Crohn's vs Entrepreneurship

[rvh]

Hi there,

I'm a very ambitious 22 y/o, and I want to give back to society by starting an EdTech company. However, I've been living with Crohn's since I was 7, and have seen a pattern of flaring up when I get stressed. The worst one was in my final year of school when I got 4 hours a day for a week and ended up having two surgeries in three months.

A recent flare happened where I participated in a Hackathon. What's a Hackathon, I hear you ask? Well, you're given 54 hours to create a business, validate the idea, create a viable business model, make a few sales (if lucky) and pitch it to 3 judges who have started their own company. I ended up having 2 hours of sleep on the second day and since then my gut hasn't been happy with me.

The unfortunate thing is that my body and my mind don't work together. I love challenging myself, getting over my fears and getting outside of my comfort zone, but my body can't handle stress or sleep deprivation.

I hear that Entrepreneurship can be stressful. From last minute flights, to pitching to investors with little notice and managing different personalities; and in the longer scheme of things for the Founder/CEO to put out fires. I would love to build the mental strength for this, though I'm unsure as to whether my body can handle.

Also, it would be ironic for me to get sick when creating an app to help students with wellness and goal setting.

I look up to GaryVee and he says to stop worrying and start doing. I really wish I could, but I worry that I'll get sick and end up having to go through surgery again. I would prefer to stay healthy and have 400K, than to lose my intestines and have $1 bn. Lately, I've also probably spent 5 hours a week wondering if I should work full time instead of trying to create a startup. I wish I could make a decision and move on.

My question to you is, is it possible to have Crohn's while pushing your boundaries? Is it possible to be an entrepreneur while dealing with Crohn's? Is it possible to be a business owner with Crohn's? Are there ways I can manage this journey?

I would love to hear your advice! Please be as open and honest as possible with your feedback #nohardfeelings

Also, feel free to DM me

 

[rvh]

Sorry for the essay

 

[December's flower]

I'm very impressed by your ambitions and achievements.
I believe that you are capable of doing amything and that you should definitely follow your dreams.
You only live once, right ?
And let me tell you, that I'm sure even if I don't know you personally that you are stronger than you think.(sounds like a cliché,I know)
Battling Crohn's since you were a little kid is the ultimate springboard for the adult life.
I deeply understand your concerns as I am 23 and I had a major Crohn's surgery and other health and personal issues , but I'm not giving up.
I study, work,run the household and try to support my partner ,my family and my friends.
My secret is that above all I prioritise myself and I have left behind the past.
Just look ahead to the future.

 

[rvh]

WOW, you've achieved a lot! Thank you December's flower, for your reply. I really do appreciate it!

It's hard to get into the habit of prioritising myself, but I shall try to become better at that. I like what you say about leaving the past behind too

 

[DCCrohns]

Love your ambition! While I am not a tech entrepreneur, I did leave my corporate job two years ago to start my own business. A week after I left my old job I had major surgery, but I used my recovery time to get things in place to launch my business.

I had some of the same concerns as you, but I also came from a job that was full of stress and lots of hours. For me, being my own boss -- though stressful -- is less so to me than before. Since then I've had a few more surgeries and am in a clinical trial (that requires me to travel about 1,000 miles each way for seven visits...so far).

I think the key is to be in tune with yourself and build in checks to get ahead of any potential impact. At the same time, hopefully you have family & friends that provide that extra level of emotional support (which I'm sure they already have) that it takes to battle Crohn's and be an entrepreneur.

Wishing you all the best!

 

[December's flower]

Thank you rvh .
I quote you some David Niven's words that inspired me from Goodreads.com

"Much in life is a matter of perspective.
It's not inherently good or bad, a success or failure; it's how we choose to look at things that makes the difference"
I wish you the best

 

[D Bergy]

I have started two businesses one with my wife and bought one in my life so far. It is unlikely I will do so in the future as I have accomplished what I set out to do. Been there done that.

