Entrepreneurs’ mental health issues, like Aliens, are the unwelcome passengers of what was supposed to be a pleasant voyage. Navigating the entrepreneurial landscape can be an exhilarating journey ripe with innovation, excitement, and the thrill of potential success. However, it also comes with a less-discussed companion: a high degree of stress that often puts entrepreneurs at an increased risk of mental health challenges. From the constant pressure to deliver results to the overwhelming responsibility of steering a company, the mental toll on entrepreneurs can be as daunting as any business challenge.
In this comprehensive post, I highlight the often-overlooked aspect of entrepreneurship: mental health issues. I delve into the unique stresses and strains that entrepreneurs face, their implications for mental well-being, and how understanding these factors can help mitigate the dangers they pose. Drawing from years of academic research and practical insights, I explore topics such as job fit, destiny beliefs, entrepreneurial passion, and their influence on burnout. I look at the double-edged sword of persistence and even delve into quitting as a strategic choice, not a failure.
But I don’t want this to be a one-way conversation. Your experiences as entrepreneurs and Investors are invaluable to understanding this complex issue. I invite you to contribute to this ongoing research. By filling out my questionnaire based on four years of academic research, you’ll be helping me deepen our knowledge of entrepreneurs’ mental health and, in turn, develop more effective strategies to foster mental well-being in the entrepreneurial community.
Help me better understand how entrepreneurs manage stress and preserve mental health. Participate in my study underpinned by four years of academic research for my Doctorate in Business Administration. Please click here to access the survey.
#1. Building a Support Network
The Problem: Loneliness
Entrepreneurship is often a solitary journey, fraught with unique challenges and stressors. Keeping these struggles to oneself can lead to increased stress, mental fatigue, and in some cases, severe mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety. In the extreme, the entrepreneur’s performance can suffer, affecting the business’s health.
Isolation has real costs that should not be minimized. Its effects spill over onto family and friends. It heightens stress and hampers decision making. It even appears to adversely affect the bottom line.
David Gumpert & David Boyd (Source: Harvard business review, 1984)
In their groundbreaking study, Gumpert and Boyd explored the emotional toll that entrepreneurship can have, specifically focusing on the effects of loneliness. They discovered that entrepreneurs were experiencing high levels of loneliness and stress. These feelings were not only emotionally draining, but they also adversely affected the decision-making capabilities of these entrepreneurs, leading to sub-optimal business decisions.
Gumpert and Boyd’s study also brought to light the hidden mental health risks associated with entrepreneurship. It highlighted the importance of social support and interpersonal connections for entrepreneurs, a group that often works in isolation and carries significant responsibility and pressure. It emphasizes the need for entrepreneurs to acknowledge these challenges and seek help to mitigate these risks.
The Example: Ryan Caldbeck (CircleUp)
Take Ryan Caldbeck’s case, for instance. Caldbeck, the CEO and Co-founder of CircleUp, publicly shared his mental health struggles due to the immense pressures of entrepreneurship. After years of keeping his struggles to himself, Caldbeck decided to step down as CEO and speak up about his experiences. His transparency sparked a broader conversation about mental health in the entrepreneurial world.
There were stretches of time where I felt horrible — lonely; terrified; depressed. Depression exacerbates exhaustion. But I tried to put on a brave face to make sure the board felt comfortable.
Ryan Caldbeck – CIrcleup (Source: Transitions)
Balancing the demands of his business while simultaneously grappling with severe health issues (cancer diagnostic and fertility issues) took a significant toll on Caldback. To be sure, these are extreme circumstances.
However, as he retrospectively reflects on his experiences, Calbeck identifies the exacerbation of his struggles not merely as a result of “bad luck” but as a consequence of ignoring the warning signs. Despite facing multiple challenges at once—a common occurrence for long-standing entrepreneurs—Caldbeck highlights the importance of seeking help sooner.
He candidly acknowledges that his journey could have been less strenuous had he reached out and leaned on a broader team for support during the toughest periods. His story underscores the necessity for entrepreneurs to be vigilant about their mental health and not hesitate to share their burdens with others. Why do so many entrepreneurs struggle with asking for help sooner?
The Source: Low Need For Succorance
The concept of “succorance” is a psychological term referring to the need for care, understanding, and support. Entrepreneurship researchers have long established that entrepreneurs have a low need for succorance. They’re often driven, independent, and less likely to seek help when they’re struggling. This can create an internal conflict, as the challenges of entrepreneurship often require support and understanding from others.
The entrepreneur may find it difficult to communicate with associates, subordinates, family, or friends. […] This inability to relate to others psychologically manifests itself as loneliness.
