5 Signs You’re Experiencing Start-Up Guilt (And Some Worldly Advice To Help You Get Past It)

If you’re an entrepreneur this one’s for you. Here are some helps to get you through your startup guilt and back to living the productive life you deserve!

Let’s say you’re an entrepreneur and you dream in profit margins. You’ve perfected the art of making an office out of a small room that would pass as a closet, and if you attend another networking event it’s probably for the free pizza.

Another common side effect of start-up-itis (a real threat, I hear!), is the notorious start-up guilt that most businesses owners feel at some point in their journey.

If this sounds at all like you, you can continue to check your symptoms below...

     1.    You’re in the office early/late/evenings/weekends but not actually doing anything – Because trawling the Internet from the office feels that little bit more productive than doing it from your sofa. More often than not you’ll get far more done if you just take a breather and return to work when your brain isn’t going at 1000 miles per minute. 

     2.    You think you look like you’re "slacking" if you take a day off to clear your mind - Reality is, if you’re only at 50 percent the business cannot reach 100 percent of its potential. Take a day for yourself and you’ll come back at the top of your game.

     3.    You try and do everything yourself because you feel bad for delegating too much to employees because it’s your business. See, there’s something really special about start-ups and that is, more often than not, your employees are (almost) as invested in your business as you are. Watching a young company grow is exhilarating and truth is they’d be more than happy to stay the extra hour here and there in order to help the business grow in the way you all want it to grow.

     4.    When you network you try to pretend that every aspect of your business is perfect. And then, everyone you speak to is going to figure out that you’re actually a fraud and that any success you do have is undeserved and your business will crumble as everyone watches on. It’s called Imposter Syndrome and unfortunately it’s something many business owners face. It’s okay, everyone knows no business is perfect. And breathe!

     5.    Other areas of your life begin to suffer. Ah, the age-old struggle of a business owner. When you’ve cancelled for the 5th time on that friend you haven’t seen in 6 months you can feel like the worst friend in the world, but the fact of the matter is, the real friends are the ones you never owe an explanation to.

You Are Not Alone

If this post tells you one thing, it’s that you’re not alone in feeling the wrath of start-up guilt. It is real. The pressure of success can be overwhelming, but if it tells you anything else, it’s that taking a break every once in awhile may just be the best thing you can do for your business because it is no myth that a strong mind and happy self will produce better work.

Take control and win back your mind.

Sit back, relax, and try to stop allowing your work seep into your personal relaxation time.