Running yourself to zero isn't dedication

Running yourself to zero isn't dedication. It's poor capacity planning.

I've crashed multiple times since starting two companies last year (the second one we'll announce soon!).

It was complete mental energy depletion down to zero, where I had to disconnect for a couple days just to recharge back to almost-but-not-quite-baseline.

If I ran any other business resource this way, I'd be fired.

Unfortunately for me, there wasn't anyone to PIP me so I had to figure it out myself.

The problem isn't the workload, I love what I'm doing and there will always be more to do than you can possibly accomplish.

The problem is that I was treating mental energy like it's infinite when it's actually our most finite resource.

Somehow though, we've normalized and even celebrated this for humans in tech.

You'd never run any critical business function at maximum capacity with no backup plan.

You'd build in redundancy. You'd plan for sustainability. You'd watch for breaking points.

But with ourselves? It's quite easy to sprint until your mental tank is empty, crash, recover and repeat like the exhaustion is some sad badge of honor.

While this could be considered work-life balance or self-care or other corporate wellness effort, it's really just sustainable operations.

When you're running on fumes, your decision quality degrades:

Everything takes multiple times as long to do.

Your pattern recognition fails.

Your team gets the worst version of you.

The fix isn't complicated: Just be aware of where your energy is and where it needs to be. Know when the critical moments are coming. Step back before you hit empty, not after.

The hard part is admitting that being "always on" isn't strength.

Because when you manage your energy before you're depleted, recovery is quick and smooth.

When you hit zero, you need days to get back to baseline.

It's a lesson I'm still learning.