Why Entrepreneur Mental Health Matters
The entrepreneurial industry is in crisis and people are afraid to talk about it. If you do a cursory search, you’ll likely find a handful of articles about increasing anxiety and depression rates among entrepreneurs, but it’s certainly not common knowledge nor is it a part of everyday conversation.
Dr. Michael Freeman is a close friend of the Founders First System and a recent Founders Forum speaker. His cornerstone research on the topic of entrepreneurship and mental health is eye-opening: 1 in 3 entrepreneurs suffer from depression. Entrepreneurs are also 6-times more likely to have ADHD and 11-times more likely to report bipolar disorder. It’s unclear whether people with these mental health issues are attracted to the profession, or if these mental health issues are a product of the profession. What this research does tell us is that entrepreneurs have different challenges than other types of professionals and that being an entrepreneur is a dangerous job psychologically.
At Founders First, we’re destigmatizing mental health among entrepreneurs by providing simple tools any founder can use to track and improve their mindstate. We understand that running a startup can cause more than just physical strain, but also a mental and emotional one. We understand that your identity as a human being can often get lost and too closely tied with your business. We also understand that being a founder affects more than just you - it can affect your relationships with others too. All of these potential mental health disorders and life changes are a result of one key thing - stress.
Entrepreneurship is considered one of the most stressful professions. The weight we carry isn’t quantifiable. Meaning, it’s more than a financial burden. Employees are relying on us. Loved ones are relying on us. Investors are relying on us. Plus, we must still find the drive to get through the everyday tasks of running a business - answering emails, building client relationships, hiring reliable staff, building a marketing strategy, you name it. Sometimes, all of this responsibility can seem impossible to manage on your own (or even alongside a co-founder).
We’ve created a mental health and performance tracking app to help entrepreneurs carry these burdens and thrive. We believe that by being aware of your current mindstate, you’ll be able to use the right tools to improve it.
For instance, let’s say you’re struggling through a crisis at work and the pressure to solve the problem has affected your mood at home. Perhaps you lost a big client and you weren’t able to leave your emotions at work, causing you to be short with your significant other over dinner later that day. After dinner, you open the Founders First app and track your current mindstate, finding that your anxiety levels are much higher than normal. Now you’re in fix-it mode. To help you return to a state of calm, the app might suggest using the Tongue Finger Breath tool. This is a breathing exercise that works particularly well for people overwhelmed by multitasking who want to overcome a racing mind. And now with your new level of calm you’ll make better decisions and protect your relationships with the people most important to you.
At Founders First, thousands of entrepreneurs are talking about how difficult it really is to be an entrepreneur, and why it’s important to consider your own mental health while running a startup. Entrepreneur mental health may just be the key to improving the startup success rate. Because improving the founder’s performance is the first step in improving the company’s performance.
Join over 3,000 other entrepreneurs destigmatizing entrepreneur mental health and start making your own mental health a priority by trying the app free for 7 days.
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Founders First is a set of evaluation tools that will improve your business by strengthening its most critical asset: You.
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Founders First is a set of evaluation tools that will improve your business by strengthening its most critical asset: You.
Founders Forum is a live show where we talk about mental health in entrepreneurship and how to build resilience to stay stronger, happier, and be more successful.