Donald Sexton & Nancy Bowman (Source: Journal of business Venturing, 1985)
The low need for support, sympathy, reassurance, or advice may create a vicious circle alienating entrepreneurs from their close family and friends, leading to more loneliness. Entrepreneurs can sometimes appear detached emotionally. Understanding and sympathizing with the problems of others can be a challenge for them. As a result, they might come across as emotionally indifferent to those around them. This lack of emotional connectivity can lead to feelings of isolation. They push away the very people best positioned to help them.
The Solution: Building An Active Support Network
Entrepreneurs must therefore actively build and utilize a support network. Close family members and friends often serve as the first line of support. Mentors and trusted advisors can provide insights and advice. If such support is not enough, or not available, turning to external networks of fellow entrepreneurs or professional mental health services can be highly beneficial. These networks serve as a safe space to share experiences, gain advice, and receive the emotional support needed to navigate the often tumultuous entrepreneurial journey.
Too many people are afraid to admit to their personal frailties. Getting a coach or forming a group helps founders share self-doubt. But it has to be people outside the company.
Mark suster – Upfront ventures (Source: TEchcrunch)
Mark Suster, a successful entrepreneur and venture capitalist, highlights the importance of peer support networks. In a Techcrunch interview almost a decade old, he mentioned being involved in a group of eight members meeting regularly with the guidance of a facilitator. The unique aspect of these meetings is the prohibition of work-related discussions, encouraging members to share personal issues instead. According to Suster, this resulted in frank and meaningful discussions about divorce, aging parents, infidelity, and other challenging life experiences. The atmosphere of openness and non-judgment, along with strict adherence to confidentiality, facilitated a sense of relief and provided valuable insights for the members.
Suster insists on the fact that even successful entrepreneurs have dark days and are regularly beset by self-doubt. However, he warns that they should seek help from outside the company, as opening up to the staff about self-doubt may backfire and foster worry about their job security. This in turn could potentially affect productivity and morale. Suster’s advice to maintain a balanced emotional disclosure in the professional setting, while seeking support externally, shows a nuanced understanding of leadership dynamics, which is underpinned by research in psychology.
#2. Maintaining a Separate Identity
The Problem: Over-Identification
Entrepreneurs often pour their heart and soul into their businesses, which can lead to a dangerous over-identification with their companies. Their business’s success or failure isn’t just a measure of their professional performance but becomes a direct reflection of their personal worth. This over-identification can have severe consequences.
What annilihates us is attaching our self-esteem to the achievement of a goal, and then failing to achieve the goal.
Jerry Colonna – REboot (Source: 20VC)
When progress stalls, or the business fails, these entrepreneurs can find themselves in deep personal crisis, feeling a profound sense of failure. The setback is not only professional. It feels like a judgment on their identity and value as individuals.
The psychological distress can be immense, potentially triggering or exacerbating mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. The situation can spiral, creating a feedback loop where their emotional state further hampers their ability to perform and make sound business decisions. Such over-identification can spill into other aspects of the entrepreneur’s life, straining personal relationships and eroding overall life satisfaction.
The Example: Tracy Lawrence (Chewse)
Tracy Lawrence, the former CEO and co-founder of Chewse, offers a poignant illustration of the dangers of identifying too closely with one’s company. Lawrence built her company from a personal pain point of her childhood. In a recent 20VC podcast, she explains how she was forced to take her lunches in the school’s bathroom to avoid bullying as a child. When she became an entrepreneur, she chose to launch a company helping colleagues have lunch together. Chewse’s original mission is directly linked to Lawrence’s childhood experience of isolation.
My identity was in the revenue line.
Tracy Lawrence – Chewse (Source: 20VC)
It is not rare for Founders to create a company answering a need they felt earlier in life. In fact, caring about the mission and having a strong internal drive are often necessary to surmount the obstacles every entrepreneur meets on the path to success. However, Tracy Lawrence took it a step too far. The profound connection to her business’s mission caused her to tie her identity inseparably with her company’s success. Even the company’s name, Chewse, is based on Lawrence’s childhood nickname; “Chewish”—a contraction of Chinese and Jew.
Lawrence talks about pushing herself to extremes, depriving herself of a personal life and constantly striving for more. This intense pressure and self-identification with her company led to depression, burnout, and a persistent sense of failure. Only after selling her company and undertaking intensive therapy did she begin to heal her relationship with work and her personal life.
