Entrepreneurial Depression is a 'thing'

Entrepreneurial depression is a 'thing'.

I met a client the other day and she said something profound.

“I have entrepreneurial depression.”

It got me thinking ….. is it just this client or do other businesses owners feel this lost ?

So I did what I usually do - I googled

About 1,300,000 results in 0.50 seconds tells me that Entrepreneurial Depression is very real.

So I did a little more reading …..

The stats just got more and more revealing

“Depression was the highest-reported reported condition, being present in 30% of all entrepreneurs. ADHD (29%) and anxiety problems (27%) followed close by.” WOW

Well, well - it seems like owning your own business can be a health hazard and also turn you into the bouncy person in the office that does everyone’s head in….guilty as charged!

So rather than read on about all the symptoms and diagnosis I decided to reflect upon how I tackle those inevitable feelings of despair, dread, failure and defeat in my business.

I thought about how I think about getting out of bed each day to deal with difficult decisions in business and what I do to re invigorate my entrepreneur journey when I am staring into the abyss.

Here is what I came up with :

1. Don’t lose sight of the why

You created a business for a reason - you had a why

You set up shop, opened the doors and did it for a reason.

It may be money, lifestyle or Kudos - but it was the fire in your belly that got you started.

To move out of the dark - you need to see the light.

You can’t see that light if you don’t know what it is

2. So where did the why go ?

So now we know what the ‘why’ was - where did it go wrong ?

Did you make a decision that forced the ‘why’ to the background?

Did life creep up and get involved in your business dream ?

List the factors, reasons, the gut feel - the burning reason you get out of bed each morning and go to ‘work’ and what is changing how you feel about them .

3. Brainstorm what action you can take to get back your ‘why’.

So we know what the why is and where it went - let’s address changing, stopping , starting or banishing the factors that sent the ‘why’ to the wall.

Get out the butchers paper and draw the roadmap. It will define your action plan

4. Start the action

If it is a big list - break it down into bitesize pieces - make the goals and deadlines achievable.

5. Measure measure and measure some more

How do you know you have made change to the journey ?

Measure your progress - reflect on the list and strike off what is completed.

The real life example I can give you regarding Entrepreneurial Depression stems from a money perspective - of course !

If your business is not providing you what you need from a financial perspective - let’s analyse the figures.

Measure what is coming in, what is going out - where is the cash coming from ?

Do sales need to increase or do costs need to be cut.

Let’s make a budget - let’s document what it costs to run this business and how it measures up to the dream.

Discuss and analyse - your accountant and bookkeeper are invaluable here - they love the numbers and their job is to make sure that they tell a story - now it may not be the story you are hoping for BUT it will be a story you can change.

When I was a child, I loved those “Choose your own adventure” books - I loved that I had control of the ending - that I could re read and re choose the path and the ending if it didn't satisfy me.

I want my business to be like this - if I head down a path and it is not right - to have the strength and energy and guts to re invent the story.

Running a business, being an entrepreneur and chasing your dreams is not easy and there is a lot at stake - not least of which is your mental health.

Let’s make time to re discover our why and re invent the story so it is OUR adventure on OUR terms.

“Running a start-up is like chewing glass and staring into the abyss. After a while, you stop staring, but the glass chewing never ends.” Elon Musk

– Eating Glass and Starting Up [2015]