While Crohn’s only affected the last business in any way, we didn’t sell it for that reason but it was a small factor as owning your own business especially with several employees is stressful for certain. General burnout was the main reason.

Not nearly as stressful if you are not employing others in larger numbers. This is because you not only have the business to be concerned with but you are now a human resources person and employee management eats up more of your time.

In the middle of my worst Crohn’s attack which totally disabled me our business was hemorrhaging money. It was the first and last time in our twenty five year history we were losing money each month and I was unable to do a darn thing about it. By the time I recovered enough to get back to the office we were $80,000 in the red and close to bankruptcy.

I quickly identified the problems, made the needed corrections and then we dug ourselves out of the hole and also made it a point to monitor things better so it wouldn’t happen again. So yes, Crohn’s set us back but the lesson learned was to set things up in advance for some health issue or emergency to accommodate such a problem. We made more money in those years after than we ever had before.

I guess whether you have Crohn’s or not, I worry more about regretting what I wanted to do, but didn’t, rather than trying something
and failing. Even if you fail, you learn way more about how to succeed than you could in any class room and you may start several businesses in your lifetime. Each time you are smarter, more experienced, and more likely to succeed.

Best of luck to you.

Dan

 

[rvh]

Love your ambition! While I am not a tech entrepreneur, I did leave my corporate job two years ago to start my own business. A week after I left my old job I had major surgery, but I used my recovery time to get things in place to launch my business.

I had some of the same concerns as you, but I also came from a job that was full of stress and lots of hours. For me, being my own boss -- though stressful -- is less so to me than before. Since then I've had a few more surgeries and am in a clinical trial (that requires me to travel about 1,000 miles each way for seven visits...so far).

I think the key is to be in tune with yourself and build in checks to get ahead of any potential impact. At the same time, hopefully you have family & friends that provide that extra level of emotional support (which I'm sure they already have) that it takes to battle Crohn's and be an entrepreneur.

Wishing you all the best!

Your words have inspired me DCCrohns! I do my best to set aside some time to self reflect, but after reading your post I think I should take a step forward and be somewhat risk averse by creating contingency plans for flare ups.

If I may ask, why do you think the flare and surgeries happened after you set up your company?

 

[DCCrohns]

Your words have inspired me DCCrohns! I do my best to set aside some time to self reflect, but after reading your post I think I should take a step forward and be somewhat risk averse by creating contingency plans for flare ups.

If I may ask, why do you think the flare and surgeries happened after you set up your company?

The surgery was actually pre-planned prior to starting my business...so no correlation there! My biggest concern was actually moving from private insurance from my employer to finding my own plan and self-funding. So far, all has gone well with coverage for multiple surgeries, new drugs, etc.

 

[rvh]

I have started two businesses one with my wife and bought one in my life so far. It is unlikely I will do so in the future as I have accomplished what I set out to do. Been there done that.

While Crohn’s only affected the last business in any way, we didn’t sell it for that reason but it was a small factor as owning your own business especially with several employees is stressful for certain. General burnout was the main reason.

Not nearly as stressful if you are not employing others in larger numbers. This is because you not only have the business to be concerned with but you are now a human resources person and employee management eats up more of your time.

In the middle of my worst Crohn’s attack which totally disabled me our business was hemorrhaging money. It was the first and last time in our twenty five year history we were losing money each month and I was unable to do a darn thing about it. By the time I recovered enough to get back to the office we were $80,000 in the red and close to bankruptcy.

I quickly identified the problems, made the needed corrections and then we dug ourselves out of the hole and also made it a point to monitor things better so it wouldn’t happen again. So yes, Crohn’s set us back but the lesson learned was to set things up in advance for some health issue or emergency to accommodate such a problem. We made more money in those years after than we ever had before.

