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Many entrepreneurs reach a "last straw" breaking point where the circumstances are too stressful or burdensome to continue. For the majority of people, however, the final loss of love for entrepreneurship, often known as burnout, is a slower and more gradual process. It's a creeping sensation that gets worse with time and finally affects your work effectiveness.
Let's be honest: building a company from nothing is incredibly hard. It has been for me. I started my entrepreneurial journey at age 8. Yep, you read that right....8! Since then, I've started, run and sold multiple businesses with no partners and no funding. All my life I've had to build something from nothing, and that's what I've gotten really great at - tenacious, creative and extremely smart strategy coupled with hard work. Welcome to The Do What Is Necessary podcast—I’m your host, Andrew Moon.
Listen in as I share all the mistakes I’ve made and, more importantly, what I’ve learned from them, with no fluff, and no rose-colored glasses. The Do What Is Necessary Podcast is a show where we cut through the toxic hustle and grind mindset and dig into what it actually takes to start and grow a “calm business”. Calm is family first. Calm is more independence. Calm is sustainable practices for the long term. Calm is joyful. Running a calm company is a choice.
I’ll be giving unfiltered advice every week, 10 minutes per episode each. I want you to walk away from this podcast with the mindset and tools you need to be successful.
This podcast is for entrepreneurs, side hustlers, and busy professionals with a short attention span (like me)—you’ll get quick-hitting, actionable information in every single episode. If you give me your time, I promise it won't be wasted. Now let's get to work!
Entrepreneurship is
challenging to say the least.
Some days it's just downright exhausting.
For many entrepreneurs there.
There comes a last straw breaking point.
Where the conditions are so
stressful and so overwhelming.
That it just seems impossible to continue.
But for most others, the eventual
loss of passion for entrepreneurship.
Better known as burnout.
Is something slower and more gradual.
It's a creeping feeling
that grows day after day.
And eventually begins to
affect your work performance.
Now you won't go from happy-go-lucky
where everything's great.
And you've got the passion and
the fire to take on the world.
To ready to quit overnight.
One day, you might be a
little extra irritable.
The next, you might wake up and
dread the idea of going to work.
Not long after you might
make worse decisions.
You rushed through projects.
Your very short with
one of your customers.
Or you might seriously get to the point
where you just contemplate leaving.
Crawling into a dark hole
and being alone for awhile.
No, it's not a position that any
entrepreneur wants to find themselves in.
I'm not ashamed to say that I've
reached that point a couple times
in my entrepreneurial journey.
And one of the most recent ones was with
my IT business, which I sold in 2014.
And this was one of the
driving factors for me.
Uh, that over time I lost my
passion for that business.
I just, I felt like I got to a
certain point and hit a plateau and.
I just didn't see much point in
continuing to trudge on, in that business.
But the good news is that
burnout is preventable.
if you recognize the signs.
And for me looking back, you know,
they say that hindsight is 2020.
Um, but looking back, I had
a chance to really debrief.
And the signs were there.
The signs were there, that I was
reaching that point and I missed them.
So hopefully that this episode is going
to help you recognize burnout, it's
going to help you recognize the, the
warning signs that come along with it.
So let's first talk about why
it's important to stop burnout.
Now there's nothing wrong
with changing your job.
We've seen a ton of that.
Oh, since COVID the great
resignation as they're calling it,
there's nothing wrong with that.
There's nothing wrong with changing jobs.
There's nothing wrong with
selling your business.
Or just simply retiring
from an industry and.
Having some time off or
finding something else to do.
But burnout itself can be devastating.
not only can it force you to leave
your current business prematurely.
It can also leave you feeling despair.
Exhaustion.
Even more importantly, it can affect how
you feel physically, it can affect you
all the way down to that physical level.
Burnouts associated with higher stress.
Higher susceptibility to illness.
And even higher risk of heart disease.
All of those things are terrible things.
If we don't recognize those effects.
Now those effects, you may experience
them all at the same time, but
it's generally going to be that.
One of those effects is going to
start to appear and then they just
compound themselves over time.
So acknowledging and
stopping burnout early.
Can put you in a much more favorable
position longterm, it really can
prevent you from making rash decisions.
The trouble is burnout.
Burnout is difficult to
catch, especially early on.
And like I said, many times we
miss the signs as entrepreneurs.
So how do we identify
entrepreneurial burnout?
Now we all feel stress.
We all get nervous.
We all experience anxiety
or dread sometimes.
So, how do you know when it's
just part of the job or when
it's an early sign of burnout?
One of the things to look for is that
you dread going to work consistently.
And this is one of the hallmark signs.
That dreading going to work more
than a couple of times a week.
Is sign number one.