The Source: Entrepreneurial Passion
Why do some entrepreneurs over-identify with their companies? Psychologists find a relationship with entrepreneurial passion, defined as the intense positive emotion entrepreneurs feel when they engage in certain activities—in particular, tasks aligned with how they view themselves, also called their self-concept. Researchers found that there are three main roles entrepreneurs take:
- Inventor: identifying, inventing, and exploring new opportunities
- Founder: establishing a venture for commercializing and exploiting opportunities
- Developer: nurturing, growing, and expanding the venture once it has been created
How are these roles defined? The self-concept stems from the perception that one has of oneself, a mental model that represents our beliefs, ideas, and characteristics. It is influenced by key factors such as personal experiences, social interactions, cultural norms, temperament, and affiliations (social, political, religious, etc.).
For entrepreneurs, their businesses are a culmination of their dreams, efforts, experiences, and personal abilities. It is an entity that they’ve nurtured from the ground up, much like a child. As a result, they may see their entrepreneurial role and the success of their venture as a significant part of their self-concept.
Entrepreneurial passion for activities associated with a particular identity will lead to a greater goal commitment, resulting in higher levels of creative problem solving and higher levels of persistence.
Cardon, Wincent, Singh, & Drnovsek (Source: Academy of management Review, 2009)
The outcomes of entrepreneurial passion can be both positive and negative. On the positive side, passion can serve as a key driver of creativity, determination, and resilience, essential traits for success in the challenging entrepreneurial journey.
On the flip side, when entrepreneurs’ identities become excessively intertwined with their businesses, they blur the boundary between personal and professional lives, leading to work-life imbalance, stress, and burnout. Entrepreneurs can become overly attached to their ventures, making it difficult for them to make objective decisions, leading to potential business failure.
The Solution: Detach Happiness From Performance Milestones
Maintaining a personal identity separate from the entrepreneurial role is crucial for mental well-being and long-term success. Entrepreneurs can benefit from developing hobbies, interests, and relationships outside their work. Such pursuits can offer a sense of accomplishment and personal worth that is independent of business success. Additionally, setting clear boundaries between work and personal life can help reduce the risk of burnout (see point #4 below) and keep the sense of self from being completely consumed by the business.
There is no correlation between happiness and achieving a milestone.
Brad feld – Foundry Group (Source: 20VC)
Entrepreneurs might also benefit from regular self-reflection and mindfulness practices, which can foster a broader self-concept that encompasses more than just the entrepreneurial role. Seeking professional mental health support, such as counseling or therapy, can be highly beneficial in managing the mental health challenges associated with entrepreneurship.
The aim is to separate one’s self-identity from the unpredictable ups and downs of startup life—a wild emotional ride that impacts even the most detached entrepreneurs. Given that entrepreneurial passion often appears crucial to success, it is a delicate balance to strike.
Help me better understand how entrepreneurs manage their stress and preserve their mental health. Participate in my study underpinned by four years of academic research for my Doctorate in Business Administration. Please click here to access the survey.
#3. Revisiting The Goals
The Problem: Setting Unrealistic Goals
Entrepreneurship often involves setting lofty goals to disrupt industries and create substantial value. But what happens when these goals are unrealistically high? Most startups do not hit their projections, but the successful ones grow through a series of “experiments”, each testing a different assumption. The journey involves a series of ups and downs as risks are mitigated over time. One reason Lean Startup is so successful is that it encompasses the methodology to revisit goals based on market feedback and customer adoption.
Unlike the stories in the popular press, entrepreneurs who build successful companies don’t get it right the first time.
Steve Blank – STanford (Source: steveblank.com)
When Founders set unrealistic goals that they don’t meet, they create stress, fueled by feelings of failure, potentially leading to depression and burnout. This strain on mental health can also cause decreased productivity, poor decision-making, and tension within the team, potentially jeopardizing the business.
The Case Study: Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos)
Elizabeth Holmes, the Founder of Theranos, serves as a notorious example of setting unrealistically high expectations. Her aspiration was to revolutionize the healthcare industry with a device that could perform multiple tests with just a few drops of blood. However, these expectations were far from the technological and scientific realities. This misalignment led to an escalation of commitment, driving the company to forge test results to meet these expectations.
How do Founders know if they are on the brink of success or just on the flat part of the hockey stick? If they have been goofing off for a year, or, more likely, if they’re just executing a bad plan?
ERic ries – The Lean startup (Source: talks at google)
Although this is an extreme case—where Holmes, who battled other mental struggles, ended up with a criminal conviction—it underscores the dangers of overambitious goals. Many entrepreneurs, inspired by the ‘hockey stick’ curve of startup financial projections, set high expectations for their startups and struggle to back down and temper these goals with reality.
The Source: Failure-Avoiding Perfectionism
Perfectionism, when channeled correctly, is often praised in entrepreneurship. It’s seen as a trait that pushes boundaries and fosters innovation. Take Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, for example. Steve Jobs, co-Founder of Apple, was notorious for his meticulous attention to detail and relentless pursuit of perfection. His obsession with even the most minute details—from the aesthetics of the iPhone to the layout of the Apple store—set new industry standards and contributed to Apple’s groundbreaking success.
