Startup Founder Burnout Rates Are Alarmingly High: What's the Solution?

By Carl Madi

Startup founders often sacrifice their personal life by working tirelessly in exchange for rewards they hope to reap down the road. Progress in business often comes at a steep cost. The currency with which an entrepreneur pays to grow his or her business is invaluable—sleep, time with loved ones, rest and relaxation, and, eventually, mental and physical health.

Researchers have established a link between autonomy in business and work-related satisfaction. Startup founders often report feeling empowered or “in control of their own destiny.” However, the energizing potential of starting a business often burns hot—in many cases, too hot. An ELEVATE survey found that 48% of entrepreneurs experience feelings of burnout, with an additional 32% experiencing depression, and 56% facing decision fatigue.

A high number of startups end up failing, and this reality isn’t lost on their owners. Dedicated entrepreneurs will often work themselves into a state of burnout trying to find success, yet the burnout itself can prove to be the downfall of a promising company.

In this article, we’ll explain some burnout mitigation strategies and highlight the benefits they can offer to entrepreneurs.

Burnout, defined

The phrase “burnout” has become far too commonplace, if you ask me. Have a headache the day after a cocktail party? Some will say you might be burned out. Had a particularly rough week because of negative customer feedback or discouraging financial statements? Burnout!

While it’s nobody’s fault that “burnout” has become a buzzword, its ubiquity minimizes the serious psychological and physiological consequences of true, no-BS burnout. And while burnout isn’t a medical condition, the World Health Organization (WHO) explains that it produces identifiable symptoms including:

• Exhaustion
• Energy depletion (which you might characterize as fatigue)
• Negative psychological symptoms associated with work

One non-medical symptom that the WHO notes is decreased efficacy at work. While this symptom won’t threaten your life, it could certainly threaten the viability of a business.

These symptoms arise from “chronic workplace stress.” Burnout affects those who are burning the candle at both ends because of work, and no demographic does this more consistently than entrepreneurs.

How to avoid and mitigate symptoms of founder burnout

Taking month-long breaks or shifting to a four-day workweek is simply not an option for most business owners. Even entrepreneurs who have delegated essential duties often remain indispensable to their organizations. However, there are several burnout-reduction strategies that can help:

1. Dedicate to downtime

Downtime can mean any number of things, and it certainly doesn’t mean you have to sit on the couch and twiddle your thumbs. Your “downtime” could be:

• 45 minutes reading a non-work-related book
• An hour on the treadmill or swimming laps
• A phone call with your spouse, kids, or a friend to talk about your personal lives
• 30 minutes of intentional leisure time, whether it is checking ESPN, your favorite satire social media account, or a hobby you enjoy

Also schedule longer periods of downtime, particularly in evenings and on weekends. Spending multiple hours engaging in outdoor activities (hiking, camping), engaging in sports or other competitive acts (pickup basketball, aerobics, pickleball), or simply spending uninhibited time with those you love (long meals with your friends or loved ones) will have a rejuvenating effect that pays dividends in your business.

A common refrain among ultra-successful business people who have reached the pinnacle and look back on their life is they regret working so much. All the professional accomplishments in the world can’t restore time missed with loved ones or experiences left unfulfilled.

Put simply: make sure to schedule downtime.

2. Structure a sustainable morning routine

Founders can view their morning routine as gassing up their vehicle for the workday. With a refined, habitual, and intentional routine, you can ensure you’re putting a full tank of premium gasoline in your car, rather than a half-tank of the cheap stuff (well, not cheap, but you get the idea).

Harvard Professional Development recommends three guiding principles for any morning routine:

1. Get up early. An early start ensures that you won’t feel pressure to skip family time or other important duties in favor of work.
2. Get exercise. The neurotransmitter GABA, which promotes impulse control and cognitive steadiness, releases with even moderate exercise. Therefore, workout before you work, if possible.
3. Reflect before you move forward with the workday. Whether you like to journal, jot down notes, or simply sort out your thoughts internally, reflecting can declutter your mind and help you chart a clear course for the day ahead.

Some recommend avoiding your phone for as long as possible in the morning. Find a routine that works for you and stick with it. And no, getting up and going straight to work doesn’t qualify as a “routine.”

3. Make sleep non-negotiable

There are nights when a founder won’t—scratch that, can’t—get eight hours of sleep. Pressing deadlines and waves of inspiration that you cannot cut short will, occasionally, require you to break from best sleep practices.

Don’t make sleep-minimal nights a habit, though. Countless entrepreneurs, including former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, tout the importance of a consistent sleep regimen, even for high-motor professionals.

Just as important as the hours you sleep are the quality of those hours and the consistency of your schedule. Whether you can spare six hours or eight hours (even Elon Musk gets six per night) of shut-eye, make your bedtime deadline a non-negotiable one.

4. Plan (and pay a non-refundable deposit for) vacation

According to data reported in Harvard Business Review (HBR), Americans in 2015 took about one week less of vacation time per year than they did in the year 2000.

Entrepreneurs, logic tells us, likely took significantly less vacation time than the typical American. This is a problem because, as HBR notes, “Statistically, taking more vacation results in greater success at work as well as lower stress and more happiness at work and home.”

So, plan at least one vacation this year, but make sure it’s the right kind of trip. Shawn Achor, Chief Experience Officer at BetterUp, explains that many people actually feel no better after taking a vacation, and suggests that you plan a trip that:

• Is light on logistics, minimizing the administrative burden and potential headaches (canceled flights, so hot right now)
• Presents a marked contrast from your current surroundings
• Indulges what you know will relax you—if you’re a book and beach type of person, lean into what you like

Achor also recommends planning in advance and finding a knowledgeable local to take the burden of planning and logistics out of your hands. Hardworking founders deserve a break, just make sure it’s a good one.

