Why Founders Can’t Afford to Neglect Health?
The Road to Lisbon
August 2022, I was driving from Barcelona to Lisbon. Spanish highways, blue skies, convertible, the kind of road where your mind drifts between future plans and present freedom.
I had just opened my new business.
For the first time, I wasn’t working for an international tech giant or any other corporation. This was my own thing. My idea was simple: start sharing my learnings about business and personal growth with top executives.
With a business degree and over 10 years of corporate experience in sales, marketing, and tech, I felt confident. I knew I could help. But I also knew this would be a completely new game.
After nine months of travel across Asia and Australia, I had new energy, perspective, and ambition. I spent long days preparing my website and overall story. Finally, I pressed the button to publish on LinkedIn.
It was showtime.
From that moment, I realised I had two challenges:
Find my first customers.
Keep my mind clear, my body in shape, and my spirit high under pressure.
The first challenge was tactical. The second was existential.
I decided that health is now one of my core values.
Step 3 in the Founder’s Freedom Blueprint
I recently published an eBook (8 Steps to Escape the Corporate Grind and Build Your 1M€ Business) with a clear message to take personal health seriously.
Why? Because you can’t build a big business on empty batteries.
Every week of poor health is a week of lost effort, weak decisions, and lower capacity.
Entrepreneurs often under appreciate themselves. They demand more every day, yet forget that they are already carrying more weight than most people could imagine.
Prioritising health is respecting the machine that makes everything possible.
And what is the money worth without health, anyway?
Health as a Founder System
Think of health like capital.
You either invest in your energy and it starts to compound, or you spend it and it runs out.
These 3 pillars matter most:
Exercise: Strength builds confidence. Cardio builds stamina. Both build capacity.
Nutrition: Food is fuel. Good fuel powers good decisions. Bad fuel clouds thinking.
Recovery: Sleep is mandatory. Without it, your brain is not ready for action.
You really don’t have to be a doctor or a certified personal trainer to understand this.
For me, deadlifts with power metal in my ears aren’t just powerful habits. They remind me I can handle heavy loads in the gym and in my business. Sauna and cold plunge reset my mind. Daily journaling clears the noise.
These are not hobbies. They are priorities. Part of my system.
Think about it.
Founder earning 20K€/month who loses 4 weeks
→ 20K€ gone.
300K€ pipeline with 30% close rate, delayed by illness
→ 100K€ at risk.
Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.
The same is true for health.
One good night of sleep won’t change your life. But one hundred will.
Those healthy, fresh, clear days compound in all areas of life and business. You make sharper decisions, recover from setbacks faster, and see opportunities others miss.
And here’s the kicker: when leaders take care of themselves, their employees notice. A founder with good habits sets the tone for the whole company.
Ask yourself three questions today:
What single lifestyle improvement would give me the most energy?
What’s one small action I can take this week to improve it?
Who can I share this plan with to stay on track?
Track it for a month. The results will surprise you.
That highway ride from Barcelona to Lisbon was a moment of freedom and clarity: As a new entrepreneur, I am the business. And health is my wealth.
Take care of the machine.
-Mika
Road from Barcelona to Lisbon 2022.
Are you ready for growth strategy session and few deadlifts?