Similarly, Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, is known for his uncompromising vision and quest for perfection. His audacious goals, such as making humans a multi-planetary species and revolutionizing transportation with electric vehicles, embody this drive for perfection.
Both these iconic entrepreneurs exemplify how a perfectionist mentality can lead to extraordinary innovation and success. However, while their pursuit of excellence yielded phenomenal results, it was not without personal and professional challenges and stresses.
The overconcern for mistakes […] leads perfectionists to strive for their goals by a fear of failure rather than a need for achievement.
Frost, Marten, lahart, & rosenblate (Source: Cognitive therapy and research, 1990)
Psychologists recognize two types of perfectionism: excellence-seeking and failure-avoiding. While the former can motivate individuals to strive for success, the latter often manifests as a fear of failure. This fear can lead entrepreneurs to set and strive for unattainable goals, believing anything short of these goals equates to failure. This kind of perfectionism is corrosive to mental health, resulting in heightened stress, anxiety, and potential burnout.
For every Steve Job-type of entrepreneur leveraging excellence-seeking perfectionism, how many other Founders are crippled by research for perfection preventing them from launching their products? One of the main teachings of the product-market fit mantra is that successful startups don’t launch perfect products, but products that are “good enough” for customers who are desperately in need of them.
The Solution: Adjusting The Goals
To avoid the dangers of unrealistic expectations, entrepreneurs should set achievable goals and celebrate small wins along the journey. This can help to foster a sense of progress and motivation, rather than anxiety and stress. Startups could benefit from adopting a growth mindset that embraces learning from failures but also from successes and adjusts goals accordingly.
By managing expectations, entrepreneurs can strive for success without sacrificing their mental well-being. Ultimately, entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint, and preserving mental health is key to staying in the game.
In my doctoral dissertation, I propose that goal management can help turn rumination, generally defined as the prolonged activation of negative thoughts, into a problem-solving force. In doing so, entrepreneurs who face a lack of progress resort to creative thinking, rather than being stymied by meta-thoughts such as “I’m not reaching my goals, therefore I am a failure”. The path starts with an honest appraisal of one’s goals in entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurs must be explicit about their personal goals. And they must periodically ask themselves if those goals have changed.
AMAR Bhide (Source: Harvard Business REview, 1996)
Many Founders have been led astray by glamorous media portrayals of entrepreneurship that emphasize raising funds and rapid growth, often neglecting the grittier side of the story: relentless work, personal sacrifices, and intense stress. I have trained and mentored hundreds of entrepreneurs over the years, and always ask them why they chose this path. Many tell me about their quest for autonomy, seeing the result of their work, and having a shot at changing their lives.
Throughout our sessions together, there’s often a turning point when they realize that the ‘go big or go home’ game isn’t for them. An eye-opening reference here is the Amar Bhidé article “The Questions Every Entrepreneur Must Answer.” Its main premise is that entrepreneurs must clearly define their ambitions and adjust their strategies accordingly.
I always tell entrepreneurs I work with that I’m a proud lifestyle entrepreneur, which doesn’t mean I don’t work long hours (I wish!), but my work is at the service of my life goals, which are to meet interesting people, create stimulating research, minimize stress, and work around a flexible work schedule to accommodate family life. Only 1% of startups created every year raise Venture Capital money. There are 99% other ways of being an entrepreneur that aligns with one’s values and life objectives.
#4. Reevaluating Job Fit & Beliefs
The Problem: Burnout
In recent decades, entrepreneurs have come to be perceived as modern heroes impervious to pain. Heroes of our times, bravely venturing into the unknown, turning innovative ideas into reality, and driving economic growth. However, as I note in my published article, “Entrepreneurs’ Stress And Mental Health: New Guidelines For Future Research,” even heroes have their weaknesses. Think of Achilles’ heel or Superman’s vulnerability to kryptonite. Entrepreneurs, too, have their own ‘kryptonite’: their lifestyle and the job’s unique characteristics, which may lead to burnout.
Recent research paints a worrying picture. A 2018 study found that among a sample of U.S. entrepreneurs, a whopping 25% felt moderately burned out, while another 3% were strongly burned out. Entrepreneurs tend to downplay its symptoms, wrongly believing that they can “grit it out”. How many of them are struggling with a condition that leaves them feeling drained, helpless, and disillusioned?
People entered a job with positive expectations, enthusiasm, and the goal to be successful. Over time, things changed—and now people have a deep sense of exhaustion; feelings of frustration, anger, and cynicism; and a sense of ineffectiveness and failure. The initial flame has burned out.
