If you drive a car 100mph for a prolonged period of time, the engine (or something else) is going to give-in and the passengers in the car could be stuck in a precarious situation.
My cousin played tennis growing up and she was so good that she turned pro during college. After playing top tennis stars (Lindsey Davenport, etc) and training day-in/day-out for over 10 years, she burned out. She has only since picked up a tennis racket for close family members (and she’s still excellent!)
Humans can’t tollerate high levels of sustained stress. We break down. It’s unhealthy. Sometimes, we must step back and breathe; it may be hard at first, but it’s well worth it in the long run.
I’ve been doing a bit of research about burnout and have compiled a few articles/links that provide insight on how to deal with entrepreneurial burnout (in no particular order):
- Avoid Entrepreneurial Burnout, Fill Your Tank
- Learning to Let Go of the Reigns
- Overcoming Burnout
- New Business Burnout: Don’t Be a Victim
- Preventing Entrepreneur Burnout
I’d say I’m a serial entrepreneur and at times experience the aformentioned burnout syndrome. When you know you’ve hit the wall, you need to step back and trust the people you’ve hired/work with to run the organization for a period of time. Sometimes, you may even need to leave the organization depending on the circumstances. Trying to run an organization while you’re mentally not prepared (at the specific point in time) is detrimental to the longevity of the company. Do yourself a favor and step back…
Once you’ve stepped back and are on the sidelines, relax and do something you’d not normally do. Go hiking. Enjoy the opera. Travel to Milan. Fish in Anchorage. Enjoy. Before you know it, you’ll be back in the entrepreneurial scene with a clear mind and your next adventure.
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Category: Startup & Venture Capital
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October 15th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Darren, thanks for the reminder & collection of links. These tips apply to just about everyone that intends to remain productive.
October 16th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Tennis eh? My sister was the same - she studied at the Nick Boliteri Academy for 7 years. In fact, she was Maria Sharapova’s roommate for 3 of those. Now she doesnt even play annually…
October 27th, 2007 at 7:57 am
[...] All Entrepreneurs Burnout, It’s Just a Matter of Time. OK, not the most inspiring or fun topic, but an important one nonetheless. Darren Herman provides us with a number of worthwhile resources to counter the burnout effects. [...]
November 19th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Darren,
This is an interesting post. I like your suggestions for avoiding burnouts, but everyone won’t be able to fish in Anchorage or travel to Milan. How do you handle stress and avoid burnouts on a daily basis?
I work at http://www.beYOU.tv and we have many health/wellness videos that are useful to reduce stress and avoid burnouts. Yoga and meditation are very effective. I personally enjoy swimming. If you want to reduce stress, check us out!
Greg