
Ask HN: Entrepreneurship to escape depression? - throwawaydprssd
Hi HN,<p>I&#x27;m stuck in a vicious circle: because of my depression I don&#x27;t find a job, and not finding a job feeds my depression. And after having applied to countless jobs without luck, I guess my chances are very low to get out of it following this path, despite a strong local economy.<p>So I think the only path that remains is to start something on my own, even though I am a complete newbie. But I have nothing to lose as I already lost (almost) everything. Are there any such resources specific for people with depression, or success stories? Any other thoughts?<p>Thank you.
======
elg0nz
Have you considered volunteering instead? Volunteering will look great on your
resume and it will give you skills that you can apply in your next job. Also
it will help you expand your network which might be the main reason why you're
not finding the opportunities you are seeking.

Entrepreneurship can be quite difficult, and it takes a really heavy emotional
toll on people. If you consider yourself a person with depressive tendencies,
I would consider dealing with those first before starting a company.

[https://www.inc.com/magazine/201309/jessica-
bruder/psycholog...](https://www.inc.com/magazine/201309/jessica-
bruder/psychological-price-of-entrepreneurship.html)

[https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanwestwood/2016/01/08/psychol...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanwestwood/2016/01/08/psychological-
price-of-entrepreneurship/#2efd983f10fc)

------
sharmi
Entrepreneurship is not an easy road. It can be ultimately very fulfilling but
being depressed is not the state to start it.

You have to hit upon an idea (note that, it need not be THE idea), take it to
customers. If you get positive response, you go with it and build the core of
your product and take it to customers again. Get their feedback, iterate.
Spend more than 50% of your time marketing. If at anypoint you believe the
product is not the success you estimated it to be, you will need to pivot. All
of these are very hard decisions and grueling work. And you need to do it
alone. You will also need several months of backup to see you through till you
get your first sales.

Being your own master is the ultimate freedom. Before you go that path, take a
vacation or meet friends to alleviate the depression. If that is not enough,
see a professional.

If you do go the entrepreneurial route, these tips might help you.

1\. Finding a compatible cofounder can help keep loneliness at bay and focus
on what is truly important. Ideally they should complement your skill set.

2\. Any product, big or small, should be decomposed into small chunks. Each
chunk you finish should be releasable. i.e there should a concrete output at
the end. That will give tangible feedback and keep your morale high.

3\. Split chunks further into tasks that are very specific and unambiguous,
and finishable in small period of time, say two hours or less. So every time
you sit to work, you will know exactly you are going to do. Makes it easy to
get into flow. Also, time tracking will give you the satisfaction that
progress is made. A common pitfall is for founders to force themselves to work
night and day to finish it at fast as possible, at the compromising health,
sanity and relationships . Unfortunately this can lead to burnout.

4\. Design is secondary. Domain names are secondary. The core product is all
that matters. For my first product, i wasted so much time just coming up with
that perfect name! Nope, does not matter.

5\. Market, market, market. You need to learn how to take it in front of your
customer. There is no escape from this part. And if you are not already
familiar with it, that in itself is a big undertaking.

Wishing you the best.

------
billconan
I think I have depression too and anxiety. A direct impact of my depression is
that I can’t sleep. But unlike you, my depression is accumulated through work,
knowing each day I die a little in my cubical and losing my time to become who
I wanted myself to be. I actually want to quit my job to cure my depression.

~~~
quickthrower2
Would a better job help? One that is aligned with your goals?

------
ajeet_dhaliwal
I doubt it, otherwise doctors would be prescribing becoming an entrepreneur as
a solution to depression for millions of people. However, i'll tell you what
entrepreneurship gives me. Even when I've been failing, even when the number
of sign ups is not living up to expectations, being an entrepreneur makes me
happier by giving me hope for a better future. Having a job, anywhere outside
Silicon Valley perhaps, just doesn't pay enough, I've been a senior developer
and I can't save any meaningful amount of income to escape constant working, I
don't want luxury things, I just want the freedom to spend my time in a way
that I want before I'm dead. Entrepreneurship makes me feel like anything is
possible. However it's hard, and you may not generate any revenue for several
years so often having a job while doing it on the side is necessary. I don't
think it will help with depression unfortunately, but it can help provide
hope.

------
rl3
Think of starting a startup as a long road trip where everything that can go
wrong will go wrong.

Now imagine you have an emotional gas tank, and there's a really long distance
between gas stations. If you start your journey out with your emotional gas
tank near empty, you're probably not going to make it.

A startup will only amplify your depression, and when that happens you'll find
yourself slowly pushing the rest of the way instead of driving.

Source: someone who went that route primarily out of having nothing to lose,
almost five years ago.

------
sjg007
I would try to get some cognitive behavioral therapy in if you can. An 8 week
course may change your life. You have these automatic thoughts that aren’t you
and are not true so CBT gives you the skills and tools to recognize them and
deal with them. Journaling or writing down your thoughts can help as well.