I guess whether you have Crohn’s or not, I worry more about regretting what I wanted to do, but didn’t, rather than trying something
and failing. Even if you fail, you learn way more about how to succeed than you could in any class room and you may start several businesses in your lifetime. Each time you are smarter, more experienced, and more likely to succeed.

Best of luck to you.

Dan

Sorry to hear about your struggles with Crohn's and the hardships you faced while running your business. Though, I admire your resilience and I aim to become as mentally strong as you. Moreover, your ability to bounce back is impressive.

From what I'm hearing, it sounds that employee management is crucial to running a business. I'll definitely have to look into how I can become a better manager. And burnout is something I need to work on too. Like December's Flower mentioned, prioritising myself is probably the first step.

I agree with you about regret. I don't want to be 80 and wonder 'what if', though the main concern I have, is 'Can I stay healthy?'

Thank you for your insight Dan

 

[rvh]

The surgery was actually pre-planned prior to starting my business...so no correlation there! My biggest concern was actually moving from private insurance from my employer to finding my own plan and self-funding. So far, all has gone well with coverage for multiple surgeries, new drugs, etc.

That's reassuring, and also great news!:ybiggrin:

 

[kkramer]

That's amazing! You should be very proud of yourself. I too found myself in the entrepreneur realm but at times got bogged down by ulcerative colitis. Those days are both crushing and empowering at the same time. While going through a flare, we get tested in a way that no other entrepreneur without this disease could ever be tested. We have to dig deeper and because of that, we will always come out in better shape mentally.

keep focused and you'll do great things!

 

[rvh]

Thanks kkramer for your kind words and words of wisdom!

Keen to hear about your startup and what you do.

Also, does anyone in your professional network know that you have UC? Like team members and investors? I've heard that founders with health illnesses can devalue the company. This concerns me. The best example is probably when people found out that Steve Jobs was struggling with his health and the shares dropped.

 

[D Bergy]

I agree with you about regret. I don't want to be 80 and wonder 'what if', though the main concern I have, is 'Can I stay healthy?'

Thats the trick to it all isn’t it? Can I stay healthy?

The good news is at your age you have time to figure it out. The bad news is that you have Crohn’s at a young age. I experienced my symptoms and illness in my late 40’s. Although I am sure it was brewing since my teens in retrospect.

I approached it like a business problem or any problem. What can I do in the short run to function? Similar to taking out a line of credit to buy time when our business was losing money. It not a total solutions but it gives you time to correct the problem. Those are your tactics.

What can I do to resolve the problem in the long run? Root cause or as close to it as possible. That will become your strategy. Similar to the losing money problem, there are reasons for it like anything else. They are more complex and certainly more difficult to address but not many things in life are hopelessly unexplainable or unfixable to at least some degree.

That really is your largest business problem at this time if you look at it in a business context.

Dan

 

[Deleted member 431298]

My experience is different, and I would advice anyone with a CD diagnosis to seriously reconsider pursuing a way of life that is career focused and stressful. Unless the career does not compromise a focus on one self, which is often impossible to achieve.

I was ignorant - I went for the career, and for many years I suppressed my body's signals (had to). I had to take alot of meds, steroids, biologics, other immunosuppressants, u name it. Still my CD - and my health in general got really bad, and it was not until I quit my "important career" and got a less demanding job I got my health under control.
("important career" in quotations, because how important was it really now that I look back) .

During my education I naively followed the positive thinking type of advice I got from teachers and friends like "if you just put our mind to it, anything is possible.. " type of advice.
CD is a really serious disease, and boy - the strain your body is under due to it.
Anyone with more than mild CD I will advice to try to lead a life with less than 6 hours of work a day + weekends off to allow for room to cook proper food, exercise, and most importantly - rest and sleep.

