When we think of entrepreneurship we all probably think of business plans, expansion strategies, disruptive technologies, and marketing. I think this article is important because it deals with something that is less commonly thought of; the mental health of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is risky – and with risk comes stress, and potentially failure. While failure can actually be good for an enterprise (such as the idea that it’s good to fail early on) it can exacerbate, or even cause, feelings of depression.
I think my personal take-away from this is that there isn’t a particular ‘type’ of entrepreneur that is susceptible to depression, and that it isn’t even necessarily correlated to success.
Not enough has been written about this. I suspect that there are a lot more mental health issues surrounding entrepreneurship than we suspect. Not only depression, but anxiety and substance abuse would also seem to be likely players in this drama. There are also difficulties with relationships; many a successful entrepreneur will tell you that starting a business can put a real strain on a marriage.
I hope we’ll see much more research on this topic in the future.