I've worked as an ER/Trauma/Critical Care nurse for 15 years, and, the first thing I teach young ER nurses is this: The first pulse that you check when you wal

I've worked as an ER/Trauma/Critical Care nurse for 15 years, and, the first thing I teach young ER nurses is this: The first pulse that you check when you walk into a Code Blue is your own pulse. Translation: You can't do shit for a patient when you're panic stricken. Panic is normal in life/death situations, but when you need to routinely function in those situations, you have to learn to deal with the stress and adrenalin. So, with some experience, training, and conscious effort to push back the panic, an ER nurse can channel the rush of adrenalin into a zen/flow experience. Time slows to a crawl, you notice anything and everything, and you move like the wind. But, you can't exist in those panic/flow states all the time. You have to learn how to come down and burn up the extra adrenalin. When people don't learn how to deal with those situations they end up with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The stress of building startups feels very similar. As PG says, the default for a startup is to die. As a founder, I fight for the life of my startup each day. And, I'm still learning how to channel all that adrenalin effectively.