What I’ve learned as a startup founder & CEO — lesson two

Last week I kicked off a ten part series on lessons I have learned as a startup founder & CEO by describing the power of storytelling.

This week I want to write about meditation & mindfulness. It’s something that has helped me significantly over the past few years, in both personal and work life.

Founders, we’re a funny bunch. We see the world slightly different, never satisfied with the status quo. We purposefully decide not to take the easy route. We put ourselves through considerable stress and adversity— all in the pursuit of making a dent in the universe.

We start companies knowing that nine out of ten fail. We get told things like “this is a stupid idea” and “it will never catch on” time and time again, yet we still burn the midnight oil undeterred.

As a founder, even more so in the first year of operation, you are expected to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders, being the swiss army knife; the visionary, the executioner, the marketer, the copywriter and the big brother. Furthermore, never before will you have had so many bosses — customers, investors, your team, and many more. It’s a lonely endeavour.

So with all this going on, it’s easy to get caught up and not take any time to reflect. It’s easy to think that your body can take it. No exercise, the fourteen hour days, the poor diet, the semi-constant state of anxiety.

I originally started reading up on mindfulness and meditation when I was diagnosed with skin cancer in 2011. I bought a book, Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama — it opened my eyes to the power that mindfulness can offer.

Before I had dismissed meditation as something not to take seriously. I thought it was just for people in the tibetan mountains to practice as part of their religion.

But here I was on the edge of my seat reading research. Goleman opening my eyes and taking me on a journey with the monks as they have their brains scanned whilst meditating.

The results from the scans showed that:

• Meditation can beneficially change the inner workings and circuitry of the brain, better known as “Neuroplasticity”
• The happier parts of the brain (prefrontal cortex) were far more active
• Their brains tend to “re-organise”, which means they feel a sense of “oneness” with the world around them
• The brainwave patterns of the Buddhist monks were far more powerful, implying a higher level of external & internal thought
• Their brains had enhanced focus, memory, learning, consciousness, and “neural coordination”
• The monks had no anxiety, depression, addiction or anything of the sort

I started reading up on it more and more. I was hooked.

Back then there weren’t as many resources as there are now, and it certainly wasn’t commonplace to hear people discussing meditation nor the benefits.

Thankfully, I stumbled upon Andy Puddicombe’s Headspace — which made mindfulness and meditation approachable (there was just the book, but now there’s a whole platform — which I encourage you to trial!).

Now a few years on, every morning at 6:50am I sit down for 10 minutes and tune-out from the hustle-and-bustle of life.

That’s all it takes. 10 minutes.

The key thing is building the habit.

After your first 10 minutes you will feel like you can take on the world and be surprised that something free can make you feel so peaceful and content.

So please, don’t forget to take some time out for yourself. Be selfish. Your startup will thank you, your investors will thank you and most of all your body will thank you.

The thing about meditation is: you become more and more you — David Lynch