Why Mindfulness Is Important For Founders

“One problem with being an entrepreneur is that it’s very easy to become distracted.”

It’s easy to lose sight of the big picture because you have to take care of the 150 things which need to be done on a daily basis to keep your startup live and kicking. Because the buck stops with you, you have to put out the daily fires which plague a startup and this often consumes all your energies.

“You have to struggle with employees who threaten to leave ; customers who are never happy ; and investors who are always complaining about your lack of progress.”

It’s easy to lose focus, especially when you see some of your competitors getting funded and being written up in the press, even though you know that they have no depth.

This does cause a lot of heartburn, which is why it’s so important to be self-aware. Meditation can be a very useful tool because it allows you to search inwards. It helps you to find contentment and satisfaction in the path you’ve chosen for yourself rather than worry about what the rest of the world is doing.

One way to keep your sanity when everything around you seems to be collapsing and you are finding it hard to cope is to recite the the Serenity Prayer:

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.”

[This post by Dr. Aniruddha Malpani first appeared on LinkedIn and has been reproduced with permission.]