5 Books To Help Entrepreneurs Prioritize Their Mental Wellness

Leading a business is difficult. As an entrepreneur, you know this better than anyone—and you know that if entrepreneurship were easy, you’d have a great deal more competition.

As an entrepreneur, you also know that your role is one that requires considerable sacrifice in other areas of your life. This can take a toll on your mental health and overall personal well-being.

The consequences can be severe. In fact, entrepreneurs are “twice as likely to report a lifetime history of depression, three times more likely to have bipolar disorder and three times more likely to experience substance abuse and addiction” and “twice as likely to attempt suicide or be hospitalized in a psychiatric institution,” according to data analyzed by The Conversation.

The silver lining in these findings, if you can call it that, is the fact that they’re being talked about at all. With less stigma than ever around mental health issues, especially among young Americans, entrepreneurs have an easier time asking for and finding help when they need it. There’s broader awareness and acceptance of the need to manage personal health and wellness and better balance work with family and personal matters.

While they can’t substitute for professional counseling or therapy, these five books all offer evidence- and experience-based perspectives on entrepreneurs’ unique challenges around mental health and work-life balance. Add them to your reading list if you’re looking for guidance, purpose, or simply reassurance that your struggles are not unique or insurmountable.

1. Marie-Helene Pelletier — The Resilience Plan

Marie-Helene Pelletier’s The Resilience Plan reveals a fundamental truth that many entrepreneurs have difficulty accepting: “resilience is not an innate character trait.”

Pelletier knows—as do most entrepreneurs, if they’re being honest— that everyone has a finite capacity to deal with adversity. What she also knows, and what far fewer entrepreneurs understand, is that while resilience might not be innate, everyone has the ability to expand their capacity to rise above challenges. It just requires a plan.

Pelletier’s book details that plan using real-world examples from her own experience as an award-winning mental health professional. At its core are simple, customizable exercises that anyone can do on their own terms, with or without professional guidance, to find their inner strength and determination. Call it self-care, personal development, inner growth, or any other name: The exercises are designed to help you go further for longer in your entrepreneurial endeavors while protecting your health and avoiding burnout.

2. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe — Stress Wisely

Stress Wisely offers another equally important perspective for entrepreneurs hoping to avoid burnout and increase their productivity without overtaxing their mental (and physical) health.

Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe’s approach is all about managing and ultimately reducing stress, an inevitable byproduct of entrepreneurial effort. Without downplaying the unpleasant side effects of a high-achieving lifestyle, Dr. Hanley-Dafoe shows readers how to live with them—and how to sublimate them into effective, disciplined, highly productive leadership strategies.

Ultimately, Stress Wisely is a road map for “hacking” your nervous system and using it more fruitfully. Implement its strategies to improve how you manage the day-to-day demands on your professional persona as well as the personal and family duties you come home to (or, if you’re a road warrior, manage remotely) after the day is done.

3. Heather Plett — Where Tenderness Lives

Where Tenderness Lives is a guide to living a more purposeful, intentional life, no matter what you do with your days. While not explicitly written for an entrepreneurial audience, its universal lessons apply to a broad range of personal and professional situations, making it the perfect companion for anyone serious about personal growth.

Unlike many books for entrepreneurs and business leaders, Where Tenderness Lives is remarkably intimate, even raw. Author Heather Plett explores challenging themes, like the impacts of childhood and early-adulthood trauma on “adult” personalities and coping mechanisms, how “holding space for ourselves” despite competing personal and professional demands can improve our productivity and potential, and how “radical tenderness”—which is still frowned upon in hard-charging business culture—could be the secret to a fully actualized life and career.

Plett isn’t trying to tell entrepreneurs how to live. But her near-universal insights could be just what some need to hear to break out of old habits that work against long-term professional success.

4. Marshall Goldsmith — What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

If Where Tenderness Lives is a broadly applicable road map for balanced, successful living, Marshall Goldsmith’s What Got You Here Won’t Get You There is a targeted treatise for executives looking to reach the very pinnacle of corporate success.

Goldsmith, an acclaimed executive coach, details the subtle differences that separate the highest of the high performers from everyone else. Some cut against the grain, like saying “thank you” more than you think you should, while others might come as no surprise. Then again, as any successful business leader knows, so much rides on effective execution.

5. Rick Hanson and Forrest Hanson — Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness

Lead author Rick Hanson uses Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness to showcase what he calls the “vital inner strengths hardwired into your own nervous system.” These 12 innate attributes are like dials that, with proper training, you can twist and adjust to optimize your daily activities and enhance your resilience in the face of adversity.

Rick’s neuroscience-informed lessons are especially important for leaders, who often find themselves setting the tone for those around them. Master your inner self, he argues, and you can help your team do the same.

Final Thoughts

A great book really can change your life when it helps you see yourself, your work, and those around you in a wholly different light.

Of course, these five books don’t contain all the answers. If you’re struggling with mental health challenges made worse by your demanding role as a business leader, you may need more support. Please reach out for it.