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The Startup Founder’s Dilemma: Success At The Cost Of Health

5 0
27.01.2025

Don’t keep off spring, dear startup founders, even when funds freeze in winter chill.

When Zerodha cofounder and chief executive Nithin Kamath suffered a mild stroke last year, the media and influencer fraternity wondered how it could happen to a big-time advocate of fitness barely in his 40s.

Kamath, known for his strict workout regime and aesthetic physique, shared later that it could have been triggered by his father’s demise or lack of sleep, exhaustion, dehydration, or excessive working out. But the incident set off an alarm bell – anyone could be hit by heart ailments, or cardiovascular diseases in medical parlance, without any indication well in advance. And, it is often directly linked to our overall lifestyle, food habits, sleep, stress level, or any kind of mental health issues.

Regular exercise keeps us agile and helps prevent heart ailments to some extent, or reduce their toll on the body, or recover faster, but it cannot protect us from such a blow entirely. Is it inevitable? Not really.

What drives us to discuss an unusual subject far from our field of interest? Why are we drifting from our daily dose of sector coverages, exclusives, breaking news, and investigative pieces? Is Inc42 changing the track? Not really.

This article connects us to the root. It is the root that takes us to the top management, CXOs, founders, and entrepreneurs who have been instrumental to the blooming of the Great Indian Startup Ecosystem as the third largest in the world.

Your health, dear startup parents, matters when it comes to India’s dream of growing into a global economic powerhouse.

The subject attains higher relevance when we sit down and look back at the loss of several young Indian entrepreneurs who could propel India’s startup economy to a higher level. The devil was common in most cases – cardiac arrest. While the deaths came like blows to the heart of Digital India, Corporate India battled a raging debate over a 70-90-hour work week.

The old Latin adage of mens sana in corpore sano (sound mind in a sound body), fights for its meaning to corporate chiefs when client calls start raining, when rushing to pitch for investments, when time comes to clear the salaries, or when hurtling between cities. The first victim is the work-life balance.

The balance gets more distorted when there’s little or no time for regular checks on their physical and mental parameters or visiting the doctor for a nagging issue. The ultimate victim is a death knell from the heart.

It’s time, dear entrepreneurs, let your health stake its claim on your priority list.

In a recent public event, Peak XV managing director Mohit Bhatnagar........

© Inc42


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