Christina Maslach & Michael Leiter (Source: Understanding Burnout, 2017)
Burnout is not just fatigue, but a severe condition that some researchers call “depression at work”. It is characterized by emotional exhaustion, cynicism (detachment from the job), and reduced professional efficacy. It is like running a never-ending marathon with no finish line in sight, where the runner is constantly chasing deadlines, managing dwindling resources, and dealing with the pressure to perform. The race may leave even the most resilient entrepreneurs feeling drained, both physically and emotionally. Burnout is too often misunderstood and downplayed in entrepreneurial contexts, including by stakeholders such as Venture Capitalists, who often fail to realize how much pressure they put on Founders.
Ryan Caldbeck’s story, whose struggles we discussed earlier, served as a wake-up call for the entrepreneurial community. Caldbeck’s candid account of his experiences spurred a larger discussion about mental health in the world of startups and paved the way for others to share their experiences. The stories that have since emerged highlight just how pervasive and damaging burnout can be for entrepreneurs.
The Case Study: Arianna Huffington
Another case that brings to light the reality of entrepreneurial burnout is that of Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post and a highly successful and influential entrepreneur. In 2007, Huffington collapsed from exhaustion in her home office, hitting her head on her desk, breaking her cheekbone, and requiring five stitches above her eye. In the aftermath of this personal crisis, she had to confront the reality of her unsustainable work habits, smartphone addiction, sleep deprivation, and workaholism.
I knew my sleep deprivation was directly connected to my addiction to my phone—it was an addiction—and to my flawed definition of success.
ARianna Huffington (Source: Business insider)
This incident became a turning point for Huffington, sparking an epiphany about the high costs of success at any price. Her experience with burnout led her to explore and advocate for a more balanced definition of success.
Huffington took a break from work, and started to focus on her health and well-being. She started meditating, she went to therapy, and she started to eat healthier. She also started to take micro-steps, which are small, incremental changes that can help you to improve your life. In true entrepreneurial fashion, she even built a business around it, Thrive Global.
The Source: Lack of Job Fit and Misguided Destiny Beliefs
One striking finding from my doctoral research is that academic scholars do not agree on the antecedents of burnout. In fact, they also disagree on how burnout develops over time. Some researchers believe that emotional exhaustion is the first of the three elements of burnout to appear, while others put detachment or reduced efficacy first. Emerging entrepreneurship research suggests that two critical factors significantly influence burnout: entrepreneurs’ perceived job fit and destiny beliefs.
Job fit is about the compatibility between the person and their job, their ability to meet the job requirements, values, and needs. Unique characteristics of the entrepreneurial context, such as the autonomy to define job demands, led psychologists to use a wider definition of entrepreneurial job fit. A recent study conducted by Eva de Mol, a Dutch researcher who is now a Venture Capitalist, defined entrepreneurial job fit as “the extent to which one’s current job matches his or her ideal job”. de Mol and colleagues measured job fit across a sample of over 300 entrepreneurs with questions such as “My current job is as close to ideal as I ever expect to find.” Prior research has found that job fit is generally positively related to job satisfaction: the more a person perceives they have what it takes to do their job, the more likely they are to be happy at work and in life.
We expect job fit to directly predict work and life satisfaction.
Jeni burnette & jeffrey pollack (source: basic and applied psychology, 2013)
Burnette and Pollack went further and analyzed the interaction between job fit and another concept called “destiny beliefs”.
Destiny beliefs refer to the perception that success is destined, that it was “meant to be”—or not to be, explaining failure. Entrepreneurs who hold destiny beliefs tend to perceive their personal attributes as fixed and unchangeable. In contrast, those who hold “growth beliefs” are more open to the idea that success is built over time. Entrepreneurs who subscribe to destiny beliefs might be setting themselves up for burnout. These entrepreneurs, viewing their success as a predetermined fact, may experience significant emotional strain when they encounter the inevitable hurdles of entrepreneurship. The dissonance between their expectations—ingrained in their destiny beliefs—and the harsh realities of business can induce them to question their entrepreneurial identity. This mismatch poses a significant psychological burden, exacerbating the risk of burnout.
I explain in the next section how these notions of job fit and destiny belief interact with burnout, mediated by passion.
The Solution: Find Harmonious Passion
Avoiding Burnout Is Not Just About Taking A Vacation
The most recognizable symptom of burnout is physical and psychological fatigue. Psychologists refer to the latter as emotional exhaustion, which is one of the three components of the burnout syndrome. Therefore, entrepreneurs might intuitively believe that a break or rest could resolve their feelings of burnout. However, as much as resting may provide a temporary relief, the underlying issues often persist. Addressing burnout requires a more comprehensive approach that goes beyond mere physical rest and delves into the emotional and psychological aspects of entrepreneurial work.
