0:02 Who are you and where are you going? What do you want? Hello and welcome to People Making Money. I'm your host, Kevin Bemmel, and I'm here every Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to talk about job hunting, starting and running a business, and building wealth. So, the whole financial side of our life. And today I'm going to be dealing with a um business topic as I
0:42 mentioned uh last week. So, I'm going to be rotating through uh these three areas, job hunting, starting and running a business, and and building wealth. Um I I realized that um last year I was, you know, heavily focused on starting and running a business. Admittedly, that that is my my my passion, if you will. And I I I counsel people all the time. you're much better off having your own business than working for someone else because when you work for someone else, it's as if you have one client. And if
1:18 that client doesn't want to use you anymore, now you have and they fire you, now you have no income. Whereas, if you have your own business, so if you have five clients, then maybe you'll lose a fifth of your business or if that client is, you know, more than a fifth of your business, but you're not going to lose all your business. But in any event, uh today I am going to be talking about uh what I think is is a an important topic and uh something that you might think looking at all this gray hair, ah he doesn't have to worry about this anymore. You know, I'm I'm uh in and you
1:54 know, starting the what I jokingly call, you know, Kevin 3.0, my my third professional, you know, career. I've started many businesses uh during during my uh during my life. Um a lot of them did not work out. That's not unusual. Um and and others did. And uh and and so this topic is uh you know also near and dear to my heart. And that is uh the the topic of founder burnout especially founder burnout before success um because it does hamper
2:31 getting there of course but even founder burnout as success is uh being achieved. So uh you know we we live in a time where it it appears to be that everything has to be hyped. I guess is the best way I can describe it. So, uh, you know, having moderate business success means nothing. if if you're not if you're if you haven't started a unicorn, which is a startup that reaches a value of a billion dollars or more, um it it's not
3:08 noteworthy, you know, if uh um so all of this uh hyperbole I think is incredibly wearing on on the psyche, on the soul, and it is not a positive aspect of um of entrepreneurship and business startup. up culture. Uh but I think it is something with which we have to deal and I think the worst part of it is it actually increases the likelihood of
3:43 founder burnout which decreases the likelihood that a business will be successful. So uh so I've I have six thoughts on on this topic that I'm planning to share with you. So I'm going to I'm going to jump into those uh right now. So um well let me take a step back before I start the topic. I think we need to understand this this uh concept of of burnout. So um burnout can be severe to
4:20 the point where you know we are unable to function uh appropriately um to the point where we are clinically depressed. I know we use that word all the time. Oh I'm depressed. Well depression has a clinical definition to it. And most of the time you know people are saying oh I'm depressed. They're not clinically depressed. They may be very upset. They may ha they may be what we used to call blue. Um they they may have a sense of uh um you know great
4:57 unhappiness. Uh all of those are uh are signs of burnout if you will. Uh the um not wanting to engage with family and friends sign of burnout by the way could also be a sign of clitical depression as well. Uh not uh not eating well or overeing, not exercising, not being able to sleep. All of these are signs of of burnout. Okay. a as as they
5:34 can be of of uh you know more serious uh mental conditions. Okay. So burnout really takes in a range. It's not it's not sort of a point we get to um or or perhaps only in its most severe um aspect is burnout a point where we get to where in essence we feel like we've slammed up against a wall and can no longer function. Okay. So when when I'm talking about burnout, I'm I'm talking about this this range of signs,
6:12 if you will, that we are not operating, forget not operating at optimal uh at an in an optimal way, but we're just not operating in a reasonably normal way. Okay. Now, there are there are always fluctuations, right? there. We can be sick, physically sick, and and that of course will cause our ability to function to drop. Okay, that's not burnout. Okay? Now, if we continue to work unabatedly when we're sick, that is
6:48 probably going to increase the likelihood of burnout. um when we've had something happen in our life um the the the the god forbid the death of a loved one, the breakup of an important relationship. Okay, so those can cause us to be emotionally very upset. They can cause us to be clinically depressed. Okay. So, and and and the uh pushing through, if you will, continuing to uh try to work at, you
7:24 know, optimal at an optimal level is is as likely to cause greater burnout as the incident that's that's necessitating our um kind of pulling back and and and regrouping and and gathering ourselves. um as it is anything else. So you know when these difficult um difficult occurrences happen in our lives we need to take the time to deal with them if we want to go on to and continue
7:59 to be effective. Right? So, um I I have a a friend who's in a situation where the CEO of the company for which he works uh unexpectedly um is going through a divorce. Um and it's extremely upsetting for the CEO as one might imagine. Okay. Contrary to the popular belief u most divorces are not hand are not sort of casual things where oh okay let's just get divorced like that. That's at least in my experience,
