by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department
The above is a large 1514 engraving by the German artist Albrecht Dürer called ‘Melencolia I’ and one of the most scholarly written about engravings ever made (see here). The print's central subject is an enigmatic and gloomy winged female figure thought to be a personification of melancholy, and… Oh, Girl! We know how she feels! As we become overwhelmed, as we sink, as we flop down in the corner of our warehouse, as exhaustion takes over, both bodily and mentally - so too, everything and everyone else. Our eyes glaze over, our hearing stops (apart from the pounding of our heart in our ears). It is as if we are the puppeteer holding the strings all around us and as we sag, so too the puppets.
“Burn-out, it’s a feeling all too many women entrepreneurs are experiencing right now…working too many long hours, giving up our weekends for months at a time, sacrificing valuable family time because the business demands everything from us.” - Those are words of wisdom from our very own Melanie, not this last week, but in the midst of Covid (here), but it seems from what we are seeing and reading on various social media platforms as we keep an incredibly proud (and recently an increasingly concerned) eye on our constantly busy Lionesses, the sentiment sadly holds true now as it did then.
Why? Or rather, why now?
There is no doubt that Covid took far more out of us than we would care to admit. In addition to the mental stress from the health of our family, we also had a huge responsibility over our employees, that we feel so responsible for - both keeping them healthy (in mind and body) whilst keeping them in a job to say nothing of supporting them with their own families and communities.
This is huge pressure for anyone to take on at the best of times, but during Covid? Serious pressure.
As we came out of Covid, the world breathed a sigh of relief, but there was no relief for us running businesses. The speeeeed and neeeeeed to constantly run to catch up just increased exponentially, exacerbated by the increase in tools such as Zoom and Teams - ‘Always-in-a-meeting’ has arrived.
In the following years, what could go wrong for supply chains did go wrong, including a war that sparked massive food scarcity and inflation - which as always hits the poor in developing countries the hardest, including those who stuck with us through think and thin and now find themselves having to make their wages stretch even further.
Then a global interest rate rise rush (that impacts our local interest rates exponentially) that stopped any discussions with banks. The well known saying that a Banker is someone who will lend out an umbrella when the sun is here, but the moment it rains - no chance, was proved to be correct yet again. Then as if that wasn’t enough there is a massive tropical cyclone that arrived and sat on top of Malawi and Mozambique breaking all records. The topography of Mozambique and southern Malawi clearly shows the water has nowhere to go (here), which just increases the horrific destruction.
Looking for a bit of blue sky? No chance as we had a bank run in California, that not only closed the accounts of some of our inspirational Diaspora Lionesses in the States, but then because of the ‘Why’ - the fear is, as the saying goes: “There is never just one cockroach” - there will be other banks who did the same thing (bought long term bonds in a search for yield during a low interest rate period). The bankers’ Umbrella is now firmly locked up…
It is no surprise then that as Melanie wrote: “At times like these, chronic fatigue, anxiety, and depression can make an appearance in our lives, ultimately leading to burn-out.”
In 1974, the German-American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger used the term ‘Burn-Out’ to describe those he encountered with “physical or mental collapse caused by overwork or stress” (here). The relationship to stress and anxiety is crucial, for it distinguishes burnout from simple exhaustion that is brought about by (say) running a Marathon. This is a physical or mental (sometimes both) collapse, usually brought about by chronic stress.
“Chronic stress, or a constant stress experienced over a prolonged period of time, can contribute to long-term problems for heart and blood vessels.” (here). Which is even worse for women because as the great book ‘Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men’ by Caroline Criado Pérez points out “…women are 50% more likely to be misdiagnosed following a heart attack…This is partly because women often don’t have the ‘Hollywood heart attack’ as it’s known in medical circles (chest and left-arm pains)…”. Indeed, “only one in eight women who have a heart attack report the classic male symptom of chest pain”! (here)
Such chronic stress is not just for businesswomen. Marc Andreessen, cofounder of ‘a16z’ Tech PE Fund jokes “…the best thing about startups is that you only ever experience two emotions: euphoria and terror. And I find that lack of sleep enhances them both.” (here).
Although he jokes about this, such stress over such a prolonged period of the type we have seen since early 2020, is a dangerous state of affairs. He adds: “The hard thing [about running a business] is waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat when the dream turns into a nightmare.”
What can we do? Jack Ma said in the ‘Looking for Africa's Business Heroes - Documentary of the 2019 Africa's Business Heroes Competition’ (here - time 14.32) in answer to a question on how he avoids burnout from our very own and truly inspirational, Christelle (here), - that
“You have to know how to prioritise,
otherwise it is impossible to survive.”
Prioritise - this is more important than many acknowledge - too many meetings, too many projects, too many people take too much of our time with too little in return. That is fine if you are happy with this, but there will come a point when you start to ask yourself, if through your actions you are making others rich at the expense of your time; effort; energy; and ultimately, health… Who is the fool?
As the American Psychology Association say (here): “We now understand much more about effective strategies for reducing stress responses. Such beneficial strategies include:
Maintaining a healthy social support network
Engaging in regular physical exercise
Getting an adequate amount of sleep each night.”
Leading a company is a lonely job, but you all have a 1.7 mil Lioness support network where you can reach out to other Lionesses for advice or even just for someone to listen, across all countries of Africa and where you will be able to find those who are in the same industry willing to sit and chat. To the local community and local business networks that have sprung up in so many towns and cities, to of course our families, who although may not understand our desire for working 36 hours each day, support and love us nonetheless.
Regular exercise is far more important than we give it credit. As Melanie says: “…self care is not a luxury or something to be done in the future when we have more time. It’s an essential strategy and an investment in our personal health and wellbeing, and the future health and sustainability of our business. So instead of feeling guilty when you need to take time for yourself each day, whether that is to do a yoga class, or chat with friends and family over a cup of tea, or treating yourself to a spa treatment, don’t feel your time could be better spent. Remember that self care means you are investing in yourself AND your business.”
And sleep?
“Sleep that soothes away all our worries. Sleep that puts each day to rest. Sleep that relieves the weary laborer and heals hurt minds. Sleep, the main course in life's feast, and the most nourishing.” True in 1606 when William Shakespeare wrote those words in his play Macbeth, as it is now.
Take care of yourself. You are the only one who can.
That is why it is called
‘Self-Care’.
Stay safe.