Startup burnout is the fact that it’s 12:30 am, my eyes are bloodshot and dry, I’m talking to four offshore developers at the same time, I have three emails I really need to deal with before I sleep, but instead of opening the small number of important emails looming over me, I’m writing this blog post.
Startup burnout is three straight years of running, non-stop, without a day of vacation; I took 36 hours off for my wife’s 30th birthday nearly a year ago and that was cut short due to a crisis with a client.
Startup burnout is not a badge of honor. Startup burnout is not “yeah bro, I work 100 hour weeks and I’m crushing it bro.”
Startup burnout is – despite having a growing business with seemingly happy clients, I feel further from success every day, and feel like my life is flying away from me in a blur of late nights with questionably little achievement.
Startup burnout is running on pure fumes, struggling to keep crushing anxiety at bay, damaging relationships, and teetering on the edge of depression, pretty much daily.
Hi there
Hello wandering entrepreneur. Welcome to my rabbit hole.
I’m starting Startup Burnout because, surprise surprise, I am burnt out; because beneath the glamour of start-ups and all of the many, potential benefits of the entrepreneurial lifestyles… startups SUCK.
It feels to me like startup burnout is the hidden side of the world of startups that nobody talks about.
Not to toot my own horn, but I am resilient. I’m a stubborn, pig-headed person. I was special forces in the military. I’ve been through some stuff and I’ve been through it with a smile. I’m not the kind of person to shy away from adversity, but this is hands down the hardest thing I’ve ever done and if it’s hard for me, it’s hard for others too.
I don’t know where this will all go. In one year from now, maybe Startup Burnout will be changing the meaning of what it is to be an entrepreneur for people around the world, or maybe it will be a blog I started once and published one page on and then never came back to – who knows!
I’m choosing to remain anonymous for now but that may change. To introduce Mr. Burnout briefly:
- I’m 30 years old, married, no kids
- I live in the US
- I started a marketing analytics company about three years ago. We raised a small seed round to get off the ground. Getting off the ground took a very long time.
- My company is growing. We are now four employees, soon to be five in the US and a team of about 10 offshore developers. On the outside, it’s all sunshine and roses. On the inside, everything feels like a mess, we have competitors that I can’t stop ruminating about, money is always a problem, and I work 850 hours a day (again, not a badge of honor, at all).
So what are we talking about
I have a bunch on my mind.
- I want to talk about startup burnout. It’s a real thing. Nobody talks about it.
- I want to talk about what it is, where it comes from, and how to deal with it
- I want to find other people who deal with all the stress that comes from running a startup
- I want to talk to people who had startup burnout and got through it
- I want to talk to people who had startup burnout and didn’t get through it
- I want something in my life, that isn’t just about my company
See you soon