8:34 rarely is that the case. I know it happens. Um I in fact I know of someone who who that was his attitude toward divorce. Shame on him. Okay. But for most of us, the breakup of a marriage is a profound uh emotionally harming uh um situation. A and it may be harming our our financial well-being, our spiritual well-being in addition. Right? So these kinds of of of situations in our life need to be treated with with
9:09 the kind of seriousness that that is necessary for so that we can recover from them. Okay. So these extraneous issues apart from the ones that I'm going to be talking about from a business perspective can all lead to or exacerbate a tendency toward founder burnout. Okay. So um I I want to sort of I wanted to bring that context into this as as we go through the points
9:44 uh that I want to cover. So uh going back to my issue of the sort of hyperbolic times in which we live, there is this this sort of myth of the glamorous grind. Um which it's it's a it's a triumph of of of narrative over reality. So, um, when when you hear about successful businesses in in in social media or in in the news or whatever, so you you you know, typically we're
10:19 hearing about um, you know, fantastic exits, big funding rounds that are closed and and businesses, you know, so-called, you know, crushing it. Rarely if ever do we hear about the sleepless nights, the anxiety that went into putting a pitch deck together, and the emotional beating that founders take when they're trying to raise capital for their business, whether it's startup capital, angel capital, seed capital,
10:55 whatever it is. the the the emotional pounding that they often take while when they're doing pitch meetings, etc., and and the the the sort of internal stress that that eats away at them. Almost never do you hear about that. But the fact of the matter is that those are the realities. And and I I don't there's probably not a single founder successful or not who didn't experience the reality while few
11:33 couldn't tell you is what the percentage is but probably under 25% experience the you know the sort of victory that is that is highlighted as being you know this is the sin quan on a of being a founder, right? And so, uh, you know, startup culture, it it it romanticizes all of this. And it's not it is not romantic. Okay, that is the bottom line.
12:10 Okay. And and I think there's a problem with with going and thinking, "Oh, this is going to be this romantic process." And then what you find out is there's a daily grind to it. And if one is not um aware of and in in a way reconciled to the daily grind and and the need for self-care,
12:45 the chances of burnout increase. So this sort of romanticization of exhaustion as being the same thing as commitment is incredibly foolish. Okay, exhaustion only makes it less likely that a founder is going to be successful. That's really the bottom line because we need to be able to think clearly, act decisively, motivate other people. And if we're exhausted, our ability to do that is attenuated.
13:20 And so we're more likely to make a mistake and as a result, we're more likely to not be successful. Okay. So another part of this is and I I I I've see this in in a a company um that that with which for which a friend of mine works is uh many founders confuse activity with progress. The two are not the they are clearly not the same thing. Okay. and and and it the
13:56 we see this more broadly in society. So a problem is identified and the call goes out. We have to do something. I mean maybe uh not all problems can be solved by so-called doing something. Sometimes the problem is just part of how things are. And so and so doing something or something different will actually make it less likely that we're going to be
14:32 able to resolve the problem. Okay. In business, a lot of problems, maybe even most problems, are solved by continuing each day to do what needs to be done to make the business successful and looking at incremental improvements to what we're doing. Okay, that is that is almost always how a business becomes successful. By the way, that's almost
15:07 always how a life becomes successful for that matter. Often times doing something is going to sidetrack that process of incremental improvement. And the net result is number one, we don't solve the problem. And number two, re we our ability to make incremental progress and hence again we increase the possibility that
15:42 we're going to fail. Okay. So the the whole process of burnout often begins during this so-called you know hustle phase long before there's any signs of what's going on. It be the burnout the the likelihood of burnout essentially becomes part of the culture of the business and that's a problem. It's a huge problem. Right? So, I've I've mentioned this a few times. Uh this has become I
16:19 in many ways kind of the my watch word and that is I work to live. I do not live to work. If I live to work, I'm going to burn out. Okay? If I work to live, it means that my work has purpose. And if I want to continue to pursue that purpose, okay, that mission, okay, I I break it down. There's there's purpose being
16:54 becoming ever more of who I am. Mission accomplishing ever more of what I want to accomplish. So if if I if I work to live which is work to fulfill my purpose and mission okay then I'm going to take the steps within my work that will make me sustainable in pursuing my my purpose and mission. Okay. If I work to live, I'm sorry. If
17:29 if I live to work, I am subtending my purpose and mission to the work itself. Okay, that's the do something philosophy. And I'm going to be spinning my wheels a lot of the time. So, show showing my age a little bit. President Ronald Reagan was famous for not working extraordinarily long days as president.
