Is Burnout Real?

Burnout, we’ve all experienced it in some form or another. Today’s reaction video is about burnout. Matt reviews a video that suggests burnout is only for the weak. Matt has a different take on burnout, watch to see his thoughts.

There are tons of people out on social media giving business advice. Some of it is good advice, but most of it isn’t good. In this series watch CapForge’s owner react to different advice videos. He’s an expert in all things business and has 20+ years of experience under his belt. Some of the things he reacts to might even surprise you!

Video Transcript: 

Business Advice Video:

I’m burnt out. No, no, no. You never burn out. you can be tired, but you never burn out. Someone asked me, “Why haven’t you ever burned out?” Well, because, No. 1 I haven’t reached the destination. No. 2, I’m in love with the journey. Frankly, I’m not gonna get burnout on the way. Why? Well, because I’m not there yet, I’ve decided I’m going somewhere. So how do you prevent burnout? You make a decision, you have some grit, you have some determination. You have some character. You have some backbone. 

Matt’s Review:

Uh okay I mean, yes, you have to have determination, you have to have grit, you can’t be ready to quit if you wanna be successful long term in owning a business or really in reaching any goal. But I think he contradicts himself a few times. First, he says that he enjoys the journey. But then he says he’s not quitting only cause he hasn’t gotten where he wants to go. If he enjoyed the journey then it wouldn’t be so much about the destination and he’d be enjoying it along the way. And enjoying along the way helps you not be burned out. But if there’s no rewards along the way and if you hate the whole process and you’re just trying to get to the very end, I think you can get burned out. You can get discouraged. You can really start to question why you’re doing what you’re doing and whether or not all the work is worth it. Because you only get the reward at the very end and a lot of times that reward isn’t nearly as good as you’re imagining it to be. If you feel like the whole process sucks and all the way along everything sucks and is terrible and you hate it and you’re just trying to get to the end, you can push yourself to get through. And he’s implying that if you don’t and you admit to being burned out then you’re kind of a loser or something. But I think if you’re experiencing that, if it’s terrible along the way then you’re probably that means you’re doing something wrong. A lot of times with business owners what it means is they’re trying to do everything themselves. They haven’t figured out how to successfully delegate. How to let other people help them. How to bring on support. And so they’re doing everything. And they’re working tremendously long hours. They’re never getting a day off. They’re doing maybe the part they like but also so much of the parts that they don’t like or aren’t good at. The admin, the marketing, or the sales, or the operations, or whatever it is. The HR, the hiring stuff, whatever it is, they don’t like they’re still ending up doing everything. they’re keeping an extreme amount of control over the process. And not learning how to delegate and not learning how to get support. And that’s why they’re tired. they have no work-life balance. They never get time off. And that will lead to burnout even if you’re not at the end. I think a better message is if you start to feel burned out, figure out what parts of the process are causing that. It’s probably not all of it, it’s some of it. and figure out how to work around or delegate or get support for those parts. And then make sure that the goal that you’re focused on isn’t just the end goal but that you’re enjoying the journey along the way truly. Because if you’re not you have a much higher chance of not making it. so not sure I really agree with this advice. I think you do have to have persistence. And you do have to gut it out sometimes, even when it’s hard. But it shouldn’t always be like that. If it is then it’s probably that you’re doing something wrong, not that you’re just not tough enough.