The Sadness a Billion Dollars Can Bring and the Importance of Mental Health
Last week, Markus Persson (or Notch to most people) tweeted about being lonely since selling the company behind Minecraft to Microsoft and becoming a billionaire. He posted several tweets that even to those that don’t know him, clearly showed some depression and unhappiness.
Whilst the Twitter response was vastly supportive, the articles that followed and the comments on the articles were less so, and as much as that’s the media and the trolls’ MO, it’s not okay.
Good mental health is something that I feel strongly about. It’s an issue that everyone needs to be aware of and is often overlooked, especially in the startup environment.
Startups take big risks for big potential rewards, but not enough importance is placed on the mental health risk. This is compounded by skewed media representation of “startup life” and our own human bias of focussing on the huge successes of WhatsApp, Instagram, Notch’s Mojang and a few other outlying examples without considering the other end of the spectrum.
Most startup folk are bouncing between any number of mental highs and lows; product launches, early traction, no traction, hiring, firing, co-founder disagreements, fundraising — the list is endless. All this, whilst attempting to project the perfect image of control and clear direction to their employees, customers, investors and probably their family too.
This is not easy.
There are only so many hours in the day and most of those are often spent working on your startup . The rest are spent sleeping and eating and if you’re lucky, some family time. Your mental health probably never makes it onto the to-do list. Maybe until you start to feel out of control — then it’s a problem. The warning signs might be something small, like an increasing intolerance to small mistakes on the product, making an unusually bad hire, or misplaced criticism for missing milestones. Maybe you don’t recognise it for what it is and your startup stress is actually the reason you’ve been drinking more or sleeping less, not taking your friends’ calls, or why you keep arguing with your family. Maybe you see the signs, maybe you don’t.
Just like with technical debt, if you don’t make “interest payments” along the way, the compounding effect over the months and years could result in a mental breakdown…or a huge amount of downtime if you’re more comfortable with the tech metaphor.
I cannot emphasise enough the importance of awareness of mental health issues, for you, for your co-founders, for your employees, for everyone.
The next time you’re feeling in a mental rut, talk to someone about it, don’t add to your mental health debt.
Also, make sure you take time to notice and be there for other people, know that anyone could be feeling down, billionaires included.
Helpful Resources
See below for organisations that can help, a few simple ideas to help yourself, further reading and blogs from some smart people with of experience in this area.
If you have a resource you’ve found useful, please ping me on js@joescarboro.com or @joescarboro and I’ll add it here.
Someone to talk to
- It’s good to talk — for finding counsellors — British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy
- 7 cups of tea — Free, anonymous, and confidential chat with trained volunteer listeners
- Rethink — Helping people maintain good mental health
- Samaritans — There to talk, anytime 24/7
Examples of “interest payments”
Simple things you can do to help your mental health debt (many more in the articles below)
- Give yourself time to think deeply, to reflect and analyse your behaviour and thoughts
- Regularly talk openly and honestly to mentors, friends and family.
- Listen to others, as well as helping them, this helps you find perspective and realise you’re not alone.
A few articles on mental health in startups (and a book)
The Psychological Price of Entrepreneurship — Inc
Running a startup about mental health problems when you have mental health problems — Bethnal Green Ventures Blog
How startup founders can fight stress and protect their mental health — TechRepublic
There’s a dark side to startups, and it haunts 30% of the world’s most brilliant people — Business Insider
A Mind for Business — A book by @gandy on the psychology and neuroscience of business, including how to keep your mind healthy.
Founders and investors that have blogged on their experiences with mental health issues in the startup environment
If you think this is an issue that isn’t highlighted enough, please share or recommend this post, awareness and regognition of the issues are key to making the environment better for everyone.
Thanks to @andrewmcdonough, @rosaglover6, @inthecompanyof, @stef, @GkMilne1 & @4thfloor_monkey, for reviewing and help with the resources.
Photo credit: Unsplash
