Billionaire mindset: Every entrepreneur strives to be a billionaire with a million-dollar idea. Ready to change the world, business leaders are ambitious people. Filled with curiosity, flexibility, discipline, and perseverance, being an entrepreneur is not easy. According to the Big Five personality test, entrepreneurs score high in conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness to experience.
However, being at the top of the ladder gets lonely over time. Sure, there are big paychecks and an ultra-luxurious lifestyle to keep you company, but several billionaires have opened up about the loneliness that comes with the job. From Airbnb to PepsiCo, the industry moguls have addressed the mental toll that their job descriptions might take on them.
Job quits for well-being
According to a Harvard Medical School professor, 40% of executives are thinking of quitting their jobs, since they lack the energy and feel alone in handling daily challenges, reported Fortune. In fact, the report quoted a 2022 Deloitte study that nearly 70% C-suite leaders are considering taking up a job that supports their mental well-being better.
Indra Nooyi opens up
Former CEO of the Fortune 500 giant PepsiCo addressed the constant pressure from every direction. Being in her position, it also gets difficult to vent out those feelings, which is just one of the hardships of running a $209 billion company. “You can’t really talk to your spouse all the time. You can’t talk to your friends because it’s confidential stuff about the company. You can’t talk to your board because they are your bosses. You can’t talk to people who work for you because they work for you,” Nooyi told Kellogg Insight, calling her position “fairly lonely.”
Tim Cook on loneliness
“It’s sort of a lonely job,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told The Washington Post in 2016. While no one is immune to loneliness, Cook also acknowledges his shortcomings and talks about the ‘blind spots’ that he met on his way to the corner office. He emphasised that it is important for leaders to get out of their heads and surround themselves with brighter people.
Brian Cheksy on unprepared loneliness
Co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, Brian Cheksy, appeared on the Jay Shetty podcast last year and opened up about how the world really felt from the top. One of the most outspoken leaders in the industry, he even dug deeper into his lonely childhood and his mental health struggles as he became CEO. His other two cofounders—who he called his “family,” spending all their waking hours working, exercising, and hanging out together- were suddenly out of view from the peak of the C-suite.
“The higher you get to the peak, the fewer the people there are with you,” Chesky told Shetty.
Embracing the isolation
The PepsiCo CEO opened up about how no amount of external outlets helped her deal with the loneliness. While she did not manage to beat it, but she embraced it. Nooyi shared, “I would talk to myself. I would go look at myself in a mirror. I would talk to myself. I would rage at myself. I would shed a few tears, then put on some lipstick and come out.”
