Many extremely successful entrepreneurs are even clinically diagnosed Manic Depressive or Bi-Polar (Bi-Polar Disorder is nicknamed, “The CEO Disease”).
Francis Ford Coppola has it. So does Ted Turner. Jim Clark, cofounder of Netscape, was described in Business Week by Netscape’s other cofounder, Jim Barksdale, as someone “who has his mania only partly under control. He’s a perpetual motion machine with a short attention span, forever hurtling at unsafe speeds. When his forward motion is impeded, Clark becomes irritable and bored. In his search for the stimulation of the ‘new, new thing,’ he quickly loses interest in the companies and ideas he starts and tosses them into the laps of his bewildered employees.”
Bill Gross, CEO of Idealab, was written up by a Fortune editor who apologized and said, “I believed him because I was dazzled by him. He had an infectious boyish enthusiasm that was charming and irresistible. He spoke so rapidly—jumping from topic to topic as if he were hyper-linking. It was hard to keep up with him. He had so much energy he seemed constantly on the verge of jumping out of his skin. He bubbled over with optimism.”
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been described as “hypomanic” and “unable to think outside the box – because he doesn’t even see the box. He’s also been described as quick to fly off the handle emotionally.
Here’s a note from a CEO’s blog:
“Today is Wednesday, and I haven’t been able to accomplish anything so far this week. It’s not that I don’t have plenty to do – I just can’t shake this depression long enough to do it. Last week I was a whirlwind – this week I’m a slug. My insomnia has been bad the past week or so, and it’s only when my body can’t go on any longer that I sleep. This lack of sleep makes my mind sluggish too…and it takes a great deal of time and effort to accomplish even the simplest of tasks. Intellectually I know what needs to be done…but emotionally I just don’t have what it takes to get a move on….
I’m trying to take things one day at a time, but it’s so hard to keep from thinking of what the future holds in store for me. I’m sad that I didn’t do more to keep in touch with friends I have known for years. I guess I could attempt to re-connect with some of these folks, but the embarrassment of my current situationis just toomuch right now…. sigh.
Something needs tochange pretty soon or I’m afraid I won’tbe able to crawl out from undermy rock and I’ll end up in a home, or worse. This is not a good day at all. Perhaps tomorrow will be better.“
It’s not about what’s in your head, it’s about what’s in your gut.
How will you use what you’re feeling to help you become really successful??
I hope you are seeking the answer. This is one of the many areas I mentor the CEOs I do in our bi-weekly coaching sessions too.
For more information on this topic, check out: The Emotional Roller Coaster of Entrepreneurs.
As a business coach and mentor, I always assure my clients that open spaces will always create transparent and energized work environments. 
Creating a Vivid Vision (formerly Painted Picture) in order to reverse engineer your success is something that made intuitive sense to me.
Are you struggling to stay on task? Do you often feel like you are jumping from here to there and back to here, only to forget where 
Some of you will balk at the suggestion to make it easier to socialize at your office, but it will quickly help you develop culture. Provide your people with a BBQ that is always kept clean and ready to use with propane so people can cook casually for lunch or dinner. This kind of interaction builds culture in an authentic and relatable way. With even less effort, have your kitchen stocked with free fruit, cereal, various coffees, teas and more. You can even have the food delivered weekly by the grocery store. Whatever you do, make people feel at home and they’ll work longer and harder for you.
Building a magnetic and infectious
