A Healthy Startup Needs a Healthy Founder.

A healthy founder is the best asset for your new startup. It sounds like common sense, but unfortunately, I’ve known too many founders who started out healthy and then developed health issues while building their ventures. Does this sound familiar to you? Living with accumulated stress, not releasing it, experiencing new health issues, and not making time to look after yourself.

Case in point: I had a client named John who co-owned a business with his brother Jeff. John played football in college and loved physical exertion, maintaining his fitness well into his 30s. When I first met John, he was super fit. However, as his company grew, he stopped going to the gym, his waist expanded, and he started losing his hair. He didn’t look as fit.

One day, during a meeting at his office, I noticed John rubbing his eyes frequently while searching for a file on his computer to share with me. I asked him what was wrong. He explained that he hadn’t been sleeping well and was having trouble focusing, which was affecting his productivity as the company’s CEO and CFO.

I asked him if he had seen his doctor. He replied that he had. He’d been on medication for weeks now, but the issues persisted. His latest problem was reading and digesting information on his large desktop screen. He couldn’t focus for very long. His mind often went blank, and nothing stuck. It wasn’t a vision issue because he had just acquired new bifocal glasses.
I asked John, ‘When was the last time you exercised?’ He replied, “I don’t know. Maybe 8 months ago?” Then I asked him, “When did your insomnia and anxiety issues start?” He thought about it and replied, “Six or seven months ago.”

I suggested, “Perhaps your insomnia and anxiety started because you stopped exercising. You have no outlet to decompress from your work stress and life stress, right?” John looked at me and after a long pause, replied, “You’re right. I enjoy working out. I always feel much better afterward. I do miss it.”

I suggested that he consider making time to work out again to see if his insomnia and anxiety would go away. Taking meds long-term is not an ideal solution. I reminded him that we all need some form of daily exercise to recalibrate. I said, ‘You’ve got to take good care of your health because no one can do this for you.”

Two weeks passed until our next meeting. John was back to his alert self. He told me that he listened to my advice and started working out the next day—every morning before going into the office. He also stopped taking his medication and started eating healthier. His waistline was shrinking, and his insomnia was gone. Fortunately for John, he reincorporated his self-care practices into daily life and resolved his health issues quickly.

With one of my other startups, health was also a critical issue. My two co-founders started out in great shape, with high energy and exuberance. Over time, they both neglected their fitness routines, despite my constant reminders to decompress. They gained weight, experienced insomnia, and became forgetful. During a very stressful period, both personally and professionally, they didn’t take time to replenish and gain clarity. Their stress affected their usual collaborative dynamic and judgment. This led to disagreements about how to move forward and resolve their challenges. Consequently, they made a couple of rash decisions that created adverse results for their startup.

If this sounds familiar to you as a founder—accumulating new daily stress, not releasing it, and experiencing new health issues—incorporate self-care and fitness into your startup life and commit to it. View your self-care practice as essential as eating and sleeping. Do not give it up, period.

If you do not institute ways to decompress and recharge, you will absorb additional stress that will affect how you think and work. We all know that it is not prudent to make decisions under duress.

Furthermore, if you value your health, you are more likely to value your employees’ health. If you do not prioritize your well-being and neglect your health (long work hours, poor diet, insufficient sleep, and lack of exercise), you are more likely to expect your employees to do the same. Overworked and stressed-out employees affect company morale, which in turn impacts the company’s health. Moreover, if you fall ill, your venture will falter, especially as the founder in the driver’s seat.

By the way, I first wrote about this issue in 2013, the start of my wellness coaching path. This health issue continues to be the hidden challenge that most founders face.

So, keep this in mind, your health has a direct impact on your venture’s health. Take great care of it!