 

[DHabes]

Hi rvh,

I'm in a similar position. 2 years ago, when I was 25, I joined a tech startup as one of the first employees, also in a domain I was extremely bright eye'd and passionate about, ambitious to change the world. You're right, the lifestyle can be very grueling. My health degraded a lot and I was diagnosed with Crohns about a year ago, and am still trying to figure things out. We've since grown a lot and having Crohns has posed different issues along the way. I won't lie, the thought that my career and my health cannot co-exist has definitely entered my mind, but I don't think it's necessarily true (even as I sit here unable to sleep for the 3rd day straight due to abdominal pain). I don't think I can fully answer your question but here's some insight I've gained in the last year:

1) Listening to your body is more important than listening to anyone else (including investors) everyone succeeds when you succeed as a tech entrepreneur. Anyone who invests in you or joins your team is showing they believe in your vision, and to execute that vision with Crohns the #1 challenge you will face is your health, so treat it as you would treat copyright infringement, or any other major barrier. For me this has meant carving out time to meditate even if I'm busy, even if I think I feel fine. I've actually had Crohns for almost 8 years now but only finally got diagnosed and got treatment this year, even though I have been suffering immensely and had people in my life yelling at me to deal with this issue for years. Obviously I didn't hit the "rock bottom" I needed to, but now I see that I can't be a productive or happy person without prioritizing this above everything else in my life.

2) Surround yourself with a team that is mission driven Don't try to do it alone. Surround yourself with a team that cares deeply about your company and who you trust. I'm sure you've read that this is a major issue for any entrepreneur. But as someone with Crohns you will need to lean on people you trust even earlier, so you you don't have time to make this mistake.

3) Don't work when you shouldn't It's better to take the time you need to take care of yourself when you need it. You will try to rationalize to yourself that you can still work a half day or you can work from home, but ultimately that won't benefit anyone - this is a time when you should lean on others. I learned this one that hard way. Side note - make sure you create redundancy in your teams skillset early on, because you will need people to take on certain tasks that you do, since during a flare you will be able to do certain things and not others.

4) Be open about your disease with your team and your investors Everyone in this industry is very driven and competitive, but the right team and investors for you will be compassionate and understand that the traits you get from fighting Crohns will help you be successful as an entrepreneur, even as it acts as a disability in some ways. The only way they can know that about you is if you're very open about it. This won't devalue you as a person or devalue your company - those people are definitely out there, you just need to find them.


I don't know if this is a good path. I may be doing more damage to my body than I should, even if I do think this lifestyle is doable. I recommend you at least give it a shot, because if you're as ambitious as you say then there's more of a risk of you regretting not doing it than the inverse. But please listen to your body and don't fall into the trap of thinking that Crohns won't prevent you from being an entrepreneur. Because it WILL prevent you from being an entrepreneur if you go into it with that mentality.

Good luck to you! And let me know if you ever need someone to talk to,

Dan

 

[kkramer]

Also, does anyone in your professional network know that you have UC?

I actually have not revealed this to anyone in my network for the reasons you stated. Once I'm in a position where I feel it wouldn't have an impact on perception, I'll make it known.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[rvh]

I agree with you about regret. I don't want to be 80 and wonder 'what if', though the main concern I have, is 'Can I stay healthy?'

Thats the trick to it all isn’t it? Can I stay healthy?

The good news is at your age you have time to figure it out. The bad news is that you have Crohn’s at a young age. I experienced my symptoms and illness in my late 40’s. Although I am sure it was brewing since my teens in retrospect.

I approached it like a business problem or any problem. What can I do in the short run to function? Similar to taking out a line of credit to buy time when our business was losing money. It not a total solutions but it gives you time to correct the problem. Those are your tactics.

What can I do to resolve the problem in the long run? Root cause or as close to it as possible. That will become your strategy. Similar to the losing money problem, there are reasons for it like anything else. They are more complex and certainly more difficult to address but not many things in life are hopelessly unexplainable or unfixable to at least some degree.

That really is your largest business problem at this time if you look at it in a business context.

Dan

Thanks again for your reply Dan!

