My background: I'm a business owner, and I built it up mostly on my own, without a lot of support from a business community, so that's the lens I'm seeing this through. This is the second burnout...
Exemplary
My background: I'm a business owner, and I built it up mostly on my own, without a lot of support from a business community, so that's the lens I'm seeing this through.
This is the second burnout of the small business owner.
People don't start businesses because they want to do the admin work, they do it because they want to juggle, or be a plumber, or do marketing, and in any case being their own boss. But they don't realize when they start that if you don't have a boss to handle the business, you are the boss and have to handle it. And some people burn out there, at the first hurdle, just trying to do paperwork and marketing and networking and and and... These businesses mostly don't make it out of the first year.
Where she's at is the second hurdle. She's managed to do everything herself for a while and her business has grown, but she's still doing everything herself, even when it's beyond her capacity to do. This is the point where most other small business fail, or go through boom and bust cycles tied to the variability of the owner's ability to handle the pressure. This is also where Founder's Syndrome lies.
The owner has been doing everything their way for years and especially if they only try to hire when they're already at their limit they can't both handle current demand and train someone to help them, so it's "better" in the short term to just keep on doing it themselves. And that's a nasty trap. Because you can't do it all yourself. Not if you're still growing.
And like other very public people, Taylor needs support more than most. Someone to handle comments and messages for her so she's insulated a bit from the emotional abuse. Someone to handle some of the video editing and other things she can do but hates. It's easy to feel that you're alone, and easy to make choices that reinforce that solitude when you're already overwhelmed.
It's also something that sets you apart from your friends. Not in a bad way, but the troubles you're having at your job are very different from the ones your friends are having, and it means you don't get the same comradery unless you seek out groups that are also running businesses. I dunno. At this point I'm rambling some. Just, it's a hard and lonely road some time, and the very visible burnouts of media figures who're running their own businesses is just the visible tip of the small business owner burnout iceberg.
Yeah, I went through all this with my business several years ago, too. It is really tough, especially when things go wrong. It's funny because I mentioned in the recent "What Games Are You...
Yeah, I went through all this with my business several years ago, too. It is really tough, especially when things go wrong.
It's funny because I mentioned in the recent "What Games Are You Playing?" thread that I started playing "Outlanders". It reminds me a lot of running a business. I don't know the name of this type of game, but it's like SimCity set a few hundred years ago. You have to start a village and keep the villagers alive and happy. You have various resources you can use to grow food, build buildings, etc.
This is a lot like running a business. You have at least yourself and maybe an employee or two; possibly a spouse or loved-one and maybe some children or pets to keep fed and housed. You have some resources — your skills, maybe your computer, or your connections to people in your industry, etc. You have to leverage them all to make something people will pay you for.
The difference, of course, is that when you fail at the game, you simply start the level over, hopefully with some insight into what went wrong and a plan to do it better. In real life when you fail, you have to clean up the mess and move on — and quickly. Most people can't live without an income very long.
It's very easy to get burned out trying to keep it all together. Like in the game, there's often some insight you can gain that allows you to move ahead more quickly and with fewer problems. But until you get that insight, it feels like trying to keep a bunch of plates spinning.
Now for something completely different. I saw this video pop up on my feed today… I've watched very few videos from this channel, Taylor Tries. I found it when I picked up juggling recently. She's...
Now for something completely different.
I saw this video pop up on my feed today… I've watched very few videos from this channel, Taylor Tries. I found it when I picked up juggling recently. She's a great juggler and has a really cool introduction video I'd recommend to anyone in a heartbeat. I subscribed almost immediately, I love her enthusiasm and way of thinking.
So anyway, this was a pretty depressing watch. I still wanted to share it though. I don't even really know what more to say about it, but maybe it can lead to some good discussion.
My background: I'm a business owner, and I built it up mostly on my own, without a lot of support from a business community, so that's the lens I'm seeing this through.
This is the second burnout of the small business owner.
People don't start businesses because they want to do the admin work, they do it because they want to juggle, or be a plumber, or do marketing, and in any case being their own boss. But they don't realize when they start that if you don't have a boss to handle the business, you are the boss and have to handle it. And some people burn out there, at the first hurdle, just trying to do paperwork and marketing and networking and and and... These businesses mostly don't make it out of the first year.
Where she's at is the second hurdle. She's managed to do everything herself for a while and her business has grown, but she's still doing everything herself, even when it's beyond her capacity to do. This is the point where most other small business fail, or go through boom and bust cycles tied to the variability of the owner's ability to handle the pressure. This is also where Founder's Syndrome lies.
The owner has been doing everything their way for years and especially if they only try to hire when they're already at their limit they can't both handle current demand and train someone to help them, so it's "better" in the short term to just keep on doing it themselves. And that's a nasty trap. Because you can't do it all yourself. Not if you're still growing.
And like other very public people, Taylor needs support more than most. Someone to handle comments and messages for her so she's insulated a bit from the emotional abuse. Someone to handle some of the video editing and other things she can do but hates. It's easy to feel that you're alone, and easy to make choices that reinforce that solitude when you're already overwhelmed.
It's also something that sets you apart from your friends. Not in a bad way, but the troubles you're having at your job are very different from the ones your friends are having, and it means you don't get the same comradery unless you seek out groups that are also running businesses. I dunno. At this point I'm rambling some. Just, it's a hard and lonely road some time, and the very visible burnouts of media figures who're running their own businesses is just the visible tip of the small business owner burnout iceberg.
Yeah, I went through all this with my business several years ago, too. It is really tough, especially when things go wrong.
It's funny because I mentioned in the recent "What Games Are You Playing?" thread that I started playing "Outlanders". It reminds me a lot of running a business. I don't know the name of this type of game, but it's like SimCity set a few hundred years ago. You have to start a village and keep the villagers alive and happy. You have various resources you can use to grow food, build buildings, etc.
This is a lot like running a business. You have at least yourself and maybe an employee or two; possibly a spouse or loved-one and maybe some children or pets to keep fed and housed. You have some resources — your skills, maybe your computer, or your connections to people in your industry, etc. You have to leverage them all to make something people will pay you for.
The difference, of course, is that when you fail at the game, you simply start the level over, hopefully with some insight into what went wrong and a plan to do it better. In real life when you fail, you have to clean up the mess and move on — and quickly. Most people can't live without an income very long.
It's very easy to get burned out trying to keep it all together. Like in the game, there's often some insight you can gain that allows you to move ahead more quickly and with fewer problems. But until you get that insight, it feels like trying to keep a bunch of plates spinning.
Now for something completely different.
I saw this video pop up on my feed today… I've watched very few videos from this channel, Taylor Tries. I found it when I picked up juggling recently. She's a great juggler and has a really cool introduction video I'd recommend to anyone in a heartbeat. I subscribed almost immediately, I love her enthusiasm and way of thinking.
So anyway, this was a pretty depressing watch. I still wanted to share it though. I don't even really know what more to say about it, but maybe it can lead to some good discussion.