownership.
Running a business is both mentally and physically challenging. In many instances, people wear themselves out due to work. This can be either because the workload is so much that the entrepreneur is unable to match up with it, or they are unable to manage the workload in an efficient manner. Life with MG makes it necessary to listen to one’s body and pay attention to its symptoms. This becomes a way of life to continue working. In return, these people can work at a viable pace, whereby the work and their stress levels are aligned nicely. Living with MG allows these people to handle work better by keeping themselves healthy. A critic mentioned once, "If you neglect your health in the long term for a short-term business need, you may find that you've created bigger long-term problems for yourself". This empowers people with MG to run a business profoundly.
The importance of how high emotional stress levels have adverse effects on health cannot be stressed enough. Chronic health problems like MG requires entrepreneurs to keep themselves away from stress at home and work. It is possible to do if the businessmen can simplify their workload as much as they can, delegate the tasks efficiently, and maintaining a routine where all things ate scheduled. This task comes naturally to entrepreneurs with chronic diseases, as they observe and maintain a routine that prevents the symptoms to relapse or worsen.
The delegation, the art of allocation of work to subordinates is pivotal to any successful business. For this, a supportive and diligent team is a must to have. Entrepreneurs with a chronic illness like MG will need to strike a balance with their team by either involving them with the medical condition and being honest with the kind of work to be expected of them due to the physical challenges of the disease. A supportive and understanding team will get the business through, on its bad days and make the team feel valued for their input.
Having an autoimmune disorder means that one’s health can interfere with work at unexpected times. Symptom flare-ups, sudden doctor visits, or lingering fatigue can all prevent people from doing the work one thought he/she would be able to. When this happens, a break from work should be observed and allow oneself to embrace some flexibility. Otherwise, stress levels will take over the mind and soul and prevent one to be productive. A system that functions to get the basic everyday tasks must be always in place, so in case the Myasthenia Gravis hits hard on some days, a business can get past the essentials without having the need to stress unnecessarily.
Time and health are precious resources. They should be valued and maintained.
Clarissa Thompson