Startup life is thrilling, yet incredibly exhausting on the founder. There comes a point where the thrill dries out and reality hits. What the founder once created as a solution to a worldly suddenly became a daunting unending stress test.
“I don’t know how long I can keep this up” said Omar.
“Keep what up?” I asked.
“This cycle of never ending stress and work. I am burning out soon.”
Omar’s case was familiar to me. He, like many founders, believed that their (or the company’s) worth and survivability in the market is tied to accomplishing a lot through hard work. While their good work ethic drives this behavior forward, it eventually depletes their clarity and ability to create long term solutions, innovations, and results.
Founders have a “can get ahead” attitude from the inception of their idea until it turns into a company . But the moment they hire people, that attitude turns into “can get ahead even at the expense of others/self”. This is a sign that they do not give time to developing their people and lose the clarity and focus required to stay on top of things. Which is why they burn out; they take on huge workload to justify their ability to succeed.
Narrative Audit: Who are you as a founder without burnout?
The opposite of burn out is not sustained energy; it’s collective growth and productivity.
Sustained energy takes the founder back to square one; the founder! Collective growth and productivity is a whole different game because it focuses on spreading the work load across talent while making the time to upskill them to deal with challenges better. Eventually, this creates room for the collective experience of what failure and success for the company looks like rather than the founder carrying the load on their shoulders.
To do so, founders can practice the following:
And that’s how you avoid burning out… By building your people up.
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