Entrepreneurship & Mental Health: 14 ways to prevent Founder Burnout

The World Economic Forum states that there is a mental health crisis in entrepreneurship. 

The no. 1 symptom of mental health problems in entrepreneurs is founder burnout. 

Here are 14 ways to help prevent founder burnout. 

I'm Priscilla Shumba, your host. I'm a SmallBusiness Media Consultant, and Author.
I'm also a wife and mom of 2.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] The mental health of an entrepreneur is closely linked to: 1. Our ability to handle stress,2. Our ability to handle failure, and 3. Our ability to handle rejection. As we approach 10/10/2020, World Mental Health Day, let's make sure that we're making our mental health a priority.

[00:00:21] Welcome to Reinventing Perspectives, the show that's all about wealth creation through a What Would Jesus Do?(WWJD) lens.If you're an entrepreneur and you love Jesus, then this is the place for you. We are going to be looking at eternal principles to inspire us to the next level where we create wealth and make an impact. Are you ready for the power of a kingdom perspective? Without wasting any more time, let's get to it.

[00:00:44] Thank you again for listening in. I'm your host, Priscilla Shumba, and today's episode is about entrepreneurship and mental health. I will share 14 ways that you can use to prevent founder burnout. As we approach World Mental Health Day, it's important that we make our mental health a priority.

[00:01:01] Studies have found that entrepreneurs suffer from mental health illnesses at a higher rate than the general public. Why is this? Well, it turns out that the same characteristics that drive an entrepreneur and help to make them successful also make them vulnerable to mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, addiction, and personality disorders. That obsession to succeed and the ability to drive through and to push through insurmountable obstacles to be a success can also lead to being imbalanced and to mental health illnesses. Tim Grover, trainer of Champions; he trains people like Michael Jordan and the late Kobe Bryant and other athletes like Dwayne Wade. And he says that a competitive individual, when left idle, is a recipe for a big problem.

[00:01:48] University of California, Berkeley and University of California San Francisco has a study that is titled, "Are Entrepreneurs Touched with Fire." In the study, they found that 49 percent of the entrepreneurs that they surveyed dealt with at least one mental illness. The World Economic Forum put out a statement, that there is a mental health crisis in entrepreneurship.

[00:02:09] The 1st way to prevent Founder burnout is making sure that as soon as you're able to, you hire someone else or you hire some people. Millionaire and entrepreneur Grant Cardone says, "The number one mistake in hiring is not hiring soon enough." As you're building a company, you start out by yourself and you're doing everything and you must do everything. That's the stage that we often call the chief everything officer. But as soon as you are able to, for your well-being and for your own mental health, because it's not easy to build a company, hire someone to help you with the tasks that don't need your touch. If someone else can do it just as well or even better in most cases. Hire someone else; hire someone to help you with the administrative duties, hire someone to help you with your social media, hire someone to help you with certain technical aspects of the business. Don't prolong the chief everything officer period. It's not good for your well being. 

[00:03:01] Number 2. Is find balance. Don't just be all about the business all the time and about nothing else. Too much of even a good thing becomes a bad thing. The Bible says, "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers." This is a 360 degree, a holistic prosperity. When you find someone to emulate, make sure that you find someone who's winning at life, not just winning in business, but a person who shows balance and is winning in the different aspects of their life and then emulate that person. Because if you do what they've done, you'll get what they got.

[00:03:38] Tip number 3 for preventing Founder burnout is don't make money your only pursuit. Define success for yourself. Write it down.  South African venture capitalist Vusi Thembakwayo says, "Success is personal." Write down what success would look like for you. That way, as your business gains momentum and you begin to make more money, you don't get swept away with the pursuit of money. But you remember what success would look like for yourself. Matthew 6:24 says, "Noone can serve two masters, either you will hate the one and love the other, or you'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." Money is merely a means to an end. We all need money for our missions.  As long as we don't make money the mission. The problem with money is that it's never enough. If you make money your pursuit, the moment you make the amount that you thought you would never make, you begin to want to go to the next level and to the next level. And that drive for more and more and more money. It breeds greed and prevents a person from finding peace and rest because greed is contrary to all that is good.