Going on vacation can help. But when you come back, the situation is the same.
Eurie kim – forerunner ventures (source: youtube)
As Forerunner Ventures’ Eurie Kim pointedly explains in a recent conversation, stepping away for a vacation might momentarily lighten the emotional load, but upon return, the unresolved issues remain. Kim provides a compelling analogy comparing the burnout experience to a scale in imbalance. The weight of the challenges and responsibilities doesn’t disappear simply by trying to lighten one’s load. To restore balance, it’s not just about removing weights from the burdened side but adding counterweights on the other end. These counterweights might come in the form of hiring skilled team members to distribute the workload, reassessing job fit, and revisiting the entrepreneurial strategy.
However, this is not just about adding physical resources, but also psychological ones. Entrepreneurs, like anyone else, need to foster resilience, nurture their mental well-being, and find ways to recharge their emotional batteries. Only by addressing these issues on a deep, foundational level can entrepreneurs hope to truly overcome the risk of burnout and achieve a healthier, more sustainable form of entrepreneurial success.
Let’s dive deeper into the antecedents mentioned before, job fit and destiny beliefs, and understand how they relate to burnout. Recent research suggests that how entrepreneurs perceive their fit with their job’s requirements, and how flexible their mindset is, strongly influences the kind of entrepreneurial passion they feel—which in turn may protect them from, or on the contrary, precipitate them towards, burnout.
Two Kinds of Passion
I mentioned entrepreneurial passion before, in the context of over-identification with the company. Like many psychological concepts, passion is a complex construct. It can be divided between harmonious and obsessive passion.
Harmonious Passion refers to a strong desire to engage in an activity that one likes, finds important, and in which one invests time and energy, all while maintaining a sense of volition and control. When an entrepreneur has harmonious passion, they are fully engaged in their work because they love what they do, but they can also disengage when necessary. It promotes a healthy work-life balance and supports psychological well-being. For example, an entrepreneur with harmonious passion might love the process of creating a new product or service and feel fulfilled by their work, but they also maintain interests and commitments outside of their business.
Obsessive Passion arises when an activity becomes overbearing and takes disproportionate space in a person’s identity and life, to the point where it can interfere with other aspects of their lives and cause conflict. This type of passion involves a sense of compulsion and an inability to disengage from the activity, even when it might be harmful or detrimental to one’s health or personal relationships. In the context of entrepreneurship, an entrepreneur with obsessive passion might be so consumed with their startup that they neglect other areas of their life, like family, friends, or personal health. This could manifest in long working hours, inability to switch off, and disregarding other personal needs or relationships.
Job fit, passion, mindset, and burnout are inextricably linked. Understanding that passion is a double-edged sword can help entrepreneurs monitor their motivations and work behavior and can prevent burnout from hurting their careers.
Eva de mol, jeffrey pollack, violet ho (Source: HArvard business review, 2018)
de Mol and colleagues, in the study mentioned before, found that harmonious and obsessive passion played a significant role in the burnout process:
- Entrepreneurs who believe that their skills and values are in alignment with their job tend to exhibit harmonious passion. This type of passion, which is characterized by a healthy engagement with work, can actually protect them from experiencing burnout.
- On the other hand, entrepreneurs who strongly believe in destiny, viewing their life’s outcomes as pre-determined, are more likely to experience obsessive passion, particularly when they perceive their job as a perfect fit. This kind of passion, characterized by an inability to disengage from work, increases their susceptibility to burnout.
Assessing Job Fit and Being Flexible
Avoiding burnout necessitates a proactive approach. Entrepreneurs are encouraged to foster harmonious passion by cultivating a strong alignment between their values, skills, and work. They should maintain an open mindset about their path, recognizing that success in entrepreneurship can be a winding road rather than a pre-ordained straight line.
Furthermore, being honest about the job fit is critical. If the entrepreneurial role does not align with one’s values and abilities, taking steps to adjust the job, considering partnerships or delegations, or even pivoting to a different venture can be a healthier choice.
Lastly, adopting good self-care practices such as regular breaks, exercise, and maintaining a balanced lifestyle can help manage stress and maintain resilience. It’s worth keeping in mind that seeking professional help, such as coaching or therapy, is not a sign of weakness but a proactive step towards better mental health and ultimately, better business performance.
