Starting a business may not make most people rich, but it does make many people happy. Despite the high failure rates, long hours, low incomes, and high stress levels, entrepreneurs report higher happiness rates than salaried employees. Joachim Merz and Tim Rathjen presented a paper based on the German Socioeconomic Panel that concluded that, although poor entrepreneurs can earn income above the poverty line, they are often still poor in other dimensions of well-being, such as time. This sense of vitality is an important driver of motivation, performance, creativity, and action - all of which are essential for initiating proactive and innovative behavior and for equipping entrepreneurs with the energy to persist and overcome barriers.
It may take some time to get to this point, but those who own their decisions and take calculated risks to achieve their goals are much happier than those in safe jobs. The data supports this claim as it reveals that entrepreneurs are planning to increase capital investments, hire staff, and use low-cost methods such as social media to attract new customers. Even employees can reap some of the same benefits as employers by taking control of their time and destination as much as possible. I discovered this joyful fact when I stumbled upon an interesting post about the physical health of blogger entrepreneur and businessman James Clear recently.
It is these peaks that most worried researchers, which is why they analyzed interviews with more than 1,700 entrepreneurs from 29 countries. While it's a good corrective to know that entrepreneurship stress probably won't necessarily hurt your health and happiness, it's also important to note that these findings aren't just a good reason for founders to gloat. For entrepreneurs, if you can handle the added burdens of running a business, the benefits can be incredible for your career, your family, and your bank account. While it is clear that there are some entrepreneurs who suffer from mental illness (and their experiences are worth discussing openly), science says that, on average, entrepreneurs are happier and healthier than employees.
The World Happiness Report noted that entrepreneurs around the world are constantly facing the additional stress that comes from running a business.
Leave Reply