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Why founders break: the math of burnout
A founder emailed me after last week's Founder Brief with a question I couldn't answer in a reply: when your capacity to handle stress is already gone, can you get it back?
Short answer: yes. Long answer: this episode.
I take a flip chart and walk through the model I use with every founder, executive and investor I work with - why burnout isn't a mood problem, it's a load problem, and why the most common medical advice given to high performers ("you just need to stress less") is not only useless but actively makes things worse.
What we cover:
→ The destruction/construction graph - why you need damage to grow, and what happens when the damage never stops
→ Allostatic load, and the four buckets it splits into: neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, metabolic, inflammatory
→ Why it all goes into one bucket - your body doesn't care whether the strain came from a board meeting, a bad diet, or a chronic infection
→ The 105-out-of-100 problem: how a typical founder is running a load their recovery can't cover
→ What we actually measure (cortisol awakening response, DHEA-S, ApoB, homocysteine, IL-6, CRP, urinary neurotransmitter markers) and why guessing is flying blind
→ Non-negotiables vs. everything else - the pressure, the travel, the decisions stay. Nearly everything else is negotiable.
→ Push vs. recovery, and how HRV and resting heart rate tell you which side of the line you're on
→ Whether regulatory bandwidth can be rebuilt - and what the evidence says
The paper that started it: "Regulatory Bandwidth: A Theoretical Integration of Present Multisystem Stress-Regulatory Capacity" (Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2026) — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42407406/
THE FOUNDER BRIEF
The weekly newsletter where I break down the science worth your attention. No spam. Sign in
WORK WITH ME
Founder Program - Apply
Everything in this episode is for educational purposes only. It is not medical advice. Do not change your treatment, protocol, or medication without consulting your doctor.
Music licensed through Soundstripe.
Code: SXVRV1TMR4ECROBG
#Burnout #FounderHealth #AllostaticLoad #HRV #Longevity #HumanPerformance #ExecutiveHealth
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By Miguel DamasA founder emailed me after last week's Founder Brief with a question I couldn't answer in a reply: when your capacity to handle stress is already gone, can you get it back?
Short answer: yes. Long answer: this episode.
I take a flip chart and walk through the model I use with every founder, executive and investor I work with - why burnout isn't a mood problem, it's a load problem, and why the most common medical advice given to high performers ("you just need to stress less") is not only useless but actively makes things worse.
What we cover:
→ The destruction/construction graph - why you need damage to grow, and what happens when the damage never stops
→ Allostatic load, and the four buckets it splits into: neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, metabolic, inflammatory
→ Why it all goes into one bucket - your body doesn't care whether the strain came from a board meeting, a bad diet, or a chronic infection
→ The 105-out-of-100 problem: how a typical founder is running a load their recovery can't cover
→ What we actually measure (cortisol awakening response, DHEA-S, ApoB, homocysteine, IL-6, CRP, urinary neurotransmitter markers) and why guessing is flying blind
→ Non-negotiables vs. everything else - the pressure, the travel, the decisions stay. Nearly everything else is negotiable.
→ Push vs. recovery, and how HRV and resting heart rate tell you which side of the line you're on
→ Whether regulatory bandwidth can be rebuilt - and what the evidence says
The paper that started it: "Regulatory Bandwidth: A Theoretical Integration of Present Multisystem Stress-Regulatory Capacity" (Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2026) — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42407406/
THE FOUNDER BRIEF
The weekly newsletter where I break down the science worth your attention. No spam. Sign in
WORK WITH ME
Founder Program - Apply
Everything in this episode is for educational purposes only. It is not medical advice. Do not change your treatment, protocol, or medication without consulting your doctor.
Music licensed through Soundstripe.
Code: SXVRV1TMR4ECROBG
#Burnout #FounderHealth #AllostaticLoad #HRV #Longevity #HumanPerformance #ExecutiveHealth