How to Sustain Your Wellbeing When Building Your Own Company
A Story About Leading a Company Without Losing Yourself in the Process
Harrison had built his company on the belief that founders do whatever it takes.
In the years since launching his fintech startup he had delivered results in a demanding environment — closing funding rounds, managing investors, leading a growing team, and driving a product from idea to market.
Relentless intensity wasn't new to him. In fact, it had always been part of what made him credible.
But gradually something began to change.
The company was still producing results. But the cost of sustaining those results was quietly increasing.
How to Sustain Your Wellbeing When Building Your Own Company tells Harrison's story — a journey from founder running on four hours sleep to someone whose body collapsed on a London street before he could make it to his own investor meeting.
Along the way, he discovers something many founders struggle to accept: building a successful company requires a founder who can actually function.
Sometimes the most important thing you can do for the company you are building is protect the person who is building it.
What you'll learn:
- Why pushing through physical exhaustion is sometimes the opposite of strong leadership
- How to recognise the signals that intensity has crossed from demanding into dangerous
- What it means to build a company on practices that sustain both the business and the person leading it
What's included:
- Harrison's complete story
- A framework for recognising unsustainable leadership patterns before they cause collapse
- Reflection questions to help you assess whether your current approach protects or depletes the founder your company depends on
The Reading Room — Where stories spark insight and learning begins. Read, reflect, and let the power of stories shape your perspective.
The Writer's Table — The power of the written word to clarify thought and purpose. A writing assignment that makes the lesson personal to your own experience.
The Workshop — Takes your thinking deeper, developing the technique into a systematic approach you can apply across your professional life.
The Rehearsal Space — This is where you put it all into practice — the power of embracing challenges and pushing boundaries.
The Good Mental Health and Wellbeing Story Lessons explore the connection between how we work and how we feel — recognising that professional challenges and personal wellbeing are never as separate as we tell ourselves they are. Each lesson follows a protagonist whose working life is quietly undermining their health, energy, or sense of self — and who discovers that the changes needed are both smaller and more fundamental than they expected.
About School of WorkLife
School of WorkLife creates story-based learning resources that help people think more clearly about the challenges, conversations, and decisions that shape a working life.
Each story is drawn from real WorkLife situations and developed into practical learning experiences that combine narrative, reflection, and structured application.
This lesson is part of The Good Mental Health and Wellbeing Story Lessons — a collection focused on the relationship between how we work and how we feel, and the everyday practices that protect both.
Author’s Note
The stories I write are based on real WorkLife challenges, obstacles and successes. Persons and companies portrayed in the stories are not based on real people or entities. Carmel O’ Reilly.