The Emotional Cost of Entrepreneurship |
|
Be the first to rate this article
Ogbonna Michael -      |
|
There's a version of the entrepreneurship story that gets told over and over. The grind, the pivot, the breakthrough, the win. Everyone loves that arc. What doesn't make the highlight reel is the Wednesday afternoon when you're sitting in traffic on the island, your supplier just called to say the goods are delayed, a client is threatening to cancel, and you genuinely cannot tell if what you're feeling is stress or else something heavier.
Nobody prepares you for that part. Running a small business in Lagos is not a hobby. It is a full contact sport with your mental health. The pressure is not just financial, though money stress is real and constant. It is the weight of decisions that have no guaranteed right answer. It is the loneliness of being the person everyone looks to for direction when you yourself are figuring things out in real time. It is the guilt of going home exhausted when your team is still grinding. Founders talk about burnout only after they've recovered from it. While it's happening, the default response is to push through, work harder, sleep less, and treat rest as laziness. That approach works, until it doesn't. And when it stops working, it usually takes the business down a few notches with it. What actually helps is boring and unsexy. Boundaries around your time. A weekly moment to step back from operations and assess. Someone, whether a therapist, a fellow founder, or else a trusted friend, who you can speak to without performing strength. Physical movement that has nothing to do with productivity. The business will always have one more problem that needs solving. Your capacity to solve those problems depends on the person running the business. That person is you. And you need maintenance the same way your generator, your inventory, and your team do. High performance is not about being tireless. It is about knowing when to rest before rest is forced on you. Take care of the founder. The business needs you well. |
|
|
| Go to top |
Like or Follow us on
|
