A Burn out, and how to avoid one…
A few years ago I was officially the CEO of a small company I sold to a big company. They owned 51% and me and my partners owned the other 49%. It was a very stressful time because the company wasn’t doing to well, we were being integrated into a bigger company, the partners didn’t agree on a lot and I was supposed to be a CEO and didn’t feel comfortable in that position at all.
Just thinking about the weekly Mangement Meeting on monday made my stomach hurt, on friday. When the phone rang I thought “Oh no, not another phone call” and I started getting nervous about every descision I had to make. It didn’t matter if it were smaller or bigger descisions. I just kept postponing everything.
One day I was in the middle of a conference call in the hallway of some company we were visiting. As I was listening (not really) to the other people talking I picked up a book and opened it up somewhere in the middle. On the page were 12 questions. I quickly read them and answered them in my mind:
yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, no, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Then I turned the page back and looked at what kind of questions these were. The title was:
A quick test to see if you re suffering from a burn out
Intrigued I turned to the results page where it said.
Answered more than 2 questions with yes?
You should try to make radical changes to your lifestyle
Answered more than 4 questions with yes?
Seek professional help as quick as you can!
…I had answered all but one of those questions with ‘Yes’.
That night I read as much as I could about the subject and the advice was the same everywhere: change your life drastically and as soon as possible.
Luckily I was in a position where I could do that. Within 3 months we had sold the remaining 49% of the company, a new CEO was appointed and I took a 3 months leave after which I returned as a, well paid, advisor.
I felt much better after that.
I was reminded of this when I spoke with an entrepreneur a few nights ago who didn’t see his Burn Out coming and only found out when it was too late. It took him more than a year to recover and he still sees the effects of his Burn Out.
If you feel like things are getting out of hand, pressure is building up and you feel sick when the phone rings or a new email arrives it might be smart to look into this entrepreneurs disease.
Before it is too late…