[00:04:42] Tip number 4 to prevent founders burnout is to remember that health is wealth. You cannot buy health, so prevention is better than cure. Maintaining our health should always be a priority. Invest in your health, invest in your mental health, because that's your life's vehicle. I remember watching a show about LeBron James. And it said that he spends one million dollars on maintaining his physical body and at first I thought one million dollars, that's pretty ridiculous. But then he went on to explain that his body is what allows him to make money. Therefore, it only makes sense that taking care of his body will allow him to earn more. And it's the same way with us, even though we're not athletes. Our mind, sanity, and mental well-being will allow us to take on entrepreneurial ventures. If we lose that, we won't be able to carry out anything. So that's just how important taking care of our mental well-being and taking care of our bodies is. 1 Corinthians 6: 19 - 20 says, "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? Who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. You are born of a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies." It doesn't matter how much money you make if you're too sick to enjoy it. It doesn't matter how much success you get if you're not well enough in your mind to enjoy and to have peace and to really thrive. I know as entrepreneurs we often stretch ourselves and a lot of times we take pride in stretching ourselves. But we have to remember to make sleep a priority, to make exercise a priority, and to make having fun a priority.

[00:06:14] Part of the joy of being an entrepreneur is doing something that you love because it reduces the stress when you're doing something that you love. And remember, it's hard to be creative when you're stressed. Managing stress is directly related to our ability to be a success because you can't be creative when you're stressed.

[00:06:31] Tip number 5 is unplug. Unplug from your social media,from checking the business matrix, unplug from the hustle for a certain time a week. I personally, on a Sunday, don't think about the business at all. I don't think about anything to do with business. I don't tweet. I don't check analytics. I don't look at numbers. I simply enjoy just being me. And I love what I do. But I also really, really look forward to my Sundays. I look forward to just being at rest. The truth is the world isn't going to fall apart if you take time to refresh and to have some restoration, and relax. In fact, after some refreshment and relaxing, you'll probably come back to your business more energized and more ready to take on new challenges and the challenges that exist already in your business. But you need to take a break. Block out some time every week where you are just doing nothing that has to do with work and just being yourself.

[00:07:29] Tip number 6, shoulder the responsibilities that you have with a great partner and a team. When you're looking for a partner, I can quite remember which entrepreneur said this (Warren Buffet), but they said when you're looking for a partner, you want a partner who is high energy, high intelligence, and high integrity. You also want a partner that's connected. Someone who is great, where you are weak so that you can focus your mental energy where it is most productive. And when you focus your mental energy in what you do best and get better at doing what you do best, it gives you energy and it also fuels your passion, which helps to relieve stress and it helps to make the journey enjoyable. Even if you're a solopreneur and you're not ready for a partner, make sure that you have a team. Everybody needs a team, whether it's a mentor, a coach and an adviser. You never ever want to isolate. You always want to have some kind of a support system.

[00:08:22] Tip number 7 is learn to manage risk. Take calculated risk. Don't fake it till you make it. Keeping up appearances on social media and #entrepreneuriallife can take a toll. Make sure that you're taking risks that are calculated and you're taking one solid step at a time. It doesn't matter how long the journey. Look, entrepreneurship is a journey. Nothing is going to happen overnight. And despite all the images of instant success and instant wealth, none of that is true. So humble yourself and take one solid step at a time. There's a debate about debt, whether there's good debt and there's bad debt. That's up to you to decide. But they say that bad debt is when you take up debt for consumption and good debt is when you take up debt for expansion.

[00:09:10] Ask yourself, does this debt pay for itself? Because being overloaded in debt is one of the reasons why founders burnout and experience a lot of anxiety. Personally, some people say, put all your money in the business and don't put any money into a home and don't put any money in anything else until the business has grown. But you have to look at yourself and how you respond to risk, how much risk it is that you're willing to take on. So maybe if you have a family and you're a family person, maybe you want to take risks that don't put your family in jeopardy for the sake of the well-being of your mental health and the well-being of your family if something goes wrong. Either way, it's something that you decide personally, because the less the risk, the less the reward.But you have to set the boundaries of how much risk is enough risk for you and for your personality and for your family set up.

