Founders are outliers, but you are not alone
Founders are natural leaders, driven by an insatiable curiosity, a thirst for high-risk investments, and a sense of mission and self-driven responsibility. We think and act differently, often seeing opportunities and pitfalls before others do. This heightened perspective can also lead to increased worry, leaving founders feeling isolated, even in a room full of peers. I believe that feeling is completely natural.
I didn’t come to terms with my unique place in the world until recently. For much of my childhood, young adulthood, and early professional life, I was troubled by the fact that I thought and acted differently from those around me. This created a persistent feeling of not belonging to the seemingly great groups I was meant to fit in with. If you’ve felt this way, you’re not alone. That sense of being different—whether in a party, classroom, or office—might just be the very reason you possess the qualities of a natural leader and a future founder of something special.
Through my journey in entrepreneurship, I discovered that my drive to create new solutions ultimately led me to My People. For the first time in my life, I found peace with the long-standing question of my place in the world. It took me a while to find my answer, and I sincerely hope you discover yours too.
Have a strategy for your nutrition
Every entrepreneur knows that when it comes to building a startup, there are never enough hours in a day or enough days in a year. With so much to accomplish, it can be difficult to take a step back and care for yourself. However, to maintain that relentless pace, you need fuel. This is where things can get complicated. I’ve seen entrepreneurs overindulge in caffeine, sugar, fast food, alcohol, and other substances to sustain an astonishing workload. It’s nearly impossible to find time for self-care when you’re the founder and CEO of a startup.
However, if you want to be the best founder and CEO you can be, you must prioritize your nutrition—it is the foundation of your health. Your productivity and performance hinge on the strength of your mind and body. I’ve witnessed healthy individuals deteriorate while building incredibly successful companies, leading to devastating health issues or even premature death. Too many people live by the adage, “You trade health for wealth for the first 40 years, then trade wealth for health for the next 40.”
I don’t believe any amount of wealth is worth sacrificing your health for—and you don’t have to make that trade. You can have both. What you need is a science-based nutrition strategy. Many resources are available to help you develop a routine that works for you, but I want to highlight a few principles that have effectively guided my own nutrition strategy:
- Identify your optimal time-restricted eating (TRE) pattern—the one that sharpens your mind, strengthens your body, and enhances your sleep.
- Cook your own meals daily. It’s the healthiest, most affordable, and eco-friendly way to eat. Trust me, you can find time for this, and I have found an efficient way to cook regularly while building my business and life. So can you.
- Avoid overusing anything. There’s usually a healthier alternative that provides the same benefits. Use your curiosity and intelligence to find these options and incorporate the ones you enjoy into your routine.
Stay healthy because you have many more remarkable startups in you to build for the world!
Have a strategy for your stress
Close your eyes and imagine a scenario where you are like one of your ancestors, hunting big game for your tribe’s food. Suddenly, your “dinner,” a massive buffalo, charges at you with speed. What will your reaction be? Your biology will respond before you even process the situation. First, your amygdala, the emotional processing center in your brain, sends a signal to the hypothalamus, initiating a cascade of physiological responses designed to help you either fight or flee. Through your sympathetic nervous system, the hypothalamus communicates with your body, activating your adrenal glands to release adrenaline into your bloodstream.
With this powerful hormone coursing through your veins, your heart pumps faster and harder, sending increased blood flow to your muscles and vital organs. Your heart rate and blood pressure rise, and your breathing quickens, allowing more oxygen to reach your brain, making it hyper-alert. Your senses sharpen, enhancing your ability to see, hear, and feel as you strive for survival. Meanwhile, adrenaline also triggers the release of stored blood sugar and fats for energy. Your body is now equipped to respond.
I apologize if this exercise stresses you momentarily, but it illustrates how our biology has evolved to help us survive life-threatening situations. In modern life, while actual threats are rare, we face a chronic state of stress that can be just as damaging. For entrepreneurial founders, these stresses are not only persistent but often intense. We know that this chronic stress can take a severe toll on our health and longevity, leading to hypertension, stress-induced weight gain, and chronic inflammation, all of which increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
So, what can we do? I believe there are several scientifically proven strategies we can adopt to effectively manage stress. I will share a few that work for me, and I encourage you to develop your own. With our newfound understanding of our biological responses to stress, we can leverage these insights to “hack” our biology to our advantage. Our sympathetic nervous reaction acts as the “gas pedal” in our energy system, enabling us to meet challenges, while the parasympathetic nervous system serves as the brake when the perceived danger fades. To mitigate the detrimental effects of our sympathetic responses, we can trigger relaxation techniques to counteract stress.
I have found that engaging in structured, regular mid to high-intensity physical activities, practicing daily positive self-reflection, and cooking for myself and others serve as sustainable practices. These approaches allow me to respond proactively and thoughtfully to a demanding lifestyle.
In addition to developing your own “playbook” for handling stress, consider taking a deep and honest look at the root cause of your chronic stress. Living in a constant state of low-grade stress often reflects deeper issues in work or life. For me, only after identifying these underlying problems did I begin to experience a significant shift toward a more manageable state. If your situation isn’t improving despite your efforts to treat the symptoms, take a meaningful pause. Stop what you’re doing, pack a bag, and spend a week in the mountains. Use this time to ask yourself the “five whys” to uncover the underlying causes of your stress. Once you have clarity, return to face those issues as challenges that you, as a smart, brave, and hardworking entrepreneur, can solve time and again.
Life can be difficult and stressful, but how much it affects you—negatively or positively—is largely determined by your perception and, more importantly, how you choose to respond.
