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I’m going to link this to entrepreneurship eventually, but please bear with me.
This happened two days ago. A typical spring morning, great weather for our daily morning walk with my Bernese Mountain Dog, Rocco. We were moving along quietly, him smelling everything, me listening to some random podcast. Nothing much happens in these walks, which is great.
This morning was different.
As we walked by a house nearby all hell broke loose. A gray pit bull with characteristic rage and muscles pushed open one of those glass front doors and charged towards us.
He was coming for Rocco.
Time disappeared. Without thinking, I knew what to do.
Before the pit bull could sink its teeth into Rocco, I took a step forward and kicked it on the side as hard as I could.
I knew the owner was nearby because he screamed something at his dog as it ran out of the house. So in addition to more kicks, I started screaming at the top of my lungs “get him out”.
The owner eventually grabbed his dog, just as it was going for Rocco’s neck.
No one was injured.
The surprise
Seconds after the incident both Rocco and I were completely calm. There was no trace of the massive amounts of cortisol and adrenaline that my body had just released. My heartbeat was normal. My body was relaxed and my mind was still.
This is not what I would have expected.
I gave it a day to see if there was a delayed response. Perhaps some lagged post traumatic effects? Nothing.
What happened?
A reframing and a question
After doing some research it became clear that I had experienced a typical acute stress response. It was a fight or flight reaction driven by instinct. Not something we could characterize as positive or negative. Simply part of nature. What a biologist might label as the appropriate response from a living organism that wants to preserve homeostatic balance (i.e. stay alive).
The mind-bending reframe for me was understanding that stress is not the enemy.
Without a stress response mechanism my dog might not be alive today. So I am very thankful for it.
The questions that came to mind afterwards were: how can I use stress in this way, and only in this way, very infrequently and when there’s real risk? And how can I avoid the chronic stress that is so misplaced and damaging?
Wild or captive, our choice
There’s a body of scientific research showing that many animal species have higher stress hormones in their system when they are captive (i.e. at the zoo) relative to when they are in the wild.
When animals are out in the wild they experience acute stress from hunting or being hunted. This is the type of surge in stress hormones that I experienced earlier this week. It comes and it goes. The net result is that the animal is well served by using stress to survive. The cost-benefit works. Nature is perfect.
In captivity, however, the equation seems to be different. Something about being trapped messes up the stress equation for animals. Humans are in the same camp. We don’t respond very well to the feeling of being trapped.
Constant pressures from modern day work, relationships or personal finances -all things that we can’t escape easily- result in chronic stress.
Unlike acute stress, chronic stress doesn't subside quickly. It lingers like a dark cloud, wreaking havoc on our physical and mental health. It's an unnatural state - it doesn’t serve our nature.
A call to action: transformative learning
I asked my coach the question of how to use stress to our benefit, the way it’s meant to be used. He suggested exploring the concept of transformative learning.
In a nutshell, this is a theory that describes how certain life experiences can be used to shift our belief system in a fundamental and lasting way.
We can use chronic stress as a signal that there is something in our belief system that is constantly triggering the release of stress hormones in instances when they are not needed.
The call to action is to explore what’s happening behind the scenes. Why is the code red triggered when there is no threat to life?
You might be able to do this exploration by yourself. Or, like me, you might need professional help. Nothing wrong with that. Getting help seems like a more effective response than letting your body release stress hormones non stop and then using damaging strategies like alcohol, anger or distractions to cope.
Entrepreneurship as a teacher
So finally, how does this relate to you, the entrepreneur?
You might have heard the notion of “peacetime CEO” vs. “war time CEO”. The former does well in stable environments, the latter excels in more turbulent times. There’s no such thing as a “peacetime entrepreneur”. It’s a contact sport in which you are almost always dealing with tough problems that demand urgent attention.
So the options are:
Succumb to chronic stress, which will destroy your mental and physical health.
Find another way to handle challenges.
I suggest option b.
You can apply the concept of transformative learning the next time you:
Get rejected by a potential investor
Fail to get an important new client
Review your financial statements
Have to deal with a troubled staff member
Discuss strategic options with your partners
Open a letter from a government agency
Etc
The problem in front of you is a prompt, a question. What do I have to believe for this situation to trigger a release of adrenaline and cortisol?
The probable answer: you feel a threat to your life or the life of people you love. In almost all cases that’s an illusion. A lie that you keep telling yourself.
The stress is trying to be helpful but the problem calls for a different solution. It’s something other than fight or flight. Engaging in transformative learning can help you see what those other solutions might be.
It will never end, unless you change
I’ll close by addressing what you’re probably thinking right now. It goes something like this: “what you’re saying Damian makes a lot of sense, but in my particular case, I just need to achieve X and then I’ll be happy and stress free”.
That X is also part of the illusion. It doesn’t exist. Don’t believe me?
Last week Salesforce’s stock price dropped 20% when it announced quarterly results that were slightly below expectations. Its founder, Marc Benioff, is an insanely talented entrepreneur. He “made it” in every possible way. A billionaire founder of a company that re-defined a huge industry, software, and generated hundreds of billions of dollars in market value in just two decades.
And yet in the conference call following the release of quarterly results you could hear it in Benioff’s voice. He was deflated. His contagious enthusiasm was not there. The punch had landed.
He and his company will be just fine precisely because Benioff is a master at managing himself. But this is a good example of an entrepreneur who, having achieved what you think will give you consistent happiness, still has to navigate through tough times.
In conclusion
If we’re being attacked by an angry animal it’s a good idea to let stress run the show. It will act in our best interest.
For all other situations, it’s probably better to explore that stress. Use it as a signal that there’s something hidden that needs to be brought to awareness.
The challenges of entrepreneurship (and life) are real. Turning these challenges into masters or servants is a choice.