#5. Quitting Before It’s Too Late
The Problem: Persistence
In entrepreneurship, persistence is often touted as a cardinal virtue. The ability to remain committed, weather setbacks, and relentlessly pursue one’s vision is admired and encouraged. Countless success stories narrate tales of entrepreneurs who prevailed against overwhelming odds, reinforcing the narrative that persistence pays. Many successful startups go through “near-death experiences”; their founders’ ability to keep trying is a critical element of their eventual success. Pitch experts recommend entrepreneurs paint a clear picture of their grit, anchored in a (sain) obsession to make the vision a reality, when they present their startups to Investors.
Consider the case of Brian Chesky, co-Founder and CEO of Airbnb. Faced with severe adversity during the company’s early days, Chesky exemplified remarkable persistence. In a recent speech, he recollected the time when Airbnb, then known as “Airbedandbreakfast,” faced potential bankruptcy due to a lack of external funding. Despite being rejected by twenty venture capitalists, Chesky and his co-founders didn’t abandon their enterprise. Ingeniously, they raised funds by selling themed cereal boxes at the 2008 Democratic and Republican national conventions, which helped the company stay afloat. This story is a testament to the power of perseverance and the importance of never giving up on one’s goals.
Persistence was my superpower. But now I’ve now come to understand that persistence is a double-edged sword, and my decision not to take a break, to not take more off my plate, hurt me, my family and the company. That was the biggest mistake of my career.
Ryan Caldbeck – CIrcleup (Source: Transitions)
However, this same persistence can become a double-edged sword. Entrepreneurs, spurred by the belief that struggle is a part of their journey, might continue to toil even when it’s causing them profound distress. The assumption that suffering is normal can prevent them from acknowledging burnout and taking necessary actions to mitigate it.
The Example: Julie & Patrick
While Ryan Caldeck’s story provides ample evidence for the dangers of persistence, I chose to illustrate the point with another example from my experience with a pair of entrepreneurs I mentored until last year, “Julie” and “Patrick” (their names were changed to preserve their anonymity).
Julie and Patrick met through friends at a point in their lives when they wanted to shift their career direction. They shared a passion for food and a dream of starting their own business. They started small, but they quickly gained traction. Within a few months, they have booming sales with specialized retail chains. They raised a seed round of funding and used the money to expand their operations.
Things were going well for Julie and Patrick. They were growing their business and making a name for themselves. But then, the problems started. The long commercial cycle in the food industry started to take its toll. It took over a year to convince a new retailer to test their product in a selection of shops. When they finally signed a new distribution contract, they had to build a lot of inventory to face potential demand. This put a strain on their finances.
In addition, they were having trouble raising their Series A round of funding. Investors were concerned about the long commercial cycles and the promising, but low inventory turnover. As the problems mounted, Julie and Patrick started to feel the pressure. They were working long hours and they were constantly stressed.
A few months later, after a failed attempt at a fire sale to a competitor, Patrick had to close the company. By that point, he couldn’t pay his rent and started staying at his friends’ apartments. Some nights, he had to sleep in his car—which he eventually had to sell for cash. It took him a long time to recover from the experience.
Julie and Patrick’s story is a cautionary tale about the dangers of perseverance. It is a story that is all too common among entrepreneurs but not often put forward in the media.
The Sources: Sunk Cost Fallacy, Loss Aversion, And Social Pressure
I do not believe there is only one source explaining persistence, but recent research has linked it with other psychological concepts such as sunk cost fallacy, loss aversion, and social pressure. The University of Chicago Economist explained in a recent podcast why people keep doing things despite failing at them:
- Sunk Cost Fallacy refers to the tendency for people to continue investing in something because they’ve already invested a lot, and they don’t want that investment to have been in vain. In other words, they erroneously treat the costs they’ve incurred in the past as relevant to the decisions they make about the future. For entrepreneurs, the sunk cost fallacy could make them hold onto failing ventures longer than they should, because they’ve already invested so much time, energy, and money into them.
- Loss Aversion. This concept from behavioral economics suggests that people feel the pain of losing something more intensely than the pleasure of gaining something of equal value. In the entrepreneurial context, this could lead entrepreneurs to persist with their ventures, even when the objective data might suggest it’s better to quit. They fear the loss of their current position more than the potential gain from a new one, such as taking a salaried job.
- Social Pressure is the influence that a group or an individual can exert on others to change their attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors. Entrepreneurs often work in social environments where there is a strong culture of persistence, and stories of successful entrepreneurs who persisted in the face of adversity are often glorified. This social pressure can push entrepreneurs to continue with their ventures, even when the objective evidence might suggest that it would be better to quit and move on to a different project.
True toughness means working through pain. Everyone knows that.
Captain Raymond Holt – BrooklYN Nine-NINE
Ironically, the same biases are present in Venture Capitalists’ actions, especially when they decide to reinvest to keep a struggling portfolio company afloat.