Now everybody dreads going
to work some of the time.
Uh, you might have an awful client that
you deal with or negative circumstances.
And then, especially in the
IT business Mondays, we're
in a specially dreadful time.
But sometimes it's the consequences
of bad decisions that we we've made.
Now we've got to manage that situation.
But if you dread going to work on
a consistent basis, like I said,
more than a few times a week,
That's likely a sign that
you're developing burnout.
The second sign is your mood
and personality has changed.
According to others the way others see it.
Now it's hard to notice changes
in our own personality because
they generally unfold gradually.
And a lot of times we
don't even notice them.
However burnout often leads people to
experience mood and personality changes.
So talk to the people around you.
Do they notice that you're more
irritable that you're angrier?
Or that you're less pleasant
than you used to be.
Chances are it's likely something
external that's responsible for that.
And sometimes it could be.
Your own business, that's
responsible for that.
Uh, third sign is you're
experiencing physical symptoms.
Now, as we get older, we know that, okay.
Just part of old age, we might think
at times, But as burnout develops, it
tends to be associated more and more.
It represents itself physically.
And again, these are the
things that I missed.
For example, you might get.
At stress headaches.
Now I've got migraines, you
know, since I was a kid.
But looking back on it, I was
getting migraines at least
a couple times a quarter.
And that was unusual.
Sometimes you have
trouble getting to sleep.
And I personally still deal with insomnia
and have been for the last 10 years.
But a lot of that was because of
the effects of my last business.
Now trouble getting to sleep is one thing.
And sometimes you need
medication to make that happen.
But that could be that sign of burnout.
not getting enough sleep could be enough.
Lead to further burnout, and then
you start to see those physical
symptoms represent themselves.
And you might be even more
susceptible to illness.
I know that.
That stress not sleeping.
All of those things, not eating well,
all of those things compound themselves.
So if you see those things in
yourself right now, You might
want to keep an eye on that.
If those physical symptoms seem
to start compounding themselves.
The last one is you always feel tired.
And that kind of leads
into our previous point.
No matter how much sleep you get,
burnout will leave you feeling tired.
You might get eight hours of sleep.
That's still feel tired.
If you're physically and mentally
exhausted most of the time, even
after a good night's sleep or even
after taking a break from work.
It's almost impossible to get that energy
back, but that's likely a sign of burnout.
So, how do we solve
the problem of burnout?
Now it's tough to make a one
size fits all recommendation
for how to get rid of burnout.
Because there's so many
different types of people.
There's different types of
entrepreneurship, different types of
business, different type of family life.
And there may be different
types of burnout.
And it, it represents itself in
different ways for some people.
For example, your burnout might
stem for from your own inner
over-investment in your business.
If that's the case, maybe
we needed to delegate more.
Maybe we need to reduce our workload
and maybe do a little bit less.
And if you want to learn about
doing a little bit less, go
back and listen to a previous.
Episode where I talk about.
That having less to do sometimes
is a, is a resolution for burnout.
Now you might also be worn out
from certain types of stress.
Certain types of businesses
will put stress on you.
But sometimes it requires you changing
your daily responsibilities, changing.
The way that you pattern your day.
Sometimes it might be just as
simple as stimulating your brain
by learning a new skill, learning
something different than that.
Your current business that you're in.
In any case, one of the best
steps to address burnout.
Is to take some time away.
Turn off your devices.
Turn off your email.
Don't look at social media.
Sometimes it's good to use
up some of those vacation.
days or take an extended
sabbatical from your work.
That's a great way to de-stress and
get away from the burden of work.
It's also a chance to get some
perspective to change viewpoints.
Once you're away from the office.
You'll have a much keener
sense of what it, what is it?
That is actually stressing you out.
And you'll also, it's a strange thing
is that time away from the office might
actually give you the ability to figure
out how to best deal with it for you.
You can also talk to people for advice.
And that's certainly trying
to keep it solve all of our
problems as an entrepreneurs.
One of the things that
I've been guilty with.
But a lot of times talking to other people
is going to give you a different, maybe
to a better perspective on your work
style then we sometimes give ourselves.
But once you have a better
understanding of where you're at
the current position you're in.
Then you can go about investing time
and energy into making an actual.
Action plan that fits you.
How can you change your environment
and your approach to work in a
way that relieves your stress?
That action plan is going to
look different for everyone.
But as long as you're consistent
and proactive, you'll have a good
chance of reversing the effects
of entrepreneurial burnout.
I really hope that this
episode has helped you.
And I would love to know how you
are dealing with burnout or how you
have dealt with burnout in the past.
But if you're burned, dealing with burnout
right now, And once somebody to talk to.
Feel free to reach out.
I'm always here.