Founder burnout is simply a result of the stress of the increased responsibility you have. Your employees expect a pay-check every two weeks, and even if you pa

Founder burnout is simply a result of the stress of the increased responsibility you have. Your employees expect a pay-check every two weeks, and even if you pay yourself nothing, you have to make that happen. Lack of income stability destabilizes a lot. You don't have a boss, regardless of who is on your board of advisers or claims to be your mentor, all they can offer is words, the founder has the responsibility and has to make the decisions. You may have friends doing their own startup, and despite your best efforts to resist, you compare your own success to them. You make excuses for those that surpass you, feel schadenfreude when others fail, and then feel guilty for even having such thoughts. In practice, founder burnout is pretty rare. The stresses of running a business are real and can affect your life and decision making process, but the business challenges themselves are often even more difficult. Also, founders don't just start a company as any employee would start a job, they need to start with a huge reserve of enthusiasm or motivation. Emotionally, they start from a higher place, are subjected to higher than normal stresses, but their stress tolerance itself is not often the limiting factor.