The Emotional rollercoaster ride - Tim Ferriss

As an entrepreneur you are daily on an emotional rollercoaster ride. It comes with the package. If you do start-ups like me, you will absolutly know this as a fact. Many ultra successful people has been diagnosed manic-depressive or bi-polar. Two famous people with this diagnos is Francis Ford Coppola and billionaire Ted Turner. Even though I have not got any such diagnos (because I have never done an examination) I am pretty certain I am manic-depressive. I can be very, very optimistic about something one day and the next I can be very cynical about the positive outcome of the same thing. I am my worst critic.

In today's post Tim Ferriss discusses the emotional side of being an entrepreneur and I really think it is interesting, because emotions are what makes or break an entrepreneur. Can you control your emotions or are the emotions controlling you? That is an important question to answer.

Harnessing Entrepreneurial Manic-Depression: Making the Rollercoaster Work for You - The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss

I am often very negative first thing after waking up about ideas that excited me the night before.

I know the exact feeling that roller coaster gives you. I've been high, I've been low, but in the end, it's probably better than having sat in a cubicle on a straight track year after year.

Nice link, thanks :-)

It's funny when you are going uphill. The negative thoughts you had before seemed like nonsense and stupid. And when you are at the bottom it's the opposite. You will start thinking what made you enthusiastic and energized. The best cure I have found for this is doing something absolutely differently. Call a competitor and say hello and ask hows the family or send a postcard. It makes you feel like LOL and soon you will realize that you are going uphill again

Thanks for the link fancock. easy read and great tips

I think the most important thing about the cycle is learning to grow through it. Pain will teach you what your Pride won't let you learn!

Yes, I definitely agree that being involved in start-up businesses takes a special mindset. It is nearly impossible to see the light at the end of the tunnel when things aren't going the right way. I've learned persistence definitely helps ride the cycle.

Persistence is very important. In a start-up you need to be someone who doesn't mind exploring all kinds of paths to the same goal. Sometimes the first strategy might be the wrong strategy. If that is so: correct it.

And the mood swings that I have myself when starting companies are pretty normal. It requires a great deal of courage and stamina to keep up the tempo that is required. And just as there is one side of it, there is another side to it as well. Just as you drink coffee and becomes very alert, you also becomes very tired in the end when the effect takes another turn on you. The same with extreme emotions like stress, adrenalin etc. There is a back-end side to it.

Personally, I always feel an adrenalin surge when starting a company. I can't sleep and I am really alert and on the go. It comes naturally for me. But later on I can sleep 1-2 days straight. Not always, but it does happen sometimes. The body compensates. It always does.

My experience is that my physical fitness is very important during the emotionally demanding period of starting up a company. The fitter I am the less mood swings I have. So I exercise a lot.
Fanocks, do you recognize this?

I can very much so relate. I excercise 5 days a week. My training schedule at the moment looks like this:

40 push-ups.
46 upper belly sit-ups.
40 lower belly sit-ups.
40 butt training (training upper tighs and butt). Also good for training your balance.
1 km of walking.

I do this each day, 5 days a week.

This makes me control my emotions better. It is a must for me to excercise. It makes me feel good (endorphines).

Others drink alcohol, I excercise.