[00:10:04]  Tip number 8 to preventing founders' burnout is know yourself. Really, really know yourself. How do you deal with anxiety? Is it better for you to be conservative in your approach to investment and money because you don't deal with anxiety very well? Trust your own instincts and be comfortable saying no. Philippians 4: 6 - 7 says, "Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." My personal spiritual practices, the more anxious I am, the more I pray because I really need that peace to be able to operate. When I'm too anxious, I can't get anything done. So as believers, these tools are available to us for us to access peace because God desires for us to prosper and Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace. So if you're lacking peace, go deeper and pray, pray and fast. Use all the tools that are there for the believer to get through this life and to get through it well. Mind you the origin of the word Wealth is well, we all need to be well.

[00:11:16] Tip number 9 is play the game without becoming a piece in the game. This is really, really important. Prioritize relationships over money. Undercover Billionaire star and founder Glenn Stearns says, "Approach business as a game. The most successful business people are gamers." What does he mean by this? Well, he said, when you approach business like a game, when people say no, you face rejection, you face failure. You should ask yourself how many more NO's to get to my YES. That's the attitude of a gamer. How many more No's; if I get a 'No' today. OK, how many more no's until I get to a yes. You are not the monopoly pieces. You are the person playing Monopoly. That's the perspective that Glenn Stern says we should always keep.

[00:12:00] Tip number 10, keep your feet on the ground. Always stay humble and be careful of chasing fantasies. The Bible says be sober. Work the land that is before you. Proverbs 28: 19 says, "Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies will have the full of poverty." As entrepreneurs there's so many people offering us this and offering us that; and telling us that if we put money into this they will show us how to do this. But we have to be careful and guard ourselves and guard our minds from chasing fantasies. A lot of times the best thing that you can do to move the needle in your business is to work what you're doing already and work it to the maximum. And when you've reached your end, seek the next level, but seek it from someone that you can see is at the next level that you are trying to get to.

[00:12:51] Tip number 11 be in today. Be in the moment, tomorrow has enough problems of its own. And that doesn't mean that we don't plan. It doesn't mean that we don't have a plan for tomorrow. What it does mean is that we're more invested in today, today. We're not in today, but our mind being in tomorrow. When we're in the moment, we're able to enjoy the fullness of today. And that helps because it prevents us from worrying about tomorrow. There are so many things that could go wrong tomorrow. But for today, let's do what we can do today and max out today. James 4: 13 - 15 says, "Now, listen, you say today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, if it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." This scripture is basically telling us that we don't know how long it is that we have. So being consumed about tomorrow, it's really a waste of time because we don't even know if we have tomorrow. We plan, but we're present in today and we're fully invested in making the best use and the most use of our today.And that's how we WIN.

[00:14:03] Tip number 12, avoid all negative thinking. Avoid even your own negative thinking. Avoid worrying and avoid complaining and avoid grumbling. Luke 12: 25 - 26 reads, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life. And since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?" Worrying breeds anxiety, anxiety breeds a mental breakdown. If we allow our worrying to have a life of its own, it will be our downfall.

[00:14:32] Tip number 13, separate yourself from the business. Separate your identity from the business. We all wear many hats in life. So the business is not you and you are not the business. The business is a separate entity. We are parents, siblings, spouses, friends, children, grandchildren. We wear so many hats in our lives that we have to remember that we are not just the business. The business is a part of what we do. And we're being used as vessels to make an impact through the business. Have a mental getaway, enjoy something that has nothing to do with business as one of your hats, enjoy hiking, enjoy cooking, do something else that gives you many other hats besides being a business owner.

[00:15:17] Tip number 14, have faith. Enjoy the process, embrace the process. Deal with all the uncertainty and all the difficulties by holding on to your faith. "Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen." That's Hebrews 11: 1. God has given us these visions, these dreams that we're creating and becoming. And all the hiccups and all the difficulties that we face in these pursuits. Let's always remember to go back to the one who gave us the dream, to the one who gave us the vision, because only he can have all the answers that we need.

[00:15:53] In commemoration of World Mental Health Day. If you are struggling, please, please find someone to talk to.

[00:16:00] If you got some nuggets out of today's episode, please do let us know how best to serve you better by joining the discussion on YouTube @ Reinventing Perspectives or drop a comment on our website, www.reinventingperspectives.com. 

[00:16:12] Until then, see you next episode.