The Solution: Pivot or Quit
Pivot: The Business or The Entrepreneur
The term ‘pivot’ became popularized in the startup world largely due to the Lean Startup movement, led by entrepreneur and author Eric Ries. In his book, “The Lean Startup,” Ries encourages startups to build a minimum viable product (MVP), measure how it does in the market, and then learn from that experience. If the MVP doesn’t achieve the desired results, startups are encouraged to pivot based on what they’ve learned, rather than continuing to invest in a product or service that isn’t working. This approach aims to reduce waste, increase startup speed, and allow entrepreneurs to build products that customers truly want.
A well-known example of a successful pivot is Slack, which started as a gaming company named Tiny Speck before becoming the popular team collaboration tool we know today. The gaming venture didn’t work out, but the internal tool they built for communication proved valuable, leading to a pivot.
Entrepreneurs who are confronted with a persistent lack of progress may borrow a page from the lean startup movement—a move that is often poorly executed or delayed too long. These principles can also apply to entrepreneurs personally, leading to a shift in their role within the company. Founders can step down from the CEO position, as demonstrated by Ryan Caldbeck or as contemplated by Stan’s CEO in the board meeting reference earlier.
Quitting May Be The Best Opportunity
Another option that does not get enough attention is quitting. John List frames the decision to quit something we feel passionate about using the opportunity cost theory.
Opportunity cost is a fundamental concept in economics that refers to the potential benefits or opportunities an individual gives up when choosing one alternative over another. In the context of entrepreneurship, opportunity cost can represent the personal and professional growth opportunities, income, work-life balance, or even mental health benefits that an entrepreneur might be missing out on by staying with a venture that is not working.
When the going gets tough, evaluating the opportunity cost can provide a fresh perspective on the current situation. If the cost of continuing in the current venture outweighs the potential benefits of exploring new opportunities, this could be a sign that it might be time to make a change. For instance, an entrepreneur could potentially thrive in a different industry, role, or company, or even outside of the business world, bringing in more personal satisfaction and growth.
Quit or get rich.
Paul graham – Y Combinator (Source: 20VC)
Understanding and assessing these opportunity costs can help entrepreneurs make a more informed decision about whether to persist or quit. It can encourage them to detach themselves from the emotional investment in their venture and view the situation more objectively, which can be a crucial step toward deciding to quit before it’s too late.
List recommends asking oneself a series of questions: Am I still passionate about this? Am I making progress? Am I happy? Am I reaching my goals? If the answer to any of these questions is no, then it might be time to quit.
Another recommendation is to act in a thoughtful and deliberate way:
- Set a firm deadline will help them to avoid dragging out the decision and making it more difficult
- Tell people who are affected, including employees, shareholders, family and friends
- Having a plan will help to transition to a new job or situation
Quitting is not easy, but it can be the best decision in the long run. Entrepreneurs should remember that they are not alone. Many people have quit and gone on to find success in other areas of their lives.
Conclusion: tl;dr
When I embarked on my doctoral research on entrepreneurs’ stress and mental well-being years ago, I believed that entrepreneurship scholars across psychology, medicine, business, and management had uncovered many truths about this subject. In fact, I discovered that many areas remain in the shadows. It is the topic of the first paper I published, Entrepreneurs’ stress and mental health: new guidelines for future research.
What I’ve discussed here—the entrepreneurial job fit, the role of passion, the experience of burnout, the propensity to persist, and the struggle with quitting—are just facets of this complex issue. It’s essential to remember that entrepreneurs are varied, and generalizing on their psychological traits is a challenging venture. As William Gartner, a prominent entrepreneurship scholar, suggests, asking “Who is an entrepreneur?” might lead us down the wrong path. Instead, understanding what entrepreneurs do and the tasks they undertake can provide a more meaningful picture of their mental health challenges.
The risks and challenges associated with entrepreneurial activities make this profession unique and incredibly demanding. This is not a call to eliminate these factors but rather to understand, acknowledge, and manage them in a way that supports both the entrepreneurial journey and the mental well-being of the entrepreneur. In fact, many of the personality traits mentioned here, such as persistence, perfectionism, and passion, contribute to entrepreneurs’ success. It’s what makes them so difficult to avoid.
These insights underscore the pressing need for continued research and candid conversations surrounding entrepreneurs’ mental health. If you are an entrepreneur or closely connected to one, your participation in our questionnaire can immensely contribute to expanding our understanding of this critical yet often overlooked aspect. By sharing and responding to the survey, you’re helping to illuminate the nuances of this crucial topic and make a tangible impact on the entrepreneurial community.
Help me better understand how entrepreneurs manage their stress and preserve their mental health. Participate in my study underpinned by four years of academic research for my Doctorate in Business Administration. Please click here to access the survey.