~~~
GFischer
Seconded, CBT is very good with this.

There should be free or discounted CBT therapy (with graduate students)
available in your area.

------
lastofus
Taking on contract/consulting work is probably a bit easier to start out with
compared to starting a full on company, and can give you the flexibility
needed to work your own hours and from home while dealing with your mental
health.

This may be hard to find in Switzerland though and you may need to resort to
trying to find relatively low paying work on Upwork, at least to start. The
fact that your English is decent should help find you a gig. You should also
go in with the mindset that finding a gig is a numbers game, and you will not
get the first gig you apply to, even with a perfect application.

Once your portfolio, experience, confidence, and health is built up, doors
should start to open.

------
muzani
Entrepreneurship is for the insane. I think depression counts.

Depression can also be source of energy and it powers creativity. It's a
double edged sword; it can either drive you forward or drag you back.

But don't expect it to cure your depression. The highs are high and the lows
are very low. You still have things to lose - your reputation, bankruptcy,
your employees' livelihood. And like an effective drug, you might actually be
reliant on depression as a form of energy.

Also be careful as you can easily get trapped in a bad business, making too
little revenue to grow but also invested too much to quit. This is much worse
than being stuck driving for Uber.

It's also harder to pitch while depressed. Investors like optimism. So I would
recommend something you can completely bootstrap.

I'd go for low hanging fruit that you can almost immediately cash in on. You
can do ecommerce on a niche. SaaS is nice but it needs a lot of time to start.
Avoid things like games which are difficult to monetize.

Inexperience isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, people tend to do better
when they can't just quit for some high paying job. You will get stuck at some
point, and it's usually people like you who push past the obstacles.

You can check out indiehackers.com for a broad range of stories.

------
cvaidya1986
Literally “run away” from your problems. As in start running 5 miles a day if
health permits.

~~~
throwawaydprssd
No, only a different way to tackle the problem of having no money and
depending on social security.

~~~
zapperdapper
So says your depressed mindset! But, have you actually tried it? You might be
surprised at the change in your mindset. With the more positive mindset that
would result from running/exercise, then good things may well happen. (Saying
this as someone who has been there, done that, bought the t-shirt). I would
also look into CBT/professional help.

------
justfriends
Job interview is all about an impression. You can tweak that impression.

Wear bright clothes, white or light blue. Avoid dark colors. Wear some glasses
even if you see perfectly. It makes you look more friendly and competent. Be
like an actor. Smile and practice. Remember; It's not personal, it's a show.

With respect to options, have you tried applying for jobs in western Europe?
You can legally work in any EU country.

Starting a company is like climbing a mountain. Doing that while depressed,
without financial runway and in the most expensive country is not a good
start.

You could do something very different. You could go to south east Asia, teach
English to survive while starting a company on the side. Cost of living is
very cheap, nice weather too. As a westerner you can also easily get a
girlfriend there. All nice things, but the real reason is financial runway of
course.

------
Mz
I have serious health problems that make a regular job not work for me. I
asked around and Patrick McKenzie suggested a writing service to work for and
that has worked well for me. I also blog about my experiences with that and
how to make that work. I am slowly branching out into other related things,
such as resume editing. My income is gradually going up.

You can also blog, comic, create an Etsy shop, try to make money online with
things like Zazzle, etc. I would shoot for getting some money coming in, then
trying to improve on it. Google for examples of people who did something
vaguely similar and read their stories.

