As we have already know the prevalent mental health problems among people and how difficult it is to cope with it. Another problem that is also coming up or comes up with anyone trying to build a company, which is the stress and the depression.
I have heard about founder’s depression when I was absorbing the startup eco-system and how to build a company through various lectures I have watched on Youtube.
It is quite evident the stress the founders have to take in order to build something and create a life of prosperity. The basic thing that founders that I have seen or are really successful, that they are extremely knowledgeable about their craft. They have such a high level of expertise to a level that they are extremely ahead of the curve, that they have access to insights that even other “experts” in their domain, do not have. That’s why they decide to found or find a company, because they have some secret sauce that can help to have an edge over others businesses or establish a monopoly.
When we have that box checked, we can proceed further that whether we should be going forward to build a company or not. I can also write an article, how a founder becomes a founder what is the behind the scenes or background of a founder, but some other time. I’ll link to that article later here.
Now that we know we have to build a company, the very next thing that is required to get anything done is perseverance or grit. Perseverance is nothing but simply the idea of not giving up. Let me give you an example, on how to persevere through anything and get anything done, suppose you want to build something, any prototype or any product that you have an idea about, but you don’t really have the skill to manifest it or the people to make it happen, you would learn the very skill that is required to build it. If you want to build a software or a physical product you would have to find a language and learn it and then start building it, if you don’t know basic science to learn a coding language then you learn the basic science, if you don’t how to even read then learn how to read. That is the basic idea of perseverance. Anyone in the world has the secret to get anything done, but the only flaw that I believe there is about this particular psychological/spiritual quality secret (“nidhi’s”, a spiritual secret, according Gurbani as well as other ancient texts), is that it is not time bound. If you want it fast, then you might experience failure, coz you want things to manifest within a time limit, that is a trap, manifesting within a time limit is a trap, you can make it happen, but it might create stress within you.
I personally totally follow the rules of the nidhi’s that I have received that I am in no dire need to get things done based on someone’s time limit. I’ll make things happen, while maintaining my inner peace. Though I do experience some stress from time to time, coz it’s quite inevitable, that’s the best I think anybody can do. I haven’t found anyone on the planet, that is completely stress free, 100% 365 days a year. Because as Gautam Buddha also said, pain is inevitable but suffering is optional.
Now, the products or the services you want to give to your clients while physically surviving, is also an art itself. I am alive while writing this article, I have food on the table, have air-conditioning in my room, two cars, basic utilities, so I am doing pretty okay. As long as the death doesn’t arrive I’ll continue to work on my entrepreneurship pursuits.
Once you have the products ready, polish it, to a level it spreads through a word of mouth, because that’s what we can afford as completely new founders, and not care about working on marketing too much. It’s the best decision for any new founder. (Knowledge source: Y Combinator)
Now, the mental health of a founder while working on your startup. The vast majority of the founders that I have observed are not really working from a spiritual point of view. Extremely few startup founders are working from a mission point of view, in a way that adds value to the world. Suppose Elon Musk, creating electric cars, extremely difficult pursuit to work on, because since I was a kid, I have noticed some electric cars in India but they were facing some extremely difficult problem of recharging efficiency, really hard to find recharging stations, extremely difficult to use those cars for long drives. Elon is solving that problem with ridiculous efficiency and with really good product line of cars. In the end, he is passionate about solving the problem of pollution, and adding loads of value to the world. Creating an atmosphere, a better planet for people to breath.
It automatically became a value giving proposition. If you want to give to the people, it is becoming spiritual, while not having any pride, and truly taking the responsibility of solving a problem in the world.
The other things that you need to continuously doing while working on your startup is the things I have mentioned on few of the posts I have shared on my FB page, is implementing the teachings of the Gurus of South Asia. Here is one of my posts, that how to truly achieve inner peace.
Well, this particular knowledge is applicable to everybody regardless. But entrepreneurs also should start working on this, especially the founders.
Very recently I came across this article, titled, To be a happier, more successful person, get off the “hedonic treadmill”. The article basically talks about Hedonic vs Eudaimonic philosophy, which is very similar to what I have done in my life, and what the Gurus teach to live a depression free life. The concept in the article is not extremely accurate, but very very similar to what I have found, and is also backed by neuroscience with proper research.
Thank you for reading.
Peace.