I like the idea of looking at things from a short and long term focus.

"What can I do to resolve the problem in the long run? Root cause or as close to it as possible." Well the answer for that would be stress. If only stress didn't exist hahaha.... a lot of introspection awaits

 

[rvh]

My experience is different, and I would advice anyone with a CD diagnosis to seriously reconsider pursuing a way of life that is career focused and stressful. Unless the career does not compromise a focus on one self, which is often impossible to achieve.

I was ignorant - I went for the career, and for many years I suppressed my body's signals (had to). I had to take alot of meds, steroids, biologics, other immunosuppressants, u name it. Still my CD - and my health in general got really bad, and it was not until I quit my "important career" and got a less demanding job I got my health under control.
("important career" in quotations, because how important was it really now that I look back) .

During my education I naively followed the positive thinking type of advice I got from teachers and friends like "if you just put our mind to it, anything is possible.. " type of advice.
CD is a really serious disease, and boy - the strain your body is under due to it.
Anyone with more than mild CD I will advice to try to lead a life with less than 6 hours of work a day + weekends off to allow for room to cook proper food, exercise, and most importantly - rest and sleep.

Thank you for your response OleJ and for sharing your experience. I appreciate it highly. Great to get another person's perspective.

I'm also thinking through other options that would allow me to challenge myself without putting too much stress on my body or mind.

Just to get a better understanding, how was your job demanding?

In the past I've got involved in numerous things:- had two jobs, did three extra curricular activities and did full time study, which caused a flare. To stay healthy I had to quit some of the things I was doing. I did try a complete lifestyle change by focusing less on being 'busy' but it hurt my mental health. What I ended up doing was reduce my load a bit. I've realised that I do need to keep myself busy to stay sane. Hopefully I'll be able to achieve a balance

 

[rvh]

Thank you Dan for taking the time to write an extensive and thorough response. I am incredibly grateful.

I've just went through and underlined some of your statements that resonate with me.

Hi rvh,

I'm in a similar position. 2 years ago, when I was 25, I joined a tech startup as one of the first employees, also in a domain I was extremely bright eye'd and passionate about, ambitious to change the world. You're right, the lifestyle can be very grueling. My health degraded a lot and I was diagnosed with Crohns about a year ago, and am still trying to figure things out. We've since grown a lot and having Crohns has posed different issues along the way. I won't lie, the thought that my career and my health cannot co-exist has definitely entered my mind, but I don't think it's necessarily true (even as I sit here unable to sleep for the 3rd day straight due to abdominal pain). I don't think I can fully answer your question but here's some insight I've gained in the last year

1) Listening to your body is more important than listening to anyone else (including investors) everyone succeeds when you succeed as a tech entrepreneur. Anyone who invests in you or joins your team is showing they believe in your vision, and to execute that vision with Crohns the #1 challenge you will face is your health, so treat it as you would treat copyright infringement, or any other major barrier. For me this has meant carving out time to meditate even if I'm busy, even if I think I feel fine. I've actually had Crohns for almost 8 years now but only finally got diagnosed and got treatment this year, even though I have been suffering immensely and had people in my life yelling at me to deal with this issue for years. Obviously I didn't hit the "rock bottom" I needed to, but now I see that I can't be a productive or happy person without prioritizing this above everything else in my life.

:ybiggrin:

2) Surround yourself with a team that is mission driven Don't try to do it alone. Surround yourself with a team that cares deeply about your company and who you trust. I'm sure you've read that this is a major issue for any entrepreneur. But as someone with Crohns you will need to lean on people you trust even earlier, so you don't have time to make this mistake.

I agree with this, even through first hand experience. For anyone who's starting a business, a team who cares about the mission is vital for the success of the company.

