DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY IN ENTREPRENEURS
HOW DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY SHOW UP FOR THE ENTREPRENEUR ARCHETYPE
I’m working with my coaching client in Silicon Valley. He’s got some money but never the big “unicorn” money. Enough to fund his next start up. He’s organized, smart, driven, visionary but struggles with managing and leading teams. This is where I came in.
I like to get to the core issues and sometimes it takes weeks or months.
I was organizing his Agile teams in prep for a meeting he was about to have with the lead engineers. He paused mid sentence, stared at me, turned around and vomited into a trashcan. He was triggered by an offer from his largest competitor.
If you are an entrepreneur Anxiety is common, stress is common and most put their heads down and just “step up and get the job done.” Vulnerability is not allowed. It’s a sign of “weakness” and if you’re weak in the jungle you don’t survive.
Anxiety can lead to depression. Then depression can lead you right back to anxiety.
If you have serious depression or anxiety disorder see a professional. However many times you can navigate these feelings and still get things done.
Master your archetype so you know the patterns of depression anxiety and what the triggers may be for you.
We will examine this one Archetype here: The ENTREPRENEUR or Arsonist. Here is a brief abstract on this archetype here: https://www.mastery-roundtable.com/post/the-arsonist-or-the-entrepreneur
If you would like to take a free assessment and know your archetype please click here Free Assessment.
I will put up future posts based on the other Archetypes.
The Entrepreneurial Spirit
The world needs Entrepreneurs and their remarkable vision to bring us ideas that have the potential to change our lives. Those ideas, as exciting as they are, need to be tempered with reason and reality to bring them to final completion. Read the following article about Preston Tucker and his vision for a groundbreaking new automobile to challenge the big three automakers of the day. This is a perfect example of vision without reality.
In the 1988 film Tucker: The Man and His Dream, directed by Frances Ford Coppola, a man named Preston Tucker raised over $20 million in 1948 to start a car company that would challenge the Big Three Detroit car-makers by adding aerodynamic design and safety innovations: shatterproof glass, a rear engine, seat belts, disc brakes, and fuel injection.
A charismatic man, often called a "dreamer" and a "visionary," he raised the money by convincing investors not only that his car would be superior to any other, but that in manufacturing it his tiny company would be able to overcome powerful opposition from the Detroit corporations and the Washington politicians who protected them.
He actually built 50 cars before the SEC shut down his factory and arrested him for fraud and other violations .
At his trial, he gives a speech to the jurors on how capitalism in the United States is harmed by efforts of large corporations against small entrepreneurs like himself.
Tucker was acquitted on all charges.
However yellow journalism (journalism that present little or no legitimate well-researched news, while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. e.g.: “Headless woman found in topless bar” )
The press starts ruining Tucker's public image, even though the ultimate courtroom battle is resolved when he parades his entire production run of 50 Tucker Torpedoes, proving that he has reached production status.
The car, the Tucker, was an excellent car, and its innovations were adopted as standard by American car- makers.
But Tucker and his investors lost everything. His company fell into bankruptcy and Preston Tucker dies of lung cancer seven years later, never able to realize his dream of producing a state-of-the-art automobile.
An Entrepreneur has "the capability to see through the fog." The creative person looks into the fog and sees patterns appearing and disappearing. Suddenly, and all at once, something clicks.
“Aha! I sense what’s there and I know what we might do about it”
The non-creative person waits until the fog lifts, the sun is shining, it’s totally clear, and says,
“Aha! I sense what’s there and I know what we might do about it”
But that person has not added anything new or created anything different. So being creative is not sufficient to be an Entrepreneur.
True Entrepreneurs have the characteristic of being able to walk into the fog and follow the dream: the willingness to take risks.
Entrepreneurs are creative in service of a goal. They have an idea, a purpose, and can translate that idea into achievable outcomes. They are a no-nonsense people, focused and creative.
Ideas without results annoy them, and results that are not from BIG ideas are a waste of time.
Entrepreneurs communicate in broad strokes and big pictures. Their creative brain jumps from thought to thought. They are passionate and bring things to life.
Their focused no nonsense approach gives them certainty that they know where they want to go. They want options not your opinions. They don't like no for an answer. There is always a way. They focus on the long term and see the big picture.
Their greatest gift is they are innovative, creative, bold, daring at times and unconventional.
Their deepest wound is everything looks like an opportunity. They must focus.
So how to Entrepreneurs get triggered by anxiety and depression?
Their style always favors more choices not less.
This can create anxiety. The essential feature of generalized anxiety disorder is excessive anxiety and worry about a number of events or activities. The intensity of the worry is out of proportion to the likelihood of the anticipated event. So the anxiety itself is always greater than the event itself.
Their style always tracks into the future. They rarely focus on the present. They want to move to the future. Their gift is to create disparate things, like a business, an invention, a creation and put it together. However, thinking about or being anxious over what may or may not happen in the future creates tremendous anxiety. They go into their heads and get locked into a story. About the future.
But nothing ever happens in the future. It all happens in the present.
Their style has a pattern of naming the anxiety so they get triggered.
“This always happens to me”, “I’m doing this by myself again. Why can’t I get help?”
“I’m not strong enough”, smart enough, capable enough, etc.
The name you have had for your anxiety is your trigger.
Their style Judges everything. Good/Bad, Right/Wrong. Smart/stupid, Successful/Failure.
But mainly it is Self Judgment that is most damaging. Stop judging yourself.
Be acutely observant about Generalized Anxiety Disorder which can lead to depression.
The essential feature of generalized anxiety disorder is excessive anxiety and worry about too many events or activities. The intensity of the worry is usually out of proportion to the likelihood of the anticipated event.
Anxiety and worry are associated with at least three (or more) of the following symptoms:
Restlessness or feeling keyed up or on edge
Easily fatigued
Difficulty concentrating or mind going blank
Irritability
Muscle tension
Sleep disturbance
If you’d like to talk (its FREE) reach out and call me. 415 935-1375 Email me paul@businessmastery.com Or read more, become more observant, meditate and find your center. The calm focused power.
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