18:05 His philosophy was if I can't get the work done that I need to, you know, be president in eight or so hours a day typically. I have a problem. I'm not delegating enough. I'm not analyzing issues clearly enough. So, I'm not able to make decisions decisively. Okay. I think he's right.
18:40 Right. And and his his uh well, not his direct successor because his direct successor was President Bush. his the the successor to President Bush, President Clinton was famous or infamous for working long long hours supposedly to what purpose? To what purpose? So, and I don't mean these as political statements. I I I highlight these these two men because even at the highest
19:15 level of success, we can see these the the some of the fallacies that drive burnout exist. You know, one would think at the point where, you know, you can become president of the United States, you would know these things, but not necessarily. Not necessarily. Okay. All right. So the this the sort of wealthbuilding success narratives they often times just ignore the human cost and and by the way
19:50 the cost is not just to the founder it it's it's to all the other people oftentimes in the organization as well. Okay and particularly so in in in the tech world. Okay. Uh number two, uh quiet failure versus public collapse. So the reality is that most businesses that fail, they they do so pretty quietly. There's not some big cataclysmic event and then the business, you know,
20:25 stops. No, that's not how they go. They don't explode. Businesses don't explode generally, they fade. Okay, that that is this just they they they lose momentum. Okay. Over time, the founder gets ever more burnt out and the people around the founder uh for for whatever reason um don't bring that to his attention or typically more often
21:00 they do, but he won't hear it. Okay? He knows better. Right? And and as the founders's inability, I'm sorry, as the founders's burnout increases and his ability to deal with the problems and challenges of running a business gets ever greater, the likelihood that the business fails increases. Okay? So you know you start to see situations where revenue plateaus, enthusiasm declines, decisions get
21:37 delayed. Okay, all of those are potentially fatal to a business. Just any one of them can be fatal if you have two or more of them. Again, it's it's almost geometric in in increasing the likelihood the business will not succeed. So, as uh burnout increases, so whether they realize it or not, uh founders tend to disengage
22:12 emotionally. Okay? They're not even necessarily doing it consciously. It's just because they're so tired again, physically, emotionally, spiritually, they they just don't have the mental bandwidth to deal with the myriad of issues and problems that have to be solved in a business. Okay? And the fact of the matter is they tend to disengage emotionally before in some cases long before they
22:48 disengage operationally. Okay. So you have situations where other members of the team who are not burned out, who are engaged, who are doing their best to build the business can't be effective because they need decisions from the founder and they can't get them. Okay? Because he's somewhat burnt out. And so his ability to make decisions, he he puts them off or he needs he needs
23:23 more information here or more information there or the options he has available for deciding none of them appeal to him and rather than recognizing that this particular problem doesn't have a good solution. it only has a bunch of bad solutions and he needs to make the mature decision and select the least bad decision. He just disengages emotionally and now the other team members they can't make progress
23:58 and and and the founders uh operational disengagement happens later typically out of frustration because the business is not making any progress. And yet the root of that is in the emotional disengagement that was driven by the founder moving into uh burnout territory earlier on. So burnout, it reduces risk tolerance, it
24:33 reduces creativity, it reduces the ability to to have strategic clarity to make good tactical decisions. Okay? And all of these tend to uh the the you know inability to tolerate risk at an appropriate level for where the business at is at the inability to think creatively to to engage strategically with clarity to make good tactical
25:08 decisions. All of these frustrate members of the team who no longer have a clear sense of where the business is going or who feel like they can't make mistakes because the the founder is going to explode all over them or who no longer have access to the creativity of the founder in in in in getting his help to solve problems. All of these things frustrate the team members. It increases the likelihood that they will start to burn out or leave the company or just sort of
25:46 quit while still working there in essence. Right? So quiet failure, it destroys the equity value of a business long before it shows up in in in the you know financial statements for the business. Okay. All right. So where does this come from? I think is is a a good question to ask at this point. Okay. I mentioned one source that of just the culture of of
26:22 entrepreneurship and startups and running a business, the sort of hustle culture and all that kind of thing. Another place that this comes from and impacts kind of both at the same time is what's sometimes called the founder identity trap. It's where the business becomes the person and the person becomes the business. Right? And and by the way, I saw this in my my first company, my my commercial real estate company that I had before I joined the Navy. I was so my identity was so invested in the business.
