One sentence I hear often from the entrepreneurs I work with is: “My mind is never really switched off.” It sounds like a glorious badge of commitment at first, and then the realisation follows that it is actually a warning sign. Chronic stress that never has time to recover is a real health concern, not the normal cost of doing business. And for entrepreneurs, who carry the job of designing, deciding, building and delivering largely on their own, it needs a different conversation from the usual advice to just take a break from work.
Entrepreneurial stress carries constant uncertainty. A founder often has nobody above them to make the final call, and no way of knowing whether the next month brings a term sheet or a shutdown. Research consistently shows that people find “not knowing” harder to bear than bad news. And for an entrepreneur, that state of not knowing can last a long time.
