Entrepreneurs Face Pressures That are Hard on Their Mental Health
Attitudes and expectations within Atlantic Canada’s innovation community need to change to improve entrepreneurs’ well-being, writes researcher Michael DeVenney in the sixth and final part of his report into entrepreneurship and mental health.
Halifax-based entrepreneur DeVenney began The Mindset Project survey in May 2016. He received 485 replies to his extensive questionnaire, 80 percent of them from Atlantic Canada. He believes the survey may be the largest on mental health and entrepreneurship in the world.
DeVenney, who is open about his own struggles with anxiety and depression, believes the current model of entrepreneurship extracts a high toll.
“Founders of companies face incredible expectations — from themselves, government and private investors — to achieve success, and quickly,” he writes.
Entrepreneurs begin their ventures with great optimism but DeVenney states it is actually uninformed optimism as the founder is unlikely to have a full understanding of their product, the market, the customer and the potential for creating a viable business model.
“As the founder tries to deliver against the vision, many other aspects intervene…Expectations are high and sometimes very little goes according to plan,” he writes.
Read more about this story in Entrevestor.