I still don't make very much money, but I make more than I used to and it pays
better than not being able to work at all. And, yes, that fact does a lot for
my mental health.

------
throwaway2413
As a depressed person that’s about 5 years into a reasonably successful
startup, I would say no, entrepreneurship is not a silver bullet. It sounds
like you, as do I, tend to take things personally. You might feel that every
minor failing of your business reflects on you as a person, and I can tell you
that it can be crippling.

That’s not at all to say that running a business can never be rewarding - it
often is! - but I do not think that it is a good surrogate for talking to
someone, whether that’s a therapist or even a loved one. You are more than the
sum of your faults and I find nothing to be more helpful than periodic
reminders of that fact.

------
saluki
First off take a listen to Sherry Walling's podcast, it's made for you.

ZenFounder.com

I'll also recommend her husband Rob's podcast as well.

StartUpsForTheRestOfUs.com

I would recommend starting with episode 1 for both.

You can follow Rob along over the years from drop shipping beach towels
through .net invoice and hittail to drip with a $XXM exit. Inspiring.

What type of skills/business are you thinking about?

Starting your own thing is hard, not sure I'd recommend it if you are feeling
depressed.

You might want to take a job outside your skill set, even part time to get
back in the game. Do something interesting you've always wanted to try. If
it's part time you could do contract work the remaining time if that's a
possibility.

Take a look at your resume are you providing too much information or maybe not
showing something that was keeping you busy in your gap areas. Maybe review
your resume with someone to make sure you're presenting things honestly but in
a better light. You might be too hard on yourself.

Good luck getting on track and getting your own thing going.

Feel free to email me at my HN username at gmail. I can provide some guidance
if you're a developer.

------
SirLJ
There are no guarantees in life, but if I am you, I'll forget about startups
and focus on a way to earn my FU money. This will give you the ultimate
freedom and cure your depression. One idea to get you thinking is the stock
market. You don't need money to start, just time and looks like you have
plenty... Find some data and start building and testing trading strategies and
ideas and who knows, maybe you'll find your edge and once you do, you'll have
a proof to convince friends/relatives, your doctor, dentist, accountant,
banker, etc to invest in you... Believe me, this is the perfect business and
it is truly location independent...

------
auganov
Well if you need to raise, then it's not that different from applying for a
job. You won't be making a salary for quite a while either. Whatever you end
up working on might often feel like a disaster.

Maybe you can get a free psychiatrist in Swiss? And if money isn't a problem
perhaps you could think of a broader range of things to do? A very low paying
job at a startup? Volunteer work? Research work? No work? Helping family?
Getting married? So many things you could do!

Good luck!

------
horofox
Hello, I was in a similar situation 10 years ago. Wanna talk with me?
thiago@thiami.com

------
remy_luisant
I may not believe in depression, but I'm trying to do this in response to
having a hard time in life (issues with well-paid employment and belonging)
while severely autistic/Asperger's.

It isn't helping much for finding a place in the world, but the activity this
is generating is making me much happier. I have realised how powerful I am. I
am actually pretty awesome to be doing the things that I'm doing. That feels
good!

Not much luck with earning money though. I'm fine with it, my part-time job
provides for me well enough. If money is an issue, you may want to first try
to get some financial stability before you take a leap into creating something
of your own.

EDIT: Post an anonymized resume here. Can't hurt. Worst case scenario you'll
get some feedback.

~~~
throwawaydprssd
My resume isn't in English, so posting it wouldn't be helpful. I guess the
main problem of my resume is the long time, years, of unemployment, combined
with not much work experience.

~~~
GFischer
Where are you located?

~~~
throwawaydprssd
Switzerland

~~~
s3nnyy
Mail me your resume to the email in my HN handle. I am a tech recruiter
located in Zurich and might be able to help.

cheers

------
crypticlizard
Depressed? Try microdosing shrooms. Might even help get your startup ideas off
the ground.

------
arisAlexis
Have you pinpointed a specific problem that you have at interviews?

~~~
throwawaydprssd
No, as I have not been invited to any interviews so far. In the past I have
been judged as reserved and quiet, which I guess could be a problem at
interviews.

------
mabynogy
imho the best help itt:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15741151](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15741151)

