5 Stages of Entrepreneurship That Can Wreak Havoc on Your Mental Health
From an entrepreneur who flushed her 6-figure savings and prestigious career down the drain at 24.
The scariest day of my professional life took place in a high-rise cubicle, with political riots burning down the city and bankers rushing home to take cover in their luxury condos. Despite the commotion all around me and the footage of flames, vandalism, and violent attacks right outside our building, the sent email in front of me was far more frightening. Within a split second, I was overcome with petrifying anxiety, paralyzed in my chair, too afraid to leave, yet equally afraid to stay.
That email was nearly three years in the making, yet it felt jarringly abrupt and catastrophically risky, as if I’d chosen to give up a coveted role with a 6-figure salary at a prestigious Wall Street firm on a whim. A strange thing happens when you blindside your manager with a “Two Weeks Notice” subject line in the middle of a political upheaval that has your firm on lockdown: Nothing.
Finally, he responded with something along the lines of: “Noted.” That was all. At that moment, the gravity of my decision came crashing down, and I feared I was entering deep, dark waters far more perilous than I’d imagined.