3) Don't work when you shouldn't It's better to take the time you need to take care of yourself when you need it. You will try to rationalize to yourself that you can still work a half day or you can work from home, but ultimately that won't benefit anyone - this is a time when you should lean on others. I learned this one that hard way. Side note - make sure you create redundancy in your teams skillset early on, because you will need people to take on certain tasks that you do, since during a flare you will be able to do certain things and not others.

Learnt this when I was young but recently forget about it. It's great that you've mentioned it again. Better to nip the problem in the bud as soon as possible than to exasperate the problem.
"create redundancy in your teams skillset" - sorry, I don't think I understood properly. Could you please clarify what you meant?

4) Be open about your disease with your team and your investors Everyone in this industry is very driven and competitive, but the right team and investors for you will be compassionate and understand that the traits you get from fighting Crohns will help you be successful as an entrepreneur, even as it acts as a disability in some ways. The only way they can know that about you is if you're very open about it. This won't devalue you as a person or devalue your company - those people are definitely out there, you just need to find them.

I really appreciate this response. May I ask, at what stage did you mention this to your team and investors, and how did they react?

I don't know if this is a good path. I may be doing more damage to my body than I should, even if I do think this lifestyle is doable. I recommend you at least give it a shot, because if you're as ambitious as you say then there's more of a risk of you regretting not doing it than the inverse. But please listen to your body and don't fall into the trap of thinking that Crohns won't prevent you from being an entrepreneur. Because it WILL prevent you from being an entrepreneur if you go into it with that mentality.

:biggrin:

Good luck to you! And let me know if you ever need someone to talk to,
Dan

Good luck to you too Dan!

 

[DHabes]

Hey rvh,

By redundancy I meant that should anyone in the company not be able to fulfill their responsibility, someone else is able to step up and take over that responsibility without causing too many issues. Say a company needs HR, business development, software development, customer care, etc... and we call these 1-10. If you have a staff of 3 people, and you list each number they are capable of performing (not just capable - but actually have the time capacity and knowledge to step in smoothly), if you have a redundant team each number will be called at least twice. A really big mistake early startups make is to think that all they need is speed and that creating redundancy is inefficient (which is true), but it's becoming more popular NOT to focus on individual efficiency in startups. It is the reason 'Agile' is becoming such a popular work process in startups - team success (with success defined as creating value while persisting) often runs counter to individual efficiency. Founders especially struggle with this because it's often difficult for them to trust others with their baby. It's important in any startup but the reason I brought it up in your case is that with Crohns, it's very likely that you will fail in certain areas of your responsibilities (maybe one's that require travel, etc)... so you will need to set up redundancy early. I remember when we were 6 in our company and I would go on hiking trips with 2 other people and our COO would have panic attacks thinking that if something happened to us the entire company would fail haha... Luckily that never happened

I only mentioned to my co-workers that I had Crohns during my first major flare while working, we were already about 12 full-time employees at that time. I think if I were to do it again I probably would have mentioned it to my co-workers earlier, so that we could have been better prepared. I understand your hesitation with investors... I revealed my Crohns when we were raising a series A but we already had numbers to prove that what we were doing was working... I would probably be more hesitant to reveal it to investors when you are only at seed stage.

I really do believe that battling Crohns prepares you in many ways for the challenges you will face in a startup though, so I'm sure you will crush it

Best

Dan

 

[rvh]

Thanks Dan : )

Just an update to you guys, my business has pivoted and I've gotten accepted into a prestigious accelerator program. Things are going well so far!

 

[Connorwal]

You should definitely not stress about it. For example, a lot of great companies, that now could be called “giants” of the industry such as Google or HP, actually started from something small, from “little bets”. There are two types of people that start ventures: conceptual and experimental. Conceptual people are pretty rare, and experimental innovators are more common, as they use the trial-error and iterative approach. You can actually find online a lot of great books that give a sense of empowerment without having necessarily a big venture idea from the start. There are also a great number of articles online on this topic, such as one I read a while ago on http://asiaone.co.in/ghanshyam-sarda/. Very insightful information there.