Reflections on founder mental health, coaching, a decade after losing my mom

I&#x27;m not sure about finding a coach, but having a person that you respect to talk about your problem, issues or frustration with work is really important.<p>Whenever I&#x27;ve talked about something that bothered me with a very few people I respect, and look up to, I made better choices. I really recommend to everyone to find this person.

Alexis, how would you help someone in work-till-death-depression-spiral help to recognize they may not be as happy as they claim to be? I have a friend who works all day and all night (literally), and is almost guaranteed deeply depressed and borderline psychotic (although I am not a doctor).<p>I have tried being suggestive, and tried being direct, but the response had ultimately come down to &quot;you are not working as hard as I am, so you just don&#x27;t understand.&quot;<p>What, if anything, could help snap someone out of their depression or at least help them find help on their own?

Some bodyweight exercises and reading Reddit should not be recommended to restore mental health when dealing with any moderate or serious issue.<p>They can even turn into a delay&#x2F;avoidance tactic.<p>People dealing with serious stress should be given better advice - e.g. talk to a professional.

I appreciate that the article emphasizes personal well-being, but I&#x27;m having trouble finding its insight.<p>Specifically, I would want the author&#x27;s opinion on how much of yourself you should invest in your startup, or more philosophically, the balance between what you <i>do</i> and what you <i>are</i>.<p>Tension certainly exists between success-of-the-company and health-of-the-self, respectively represented by coaching and counseling. These two sides are separate, and, in a billion-dollar-pressure-cooker, may even be in open warfare with each other: &quot;I need to work harder&quot; versus &quot;I want to spend time with my children&quot;.<p>So far, this balance seems weighted towards the former. Michael Siebel of YC, has gone on record saying the best startups have founders who stake their self-worth on success and who are, therefore, unhealthy. [1]<p>I would even surmise that part of why the author recovered is because he left Reddit. His all-consuming focus was just that: All-consuming. Did Reddit need to eat away at him? Or was it incidental? The article doesn&#x27;t quite say one way or another, but other resources indicate that the authors departure 3 years after the acquisition, gave him the chance to work on his health.<p>A founder needs to sacrifice for their company, that much is a given.<p>But the big question for me is, in the pursuit of greatness, when does self-sacrifice become self-destruction?<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;4oeDLeRcook?t=14m56s" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;4oeDLeRcook?t=14m56s</a><p>[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.businessinsider.com&#x2F;reddit-cofounders-saw-a-therapist-together-2017-11" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.businessinsider.com&#x2F;reddit-cofounders-saw-a-thera...</a>

&gt; You only need an internet connection to change your perspective in a minute<p>That is a double-edged sword. There are wonderful and terrible things online. Deciding which ones to partake in are just as important as who you surround yourself with.

This was a great read—Ohanian&#x27;s essays are always, really.<p>I can&#x27;t say the executive coach bit makes sense to me, though. Athletes play a single, relatively unchanging game. Business, especially in the tech world, is anything but stable. There&#x27;s no set of rules like there is in atheletics. Is he effectively referring to just a mentor?