26:57 I could not think of not having that business even though it would have it it it would have been much better if I had sold it much earlier than I did. I would have gotten a lot more money, right? But not being a part of the business, not being in control of the business felt like I would no longer know who I was or who I am. Okay. So once a founder attaches his self-worth
27:33 to the business, the likelihood of burnout increases. Okay? Because he's put himself on an emotional roller coaster and dramatically increased the number of issues that impact his well-being over which he has no control. Once our identity gets conflated with the business itself. So then delegating becomes more difficult because no one can do it like I can. That becomes the philosophy. It may not ever be spoken
28:10 but inside right. No one can run my life as well as I can. That happens to be true. It's true for each one of us. No one can run our lives better than we can because no one can know us, excuse me, as well as we can know ourselves. Okay? But the same is not true of a business. Okay? It is a an extremely rare founder, if there even is one, who is
28:48 excellent or outstanding at all aspects of starting and running a business, extremely rare at best. Okay. Many founders are great storytellers, which is why they're able to raise capital for a business. But most good storytellers are very poor managers. Okay? And by the way, just because someone is a good storyteller doesn't mean that someone has an ability to develop strong lasting relationships.
29:24 That's another different skill. Okay? That's why often times businesses fail because the founder is unable to make the transition from a founder centered business to a more mature entity. There comes a time in almost every business where the founder needs to recognize okay what are my shortcomings? Who do I need to bring in to make sure that the business will continue to be viable and grow and do I need to step
30:00 down from the from the top slot because at this point in the business's development I am not the p best person to be at the helm. Okay. The founder identity trap prevents those kinds of conversations internal conversations on the part of the founder. Okay. And so it puts the survival of the business at risk. Another aspect that puts that that comes out of found the founder identity trap is the founders find personal finances and the finances of the
30:35 business are so intertwined, okay, that uh it's it's almost impossible to separate the two. And so decisions are being made that that may be best for the founders's personal finances but are not appropriate for the business or vice versa. Okay. So if finance if if decisions are being made based on financial decisions are being made based on what's good for the business and that's having an
31:10 outsized negative impact on the on the founders's personal finances. So that creates stress for the founder, creates the likelihood that he'll burn out or that at least his burnout the the impact of you know burnout growing over time negatively impacts the business. Okay. So founders need to separate their personal finances from the business as early on as possible preferably from day one. Okay. All right. And the other part
31:46 about found the founder identity trap is admitting as a founder that you know I'm exhausted or I think I'm burning out. It's it's like admitting incompetence. It's like saying I I can't run this business anymore. But that's not necessarily true. It's just one's identity is so wrapped up in the business that you know it's a it's too difficult to tell where one ends and the other
32:22 begins. And so if I'm wearing out and the business is not performing the way it should. Okay. So I I must be incompetent. No, it's just you're burnt out. go on vacation, delegate more, all the things that would prevent burnout and allow the business to succeed. Okay? So the risk is not just financial it's psychological and in fact the
32:57 psychological risk is likely to be greater es especially initially as I was mentioning in the previous uh thought it may be the psychological risk may be greater and may and may be evident sooner than the financial risk. Let's take a quick break. When life brings unexpected changes, managing inherited property shouldn't add to your stress. Magnum Properties specializes in probate and trust real estate management. We handle the complexities while you focus on what
33:33 matters most. From property maintenance to tenant relations, from legal compliance to maximizing value, we're your trusted partner through every step. Magnum Properties, Inc. turning property challenges into peace of mind. Call us today at 213-264-4396 or visit magnumprops.com. Okay. So while it's exciting
34:09 to get early traction in a business, okay, I I I don't if you recall that commercial. I I think it's now quite a number of years ago where this group of people is they're they're they put together an online business and they're all excited. they're about ready to launch and they you know click the the mouse on on you know the computer and their website is up and you know and all of a sudden they just start getting tons of orders right not that that you know happens but but you know they're very
34:44 excited and then they start thinking oh my gosh we weren't expecting to be this successful this fast right so there is a hidden cost to early tra to early traction in a business and that and and that cost can essentially be summarized in that uh growth, rapid growth and especially unplanned for or unexpected rapid growth can accelerate burnout. Okay? Because all of a sudden it's like, "Oh my gosh, I've got exactly what I want now. I've got but I don't have I don't have the ability to deal with it.
