Sometimes a Vacation Just Isn't Enough

[View this email in your browser]( • [Forward to a Friend]( Can Founders Take a Sabbatical? TL;DR: "I'm burnt the hell out. I'm at a point where taking another vacation would be nice, but I know already that when it's over, I'm going to be just as fried as I am now. I need a hard reset. I'm thinking about doing something more extreme like a sabbatical, but is that really an option for a startup Founder?" Sometimes a vacation isn't enough — we need a hard reset. The game we play as Founders has massive costs to our emotional, mental and physical well-being, so thinking we can replenish all of what's lost in a "sweet trip to Mexico" is almost certainly not going to do the trick. What we need is a full life reset — we need a sabbatical. We almost never hear the term "sabbatical" mentioned in any part of the startup universe and there's a good reason — we're way too needed at our startup! It's that very notion that prevents us from ever replenishing our reserves, which are exactly what we need to effectively build our startup. Today’s Advice Sponsored by [Zendesk]( What Does a Startup Sabbatical Look Like? Our sabbaticals don't have to be a ridiculous amount of time off — they just have to be enough time to feel like we're not on vacation anymore. They have to feel like enough time that when we wake up in the morning we don't immediately think about work. Ideally, we have something else entirely to focus on. The problem with vacations is that they often only hold our attention for a short period of time. In the back of our minds, we always know the days are ticking away and we'll be back at work before we know it. Our sabbatical has to be designed specifically to re-route our focus entirely. It's impossible to rest our legs if we're still jogging. Everyone's recovery time is different, but a safe bet would be twice as long as we think we'd possibly need. The first few weeks are just going to be an adjustment while we sneak peeks at emails and company chats. The real recovery won't come until weeks afterward when we've fully "forgotten" we were supposed to do that at all. How Does a Founder Take a Sabbatical? While we may think a sabbatical sounds great, how the hell would we ever take one? Everyone relies on us, right? If we step aside the center simply doesn't hold! That's why we need to run this like any other major initiative at our company. We need to have goals, assignments, and outcomes. A great place to start is to temporarily promote the people around us to step in and take the reins. While no one person may be able to do our job (not true, but let's pretend) the key is to spread the work across a handful of people so that everyone's additional contribution is digestible. If possible, we may even create some additional compensation as an incentive. But the most important part of initiating a sabbatical is making sure everyone understands the importance of why we're doing it. That means being very open about the challenges we're facing, the costs we're now paying daily (anxiety, burnout, depression) and the goal we're trying to achieve on the other side of this. What If Things Blow Up? They might, just not to the extent we build our nightmares around. Unless we're planning on isolating ourselves on an island with no connectivity, which isn't a bad idea, we can always give our staff the opportunity to reach out if things go really, really bad. In fact, we shouldn't discourage them from doing so, because shit happens, and while we want our sabbatical to help us recharge, we also want a startup to come back to when we're done. What we need to prepare our team for is what our expectations are for those moments. If we're giving people extra responsibility we also need to recognize that they may not have the experience or authority to solve problems the way we would. We need to let them know what our tolerance for mistakes is because we already have one, we just only blame ourselves when we push them! No matter how much we think our startup's futures rests on our shoulders, it doesn't. If our plane goes down today, it's not like everyone is just going to fold the tents and go home. We're important, but we're not irreplaceable. We owe it to ourselves to believe that, to take an important step to refill our reserves, and to show ourselves that we do, in fact, have a way out of this stress. [View Article Here]( Founders: Zendesk wants to give your startup 6 Months of Support Tools for Free Zendesk’s service-first CRM makes it possible to create, handle, and track customer service tickets across phone, chat, email, social media, and any other channel you can imagine — and all from one place. Because it’s built to scale, it’s the perfect fit for startups and enterprises alike. [Right now, Zendesk is offering]( Startups.com users 6 months for free. Zendesk’s support, sales, and customer engagement software are quick to implement and easily scales to meet changing needs. With Zendesk, it takes hours—not weeks—to get up and running. Through Startups.com, Zendesk is offering the following to qualified startups: - Six months of access to Zendesk Support Suite, Explore, & Sunshine products at no cost* - Online office hours with Zendesk’s Startups customer success team - Access to Zendesk’s Startups Community including events, content, & resources What makes Zendesk so great (besides, ya know, [the free 6 months]( - More than just a help desk, Zendesk crosses over to CRM - Easy to set up and service your organizational needs - Turn your support data into a treasure trove of leads, opportunities and market insights Check out their offering to see if your startup [qualifies for this special deal](. There’s no reason not to -- unless you really love unhappy customers… in which case, you’ve got bigger problems on your hands. [6 Months for Free→]( In Case You Missed It [What Do We "Owe" Our Employees?]( What do we Founders "owe" our employees? For all of the work they invest, what return should they rightfully expect on that effort? [Let's Define Success By What We Don't Have To Do Anymore]( Why do we measure startup success by money? Is it the money we're truly talking about or the freedoms that money buys? If it's freedom, then how much of that freedom comes from money, and how much of it comes down to choice? [Founder Reputation (podcast)]( Reputation: we all have an understanding of the long-term & lasting impacts it has on your standing as a Founder, but how do we cultivate our reputation? Remember, your reputation is very hard to build & very easy to destroy — so listen up! Love this topic? Hate it? Let's chat on social media! Wil Schroter Founder & CEO @ Startups.com [Share]( [Share]( [Tweet]( [Tweet]( [Forward]( [Forward]( Copyright © 2021 Startups.com, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you joined Startups.com. 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