Many first time founders may experience bouts of depression during the developmental stages of their businesses – otherwise known as founder’s depression.
There is a lot at stake when starting a new business – an uncertain road with the potential for a lot of pitfalls – relying on trial and error for success. These concerns lead to inevitable feelings of apprehensiveness and uncertainty. For some entrepreneurs the line between work and leisure disappears when building a startup, with work worries intruding into time otherwise reserved for relaxation. If left unmanaged, situations like these can come to a point where work takes a noticeable toll on your physical and mental health.
Founders are often perceived to be successful and therefore happy, often forcing themselves to maintain this facade. Many founders may develop the mentality that their negative feelings are to be meekly accepted as a part of the inevitable startup stress – that if he can do it, I can do it too – leading them to bury their feelings of depression rather than hint at any notion of vulnerability. In reality, more entrepreneurs suffer from founder’s depression than one may realise due to the stigma against mental health issues, hence their reluctance to discuss their feelings.
Asian culture prioritizes how others perceive them as an accurate representation of their real self-worth, and view failure as synonymous to weakness. By admitting their anxieties, they are admitting to failure which in turn brings feelings of shame – “losing face”. On that premise, many Asian founders would be more likely to conceal feelings of depression in order to “save face” and prevent others from perceiving them and their businesses as failures.
Coping with founder’s depression is similar to coping with any form of negative emotion, and can be done by making simple changes to one’s daily routine and implementing healthier lifestyle choices.
- Set apart time for relaxation. Whilst it can be tempting to dive headfirst into a project and spend their waking hours with it until completion, it is important to give oneself time to forget about work, and destress. By dedicating time to relaxtion, one prevents overworking and therefore overstressing themselves by allowing themselves some time to focus on their wellbeing.
- Seek comfort in others. Founder’s depression is common amongst new entrepreneurs, and outsiders may have trouble understanding it. By talking to other founders, you may find similar worries amongst themselves and comfort in the fact that they are not alone in their battle whilst working to support each other.
- At JFDI.Asia, our belief is that entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be a lonely journey. Our community of mentors, founders and investors are constantly sharing stories about failure and how they found success in the end. This is the key reason why most of our teams decided to participate in our Accelerate program. (Read: Why TradeGecko joined the JFDI Accelerate Program)
- Stay organised. Picking apart the chaos will aid a cluttered mind. By understanding the depth and breadth of future tasks, one can plan out how to tackle their responsibilities in an efficient manner which may relieve some stresses in itself, whilst allowing one to progress without overworking themselves.
- Get physical. It’s no secret that exercise is good for one’s body and brain, however during periods of stress, exercise can be particularly helpful in alleviating anxieties. Physical activity serves as a quick pick me up, and a way to prevent one from being consumed in their work.
- Learn to understand one’s emotions. Founder’s depression can be brought on by sometimes irrational feelings and fears of failure. By learning to understand what triggers these anxieties, one can learn to prevent them. Stepping away and taking a look at the bigger picture can allow one to make light of their situation, and come to a more balanced perspective as opposed to swallowing themselves in their negative thoughts.
While this is advice that is applicable to anyone looking to maintain healthy habits, it is of utmost importance to those in stressful situations to take the right measures to qualm their anxieties.
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