Depression among entrepreneurs
Cheezburger's founder Ben Huh opens up about hitting bottom and contemplating suicide.
TL;DR: get out of the office. When we closed our last startup, the best advice anyone gave us was to spend as much time outside as we possible, away from the computer. We started hiking every day and I bought a bicycle, and it definitely made things so much better.
Would even taking a walk outside the office help, or are nature hikes substantially better?
Every startup has ups and downs. I find just walking to be helpful.
But what Ben Huh talks about in his post is actual clinical depression, which does seem to be present in a lot of creative people I know. In that case just walking is probably not enough.
I remember when the founder of Gnutella killed himself ten years ago. There were a lot of us who wished we could have done something to make him not feel so alone and isolated and carrying the world on himself.
I can't even imagine how isolating and scary things must be for solo founders. I always tell entrepreneurs that they need to put forth the effort to find at least one person they can trust and depend upon entirely. Otherwise it is too easy to lose perspective in this business.
True.
I also think it's important to have life goals.
Ben Huh, the guy whose post inspired this thread, has a lot of them: http://www.benhuh.com/life-goals/
Sometimes life goals keep you going even when life takes a bad turn.
It's interesting to juxtapose what Ben wrote about depression with another article by Wired in which he exudes confidence in not letting icanhascheezburger die when it becomes too much work: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2008/04/behind-the-me-3/
Perhaps what gave him that confidence can also take it away.
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