35:20 I'm just going to push on through." Right? So that that kind of early success, it creates new operational complexity and if we haven't planned for it, it it needs to be addressed on the fly, which is a lot more stressful. It's that's a lot more stressful thing to do. Okay? And when we're having to address those kinds of issues on the fly, the chances that we'll make a mistake are greater. And having made a mistake, now we've got
35:56 to not only address the original issue, but fix the mistake. That raises the stress, raises the tension. Okay? makes the success seem not as desirable or or not as uh um not as as as wonderful, I guess, is a better way to put it. Okay? And and so uh and look, some of these problems, they're not they're not really avoidable. I mean, are we really going to plan for, you know, having a million
36:32 dollars in revenue and clients come in in the first three months of starting a business? Probably not. Okay. I mean, unless you know, the average size of a client is, you know, half a million dollars or something, but but most businesses that's that's not, you know, the kind of revenue per client or customer that we're seeking is not of of a size that we're going to have, you know, such that that we could expect, not that we're going to have that we could expect such a huge surge of business at the beginning, but it does happen sometimes. Okay? And so
37:10 now all of a sudden with with this success comes a whole raft of problems. Hiring people, compliance, meeting payroll, the bandwidth of management is being stretched often times to the breaking point. Right? And we what we find is such businesses are essentially a victim of their own success. Okay. And this too raises the likelihood of
37:46 burnout. Okay. Now oftentimes what businesses do that gain early traction is they start hiring lots and lots of people. Okay. They just start throwing people at it. do something here. I hired you. Do something. Right? The problem with that is is salaries are expensive. People are expensive. And if they're if they're new to the business, it's going to be hard for them to quickly solve problems because they need to understand the business in order to make good decisions as to what needs to be done, right? But hiring a lot of
38:23 people, you can be making a lot of money and then you go and hire a lot of people and all of a sudden you're in a cash flow crunch. So you have all this business and yet you're not making any money. And again, that raises the chances that the founder will burn out. Okay. So this is the conundrum that I was talking about a few minutes ago. In a business that gets big early traction, the need for the founder, the creator of the business to translate
38:58 into a manager, that time frame has been dramatically compressed. Okay. So even if the founder has the ability to make that transition to make it quickly can be much more difficult. Okay. And most founders well let me let me be careful I say this. Many founders or at least some founders given enough time can become reasonably competent managers.
39:33 But the skill sets are very different and typically founders need time to develop the ma a manager skill set. Okay. So if the timeline during which a founder has to transition to a manager is is very short, there just may not be enough time for him to transition. And yet think about it. Wow, I started this business. It's super successful. How great am I? I'm not going to hire someone to come in and take over the business and make it successful because
40:10 I made it successful. Right? So the very success that the founder had, this very this rapid early success that the founder has causes typically causes a mindset where he's not going to bring in the people who could actually sustain the success and keep it growing. Okay. So while we, you know, almost all founders want a lot of uh, you know, early success, I think most underestimate just how stressful
40:45 that is and just how that will impact the likelihood that they'll burn out. Okay? And and and by the way, if if you you know say to someone, you know, you're not looking for, you know, huge rapid success, a lot of times they look at you like, where are you from? Okay. But uh measured growth, measured success oftentimes is much more sustainable. Okay. All right. uh as burnout
41:21 fers. Okay, so I I I talked about this a little bit. I want to go into this more deeply now. Uh decision fatigue becomes greater and bad decisions get made like misallocation of capital, okay, are more likely to happen. So at some point the burnout will have been going on long enough or will become severe enough that uh that it does start showing up in the
41:56 books in the income and expense statement in the balance sheet etc. Right? and and and when there is decision fatigue, so oftentimes decisions are made reactively instead of proactively. And so reactive decisionmaking replaces forward-looking strategic planning. Okay, once that's happened, okay, that's typically that's typically the tipping point. Okay. And now since since decisions are being made
