If you are a serial entrepreneur, one who is specifically driven to excel and take your ventures and professional life to exceedingly more advanced levels, then you might be a hypomanic entrepreneur.
If you are an entrepreneur you probably share some common characteristic with other successful entrepreneurs, like
- Visionary
- Self-confidence
- Creative
- Nearly limitless ideas
- Thinking outside the box
- Juggling more than one subject at a time
- Ability to imagine all the possibilities
- Chart a path from here to where you want to go
- Highly driven to do what it takes to succeed
- Willing to take risks that benefit the “big picture”
- Enough charisma to influence others to be supportive
Where do you think you get all of these attributes? Could it be that these are all signs of hypomania?
The DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition) has a simple test to evaluate whether you or your clients are hypomanic. The test says that hypomaniacs will have three or more of the following expressions of hypomania.
How Do You Score on the Hypomanic Test?
__ pressured speech (rapid talking)
__ inflated self-esteem or grandiosity
__ decreased need for sleep
__ flight of ideas (thoughts are racing)
__ easily distractible (attention deficit)
__ increase in psychomotor agitation (can’t sit still)
__ pleasurable activities with a potential downside (buying spree, sexual indiscretion, foolish business investments, etc.)
Most, if not all, successful entrepreneurs would certainly qualify as having three or more of the above attributes. If that sounds like you, you might be a hypomanic entrepreneur.
While not all hypomaniacs are not entrepreneurs, entrepreneurialism is an excellent venue for exercising the breadth of tendencies associated with hypomania and that is why you see so many of them finding this as an effective way to express themselves while embracing their eccentricities, while the rest of us watch with awe and wonder.
Hypomanic entrepreneurs can be found feeling creative, enthusiastic, courageous, powerful, and feeling as though they are on the leading edge of life.
There is some concern that hypomanic entrepreneurs are bipolar, and there is an indication that some are, but this seems to be triggered by exposure to a significant major depressive life event, which is referred to as bipolar type II, as opposed to bipolar (bipolar type I) or manic depression. Sufferers of bipolar type II can often return to normal life once they have processed their issues and feel as though their enthusiastic countenance has returned.
Business consultants can help their hypomanic entrepreneurs by leading them to value life balance, which they tend to disregard as a waste of time if they are fervently focused on a particular venture and also contemplating their next one.
Hypomanic entrepreneurs need to connect to others outside the work environment at a deeper level, find ways to have more meaningful relationships and love in their lives. They need to try to adjust their sleeping habits, pay more attention to maintaining a healthy diet, and getting into an exercise routine.
While hypomanic entrepreneurs don’t think they need our help, the best we can do, as consultants or support staff, is to continue being supportive and to encourage them to participate in a holistic healthy lifestyle which includes integrating a healthy mind, body, and soul. This will help them achieve their highest and best sustainably over time.