A few days ago, I was chatting with Arjun Vaidya, a successful entrepreneur who co-founded the Dr Vaidya’s brand with his wife and exited when it was acquired by a large corporate group; today, he mentors entrepreneurs who are building direct-to-consumer brands. I was fascinated by his recent social media post on an important topic — the mental health of entrepreneurs — and I was especially intrigued by the lovely picture he had posted, where he and his wife are smiling warmly at the camera. Apparently, this snap was taken when he was suffering from mental health issues! You wouldn’t have guessed it from the image alone.

Awareness of mental health issues is quite low in India. In reality, they are quite prevalent and many founders suffer from it but may not be aware of it. According to Vaidya, the primary cause of mental health issues in founders is the ‘hedonistic treadmill’ they are on, where they are always working hard to get bigger, better, faster; attempting to move from X to Y, and then from Y to Z, and then 2X... all in short periods of time. This puts unbelievable pressure on the entrepreneurs. 

The other cause, according to Vaidya, is the mental tiredness that comes from daily, non-stop firefighting of issues ranging from a website or app that has gone down to managing people issues across hiring and attrition, figuring out cash flows and next month’s wage bill, and shipping orders out on time while simultaneously dealing with irate customers. 

After a while, all this leads to what we simply term as ‘burnout’.

Peer pressure makes the situation worse. Founders are bombarded by social media posts and articles praising other entrepreneurs for their latest revenue landmark, a recent fund raise, an Entrepreneur of the Year award or a snazzy ad campaign, and this creates additional FOMO (fear of missing out); entrepreneurs, who are extremely competitive by nature, are left wondering how much they have fallen behind. 

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As a serial entrepreneur, I couldn’t agree more. Startups suffer from an extremely high mortality rate. Entrepreneurs battle competitive pressures and investor expectations and try to build a sustainable business but after years of relentless effort, they mostly end up failing. The mental damage this causes is massive.

To clarify, mental health issues are not restricted only to failed founders, as even successful entrepreneurs may be facing them. 

So, the next time you see a nice, warm picture of a successful founder surrounded by his spouse and kids, hugging each other and smiling brightly, please pause a bit and think. Behind that big smile and friendly demeanour of the entrepreneur, there could be something else lurking.

(The writer is a serial entrepreneur and best-selling author of the book ‘Failing to Succeed’; posts on X @vaitheek)

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