5. Delegate what can be delegated (and swear off micromanagement for good)

Startup founders aren’t the only ones whose professional wick burns hot. Researchers found that employees in startups also become burned out when their work satisfaction declines, and that burned-out employees eventually leave their startup jobs for more fulfilling positions.

Many startup employees are high achievers—they want meaningful responsibility, and if they don’t get it, they’ll feel resentment towards their job, which is indicative of burnout.

Therefore, delegating essential processes isn’t just a means for you to get mental clarity and diminish your stress. Delegating is critical to attracting and retaining high-value employees, who are dying to help you move the ship forward—if only you’ll let them.

A detailed standard operating procedure will ensure that your employees continue to follow your vision.

6. Embrace outside help, even just temporarily

There are times when a problem or project is too great for your team to deal with. Even if you may be able to eventually handle it, the time and resources you’d allocate to the problem at hand might cause other essential aspects of your business to fall by the wayside. This is a recipe for burnout.

Don’t hesitate to pay the cost of outside help when necessary. Whether it is an additional long-term employee, temporary contractors, or a consulting firm, you should be open to bringing on reinforcements, even if it’s to address a hyper-specific problem or project.

When adding permanent or temporary members from outside your team, Stanford Business recommends looking beyond the culture fit. Adaptability, or someone’s ability to recognize and adjust to new realities and expectations, is the hallmark of a new hire who could become a long-term contributor to your company, should you want that.

By bringing on yet another capable contributor, either short or long-term, you’ll minimize the risk that temporary or long-term challenges will cause you to burn out.

7. Switch up your work environment

The “office” has for decades been essential for working. An often distraction-free room, many believe, leads to maximum productivity.

While consistency can certainly prompt productivity, what about creativity? Furthermore, what kind of work environment breeds sustainable creativity, thus minimizing the risk of burnout?

Researchers in Germany tell us that dynamic work environments, not distraction-free zones, promote brain activity. Specifically, they note that:

• Environments that encourage physical movement also encourage cognitive performance
• Cognitive markers in participants working in a dynamic environment outpaced those working in a static work environment over a two-week period

In other words, monotony of routine and environment may produce monotonous work results. Monotony, without a doubt, is one of the warning signs that burnout is approaching, if it hasn’t already arrived.

Consider reorienting your office to promote movement, whether that means getting a standing desk or yoga ball to sit on. If you can, try working from new environments, whether outside at a picnic table or in a local cafe, as new scenery may promote new ways of thinking that help you ward off burnout.

8. Find your chi and foster it

Ray Dalio. Marc Benioff. Russell Simmons.

What do these entrepreneurs have in common, besides an extensive record of success?

Each meditates on a regular basis, as do countless other founders who have sustained drive, focus, and achievement over long periods.

While meditation isn’t for everyone, we all need intentional periods of psychological and spiritual recharge—prayer, meditation, yoga, or quiet reflection. Wherever you find your chi, make that practice a habit.

9. Seek therapy when you need it

Entrepreneurs endure immense pressure, both self-inflicted and from outside forces. These pressures alone can be difficult to bear alone. When they face hardship or tragedy in their personal life, the confluence of personal and professional pressures can be overwhelming.

If you feel that it may be productive, consider therapy, counseling, or similar treatments. It is not always easy for business owners to share their fears and concerns, and therapy can be a confidential zone for doing so. This may serve as a mental flush that produces tangible professional benefits.

10. Develop a sustainable thought process to avoid sweating the uncontrollable

The Wharton School of Business identifies ways entrepreneurs can soothe work-related anxieties:

• Reframe the anxiety. By designating the future (in all its uncertain glory) as something to be excited about rather than anxious about, you may find that your sense of aimless dread abates. You can also use this reframing mechanism with specific events you might feel anxious about, like investor meetings or project deadlines. Rather than “what could go wrong,” think of “how we’re going to make this go right.”

• Use rituals to instill stability. Whether it is squeezing a stress ball when negative thoughts arise, reciting an affirming mantra when negative thoughts creep in, or engaging in another ritual that brings you comfort, take action when anxieties start to cloud your thought process.

You might even write strategic notes or print signs to place around your workplace. We can all use reminders that certain things are beyond our control and that sweating the uncontrollable can only produce negative outcomes.

11. Identify, write down, and remind yourself of your “why”

Has the “what’s your why?” narrative become cliché? Maybe it has. But clichés become clichés because they touch on something that resonates with nearly everyone. We all have a reason for doing what we do, and you have a reason—a “why”— for starting your business.

Perhaps you led with a noble cause of helping countless people with a problem. Maybe you wanted to make boatloads of money. Some founders want to disrupt their field in a way that leaves a lasting mark.

Whatever your “why” was when you started your company, is it the same now? If not, have you identified a new “why” to replace the original one?

Even if you draw no grand conclusions, we founders must regularly ask ourselves why we’re doing what we’re doing, and whether that motivation is sound. And, if you can’t find your “why,” you may just have found the reason for your burnout.

Remember, burnout isn’t a job requirement

For a group of people who are so obsessed with a long-term vision, entrepreneurs (like many others) seek instant gratification.

While the drive to work seemingly endless hours at the expense of virtually everything else makes some sense, logic tells us that it will come at the cost of longevity. You, and the business that so critically relies upon you, will break down. Burnout will come. It’s a matter of when not if.

Take stock of your current working life. Take active measures to insulate yourself from burnout.

There are plenty of tips here and implementing even one of them could be monumental in helping you reach your personal and professional ambitions.

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