ENTREPRENEURS’ SYNDROME

Among entrepreneurs, bravado is common. In some cases, it may even underpin their success. Surprisingly often, it is the product of a mental condition.

Dr. Michael Freeman, a psychiatrist with the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, discovered that one in two entrepreneurs had a lifetime history of at least one mental health condition and that 32 per cent had wrestled with multiple conditions. This was based on his recent survey of 242 entrepreneurs and 93 non-entrepreneurs of similar age.

More specifically, Freeman’s study — Are Entrepreneurs Touched with Fire — showed that 30 per cent of the entrepreneurs he surveyed had experienced depression compared to just 15 per cent for the control group, and 11 per cent had reported bipolar disorder compared to one per cent for the non-entrepreneurs.

This doesn’t answer the question of whether people who choose to become entrepreneurs are predisposed toward mental illness, or whether the high-tech industry creates forces that produce mental distress. It may be a little of both.

“We all know that the tech profession tears you away from family far too much,” says Chris Albinson, managing director of Panorama Capital and a founding member of C-100, a group of Canadians working in California.

Former Intel chief executive Andy Grove famously wrote that in high-tech “only the paranoid survive.” The demands are unrelenting. From inception a startup is often just one step short of oblivion. Most will either fail outright or drift through life a mediocre survivor.

Economic fortunes in hightech can shift dramatically and unexpectedly. The highs associated with landing significant equity investments or orders are a rush to the brain; the lows that come with failed deals and cancelled purchases are mind-numbingly deep.

“The majority of the time, patients with bipolar disorder will be in the depressive phase, not the manic,” says Dr. Sanjay Rao, a psychiatrist and clinical leader in cognitive behavioural therapy at The Royal Ottawa, “We also look for evidence of atypical behaviour.”

Diagnostics are frustratingly imprecise — perhaps not surprising given the massive complexity of the brain.

The majority of the time, patients with bipolar disorder will be in the depressive phase. … We also look for evidence of atypical behaviour.