Why now am I getting 'Founder Anxiety'?
Samantha Kingston
CEO of Virtual Umbrella, VR Director of Anonymous, Community Champion for Alcohol Change UK & TEDx & Public Speaker.
It's the New Year and everywhere I look people are waving the ‘New Year – New me’ flag with full effect.
That normal buzz of excitement to start the new year, or refreshed to begin has not arrived for me yet. I am suffering from major anxiety and I have no idea why? So much so that I had extra time off to sort it out. In other words, figure it out.
Now, I understand what the pressure of running a company can bring, I have been under that pressure for the past two years. Through this I am learning so much every day. My passion is what drives me to get out of bed everyday. I love what I do and the people that I work with. The VR industry is incredible.
I have suffered with stress in the past but normally I can identify the problem. This was the first time I could not figure out what it was. Maybe it was a little bit of everything.
At the end of 2016 I had experimented with different ways of reducing stress levels. I have switched off my phone at weekends…Gone for long walks, exercised, or read books. I even wrote a post about it. But sometimes its truly very hard to switch off your brain. It takes me a good couple of days to stop thinking about work because my company is my everything - it's my baby.
My partner joked over Christmas that I was ‘feeling stressed about not being stressed’ – I know what you're thinking, that's crazy...but I think he was onto something here.
You spend 24 hours a day worrying, thinking, and pressuring yourself about your company and then when you stop (Christmas holidays) your brain is not quite sure how to manage. You have time. You can sleep. You can binge watch Netflix.
My brain took this not as a time to relax but as an opportunity to freak out.
I would love to open this out to other founders or entrepreneurs who may have ever suffered with ‘Founder Anxiety’ - this is what I am calling my version of anxiety. A feeling you can’t quite explain or identify?
I took this topic to Twitter last week and I had some great comments and even some ideas on solutions, however I did have a comment saying that asking for help on this matter was not the place for Twitter. I disagree. There is an outstanding community online who I have shared my lows and highs of running a company with, I believe that by sharing, I might be helping someone else out there. You never know.
What do you think?
heroic story co-founder, CEO (YC S19) | ?? narrative AI trailblazer | ?? online poker legend
7 年https://www.headspace.com/
Pragmatic Accountant | Finance systems consultant & trainer. The Pragmatist author.
7 年I am one month short of 6 years in business and can still identify with this issue. That being said in the last 12 months I have halved my working week by simply saying no. The more I worked the more unproductive I was the worse the decision making became. Being a business owner never stops but neither does being a partner or a father. It is all a matter of priorities. If you go away take longer than a week, don't work when you don't want to nothing bad will happen.
MD, The Advertist new biz expert, Director SuperTalent Creative, podcast host | Linktree - keithjsmith
7 年It's very hard to disconnect when you ARE the business, but this is common with all owner/operators. It's what drives the ambition that you don't get when working for the man. Working in and around companies like this is common for me and everyone I know has the same 'extra' drive. Embrace it; it's a part of who you are now. Good luck :-)
???? Tech Innovator | ?? Mobile Team Leader | ? Senior iOS Engineer | ?? Product Innovator | ?? Business Growth Advocate | ? 25+ Years of Tech Experience
7 年Totally get where your coming from, I get this too, struggling with trying to have down time and having the anxiety that I'm not doing something on the business, not ticking off one of the tasks on an endless todo list. It's the reason it's hard to switch off when at home in an evening. It's taken me 7 years and slowly getting better at it, having a great team helps and not being afraid to ask for help. Often a sounding board who's not involved with business is great help too.