42:35 under extreme pressure, i.e. if this decision isn't made, you know, the business, you know, we're going to lose a client or we're, you know, not going to be able to deliver on a major initiative, etc. Once that kind of reactive decisionmaking has become essentially the norm within the company, it it is going to start affecting the bottom line. Okay. So you start seeing things like marketing spending becomes inconsistent because because financial resources need to be pulled from marketing in order to patch up operations or to deal with
43:11 legal issues because clients are dissatisfied and they sue because contracts weren't fulfilled or these kinds of things. Okay. And once marketing spending becomes inconsistent, so the ability of the business to sustain growth often becomes attenuated. Okay. So then then you start seeing things like an underinvestment in other systems. So there could be u production capacity again because you're having to invest in maybe you know legal fees or
43:50 it's so chaotic you you need to make a big investment in in accounting in in accounting costs in order to figure out where the business is really at. Okay. So instead of um being able to systematically build production capacity, marketing initiatives, uh employee um uh um not benefits but but investing in employee training and and employee welfare. Okay. uh
44:25 you know or needing to overinvest or overspend in other areas. Okay, when those happen, okay, the business now it it's it's on a roller coaster. Okay. And then because decisions are not being made clearly, sometimes founders will start spending money on what are essentially egodriven initiatives that really don't have anything to do with maintaining and growing the company. Okay? So more resources are wasted.
45:01 So in the the end result is when when one when a business when a founder is deciding especially important matters reactively. Okay. So that makes it even more difficult for other members of his team to engage in tough conversations. Okay? because they they they can feel if not actually witness how the burnout is causing the founder to react as
45:37 opposed to respond. Okay? And and they may be very reluctant to experience that blowback and so they don't. Okay? So when when a business starts to see poor capital allocation or or you know inability to spend on different areas of the business that it previously had been spending on that kept the business on a more smooth road. Um that is that is typically the outgrowth of the mental
46:14 depletion of the founder. uh who is just not able to make appropriate decisions any longer. Okay. So, I've talked about what uh founder burnout is, why it happens, how to tell if it's going on. So, what what can be done to prevent burnout before it kills the business? That's really that's really what we want to do. Okay. If you're if you're already in burnout, if you're a founder already in burnout, okay, well, uh you know, you
46:50 are going to have to have those you're going to have to force yourself to have those tough tough conversations or you're going to have to step down. Okay? It may just be temporarily temporary. Maybe you need to take a month sbatical. Get out of burnout mode. let your team take things over and and as best as they can write the ship as we used to say in the Navy. Okay? But if you're just starting to experience burnout or you're not out burnout yet, so the better way to handle
47:26 it is to prevent it, right? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure as Benjamin Franklin I believe it was said. Okay? So let's look at some of those preventive measures. Right? The reality is is that burnout prevention is a riskmanagement issue in your business. Now, if you are someone who is dealing with a founder who is burning out or you're concerned that a founder is liable to burn out, okay, hopefully these ideas will help you figure out how to handle that situation.
48:02 Okay. So, number one is to build uh to um build financial runway that doesn't engage in optimistic projections. Look at the cold hard numbers. Okay? Don't don't fool yourself. Don't let your founder be fooled. Okay? Now, you may not have access to the numbers. And if you don't, you don't. Okay? But the founder does. Okay? So, if you're a founder, don't fool yourself into
48:39 thinking, "Oh, you know, we're going to get this big client and everything's going to be fine." Okay? What happens if you don't get the big client? How is that going to impact you mentally, emotionally, physically? How is that going to impact your team? What are you going to do about that? Have a plan for that. Okay? Separate next. Separate your personal finances and compensation from the firm as early and as thoroughly as possible.
49:15 Okay. The fact of the matter is, and this is a big misconception, for most entrepreneurs, they're not necessarily going to make more money than they could have made working for somebody else. Okay? That isn't necessarily what owning a business brings as a benefit. It brings many other benefits. Okay? But especially in the early days of a business, typically a founder is going to make less money than he could have made somewhere else.
