Wednesday 18 March 2015

STRESS: Every Entrepreneur's Worst Nightmare


One thing I've come to learn over time (thanks to Seth Godin) about entrepreneurship is that it is not sexy... Not sexy in the sense that it involves creating something that matters - which means challenging the status-quo consistently, building a great team to make things happen and being able to tell great stories that resonates with your target market.

If you are not ready for "all-of-that", I would advise that you stick to your 9-5 job or whatever it is you are doing right now.

The dream of every startuper is to get his idea out to those that matters as fast as he can. And most times, they start up the business by themselves - draft out business plans and business models... pitch their ideas to VCs and Angels (that will probably reject their ideas)... Seek to build a great team that will buy into the vision and mission of the company and nurture the idea till it bears fruit....

All of these involves series of hard work, meetings and most times sleepless nights. You find out that you no longer have even the slightest bit of control over your schedule - you don't have the time to hang out with your friends at the pub like you used too or spend quality time with your family. All you think and eat at that moment is getting your start up to stand up on its feet and nothing else.
Then one day you try to get up from bed but you just can't, your head starts to bang as if there were some sort of chemical reaction happening in there... Your heart beats faster than Hussein Bolt and your body temperature rises simultaneously... Then you begin to wonder if that old witch in your mother's village has finally gotten you after all these years of trying you are dying...

But somehow you get to the hospital only for the doctor to tell you that you do not have Cancer or HIV or Ebola or Malaria... That all you are experiencing are symptoms of STRESS and you need to rest more...

As much as we need to devote most of our time to our businesses as startupers or entrepreneurs, we also need to rest. When you sleep, your brain resets and you wake up energized, consequently increasing your productivity.

Sit down and figure out where to draw the line when it comes to work versus rest. Because every entrepreneurs worst nightmare is Stress and it is crashes everything.
But the good news is that you can manage it effectively by not cheating sleep.

Sadiq Daniel is a certified Crazy Writer and Teens Coach that blogs on business, Self- development, Life lessons and Ideas that challenges the status quo... You can pursue him on Twitter: @sadiqspeaks LinkedIn: Sadiq Daniel and Email:Sadiqdaniel@gmail.com