Thank you all for this post. It’s motivating to see how you have struggled and overcome these challenges time and time again. A lesson I have to keep reminding myself of…it doesn’t end, you just get better.

I met my first panic attack after a series of personal and work experiences about a year ago. The stress and anxiety ultimately led me to quit what I considered a dream job at the time.

I’m grateful for this path it set me down though. It forced me to finally take on the challenges of my mental health and entrepreneurship.

However, now as a solo founder, I find myself in an infinite loop of stressing over all the things, jumping between them despite having set priorities and then finishing the week with a bunch of partially done work. Only to repeat the cycle the next week.

Coming from a decade of working for others, I’ve been privileged to just swivel my chair and ask/request/assign. So the “unlearning” process has also been somewhat of a struggle. I’ll get myself to the point where I would have handed things to the expert, and then get stuck.

What systems have you built for yourselves to help you continue making progress despite these challenges?

thanks for sharing Ed, this is hard to read from you because your openness and delivery is so smooth.

I also am in the position that I feel that I am a "creator" more than a seller or a leader.  Of course, all three skills are requirements for any venture to become a success.   I am doing a great deal of personal emotional work to engage in all three, but with social anxiety one is like your warm comfy bed and the others feel more like a haunted house.  

The word I'm using to describe this process is "sizzle".  The sizzle of a frying pan is something that we inherently pull away from but entrepreneurs need to expand their comfort zone and be able to dive into some sizzling moments and experiences that others may find thrilling and exciting.    I understand this is more getting through the grind of it and not panic attack level.

I had a very difficult time starting in 2016 when I started suffering from a deep depression. Many things were not going right in my life at that time and it all came crashing down on me with depression, anxiety and panic attacks. It took me 18 months of working with a psychologist ( a real blessing) to get back to a kind of "normal" state where I could function at work without breaking down during the regular business hours.

Now I'm able to manage the short lived episodes I still have from time to time and learned to live with it. I can't go one day without meditation. It's my secret weapon to stay afloat and not fall back to that dark place where I was 7 years ago.

But as everything in life, everything happens for a reason. This dark season in my life made me much more sensitive, aware of other people's feelings and connected me back to my family. This is how I got into coaching and then allowed me to create my current venture. Thanks to this new found sensibility I'm able to connect at a much deeper level with parents and students and help them focus on the things that bring them joy and fulfillment.

Thank you Ed for putting yourself out there.

Hector.

I am a massive introvert and if I had it my way, I would be buried in a sea of books locked away in my own thoughts. However, I play the role of front man for my startup, exposing my vulnerability and psyching myself up to meet clients, prospects, and investors on a regular basis.

I suffer from chronic social anxiety, and occasional depression. There are some days where I feel like I can take on the world, and others where I feel lost at sea. I hit rock bottom a few weeks ago when I was at the grocery store and a wave of emotion just swept over me and I broke down in tears. That point I knew I needed therapy again.

Working in a startup is the hardest professional endeavor I have ever taken on. It's all consuming, and I am making some hard decisions on whether I want to continue on the journey or to step back and focus on my well being. It's a tough choice I'm not entirely sure what the answer is, but trust me, I know many of us feel the toll of being an entrepreneur.