49:52 Okay? Because the business is not going to have the resources to pay him commensurate with the skills he brings to the table because investors essentially won't permit that. They're investing with the understanding that in essence they get first call on profits, return of investment and return on investment and the founder is going to wait for his payoff. Okay? If you think that's wrong or unjust or whatever, don't start a
50:28 business. Okay? Because even if you're going to self-fund, you're the investor who needs to be demanding that you're the investor get paid first before you as the founder reap the rewards. I know that sounds a little bit strange, but give that some thought. I think you will see that it's true. Okay. Next, install advisors or peer groups
51:03 who can help you maintain an objective perspective. Okay? You've got to have these people. It is almost impossible to stay objective and especially to stay objective all the time. So don't try build around yourself people systems to support objectivity. Okay. Next identify red flags that
51:41 you may be heading for burnout. How are you sleeping? How are you eating? How is your decision making proceeding? How are you? How are your planning cycles working out? How are your customers and clients responding? How are the other members of your team responding? Okay, periodically, intentionally look at those factors so that you can have a sense as to where
52:17 you're at on the burnout scale. Okay. And finally, treat founder health. If you're the founder, treat your own health as essentially an asset on the balance sheet. Okay? Now, if you're not familiar with accounting, right, assets depreciate and appreciate. So let's say when you started your business on a scale of 1 to 10, your your your health was a nine. Physical,
52:52 mental, and spiritual health was a nine. Okay. If you do quarterly assessments or annual assessments, did your health depreciate in the previous quarter or year? What are the markers you're using to determine that? Okay. So I I do this on a monthly basis, okay? And I have several different markers. They include sleep, diet, exercise, uh engagement with uh friends and
53:27 family, and I review them once a month. So I know am I is my health appreciating or depreciating? Now, if it's at a nine, it's unlikely to appreciate to a 10, especially at my age, right? But if my health depreciates to a six or a seven, then I need to shift my focus into improving my health. Okay? And I I have a one a scale on one essentially one one to 10. That that that's why I use that that uh that idiom. Okay?
54:05 So, and I I I look at it carefully. Now, I don't dwell on it. Okay? And if you're interested in learning the system, drop me an email or put a comment in the social media and I'll be happy to explain to you the system I use. Okay? And I I I've built it to be relatively objective. Okay? But however you're going to do it, whether you're going to reach out to your advisors or peer group and have them assess you, how is my health? Is it
54:42 better than last month, worse than last month, better than last quarter, worse, better than last year, worse? Okay, however you going to do that, treat it as if it's an asset on your balance sheet. Because as assets depreciate, our net worth declines. And as assets appreciate, our net worth generally speaking goes up. Okay? All right. So, making money, becoming successful, especially as the founder of a business, it's not just about
55:17 strategy and and you know, the rapid growth and the and the hype. It's really about sustainability. Okay? And again, businesses rarely fail because of a catastrophic event. It does happen sometimes, but it typically they fail because the founder runs out of emotional and cognitive energy and capital before the business runs out of cash and then the cash drain becomes inevitable as a result. Okay? So, I encourage you to think about
55:52 these things. Again, if you're a founder, talk to your friends and family members. Talk to your key teammates. If you work with a founder, talk with the founder about it. Hopefully, he's not in burnout yet, but if you're concerned, most founders, well, not I don't know about most, but a lot of founders tend to have so-called type A personalities where burnout is more likely. Okay? So, engage with them on this issue. and you'll have a more sustainable business. That's the bottom line. Okay.
56:29 So, thank you very much for joining me today. Uh, real quickly on just a reminder, every other Thursday is uh my show, Jiggers's Place, where we have a cocktail and a schmoo, one of the ways I work to avoid burnout as we head to the end of the week. Okay. And then next week, full slate of shows. Uh 10:00 a.m. Monday Pacific time. Uh Trust and Estates Weekly. Tuesday, 10:00 a.m. Pacific time, business lessons from the military. And then Wednesdays, 10:00 a.m. Pacific time, people making money. And if you have thoughts, questions,
57:05 comments, criticisms, again, links to the show notes, uh links to social media will be in the show notes, whether you're watching on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, they're they're on all the platforms. Okay? So, I invite you to do so. And if you are not a subscriber, I invite you to subscribe. Okay? Again, on whatever on whatever platform you're watching or listening. And let's see. That just leaves me to thank you one last time for joining me and wish you a wonderful rest of the day. And to remind you, Marie darling, you are my bell.
57:43 Courage.