The Dark Side of Startup Life: Inside the Startling Stats of Founder Stress

SPARKED

We’ve all seen it and maybe even experienced it, the high pressure workload of starting your own business. The long hours, extreme stress and rollercoaster of highs and lows. Enduring these realities is almost celebrated in the entrepreneurial world and rarely questioned, when in any other setting they would be cause for alarm.

So why do entrepreneurs feel such pressure to hide their struggles and not be open about the challenges they are facing? In contrast, what if being a successful entrepreneur didn't mean suffering in silence?

In today’s episode of Sparked, we’re joined by special guest, Yael Benjamin, for a raw look at powerful new research around the mental health struggles plaguing the business founder community.

In today’s episode we’re digging into:

• Questioning the assumptions about startup life having to be a nonstop, lonely thrill ride
• Asking if a culture shift within the venture capital and business world create more space for founders to be human?
• Are there lessons from the self-care regimens of pro athletes that could build resilience for entrepreneurs?
• What would it take to transform entrepreneurial stress into strength?
• How can we reconnect founders to purpose and possibility, despite the emotional rollercoaster of uncertainty?
• The reality and humanity behind heady business metrics and million-dollar valuations

And we’re in conversation with:

SPARKED HOT TAKE WITH: Yael Benjamin | Website

Yael is the founder of Startup Snapshot, a data-sharing platform for the startup ecosystem. She is passionate about leveraging data to generate transparency in the venture industry, providing founders with the insights, benchmarks and data points they need to accelerate their ventures forward. Over the past 6 months, Yael has focused on researching the toll of entrepreneurship on the founder’s mental health and well-being, working to normalize this long taboo topic. The research has been featured in Forbes, Crunchbase, Inc and other leading news publications.

YOUR HOST: Jonathan Fields

Jonathan is a dad, husband, award-winning author, multi-time founder, executive producer and host of the Good Life Project podcast, and co-host of SPARKED, too! He’s also the creator of an unusual tool that’s helped more than 650,000 people discover what kind of work makes them come alive - the Sparketype® Assessment, and author of the bestselling book, SPARKED.

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