The Work is Grueling, but at Least the Pay is Bad!

Dr Nesse believes that persistence is a reason for the exceptional level of clinical depression in America--the country that has the highest depression rate in the world.

That is from an interesting article on Economist.com. Some recent research indicates that mild depression may be nature's way of discouraging people from trying to achieve unattainable goals. One of the researchers notes that that the dynamism of the US comes from lots of people pursuing unreasonable goals. On the one hand, entrepreneurial spirit makes the US the engine of innovation in the world. On the other hand, the costs in terms of mental health are significant.

All of this research is still at the speculative stage. But this article does provide a useful caution against overly romanticizing entrepreneurship. Someone asked me the other day what I thought the most useful thing was that they could do to promote social entpreneurship. "Create a nice place for social entrepreneurs to get together, blow off steam, and decompress," I told him.

Maybe we should do the same for the project leaders on GlobalGiving, many of whom are out there every day straining to achieve the impossible. As one of them told me a while back, "The work is grueling, but at least the pay is bad!"

[GlobalGiving]

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Comments

[Dennis Whittle - Huffpost Blogger]

Hi Peterg76,

Well, I can't speak for all those magazine covers and stories :) but I do believe that more realistic expectations can increase rather than decrease the number and quality of people who become (social) entrepreneurs. There are a lot of motivational bromides thrown around out there ("Anything you can think of you can DO!" "Just begin and the world will rise up to support you!" etc.) that are doing a disservice. These bromides are an attempt to overcome risk-aversion and inaction among people whose hearts are in the right place.

We need something in between: "If you want to do it, go for it. Most new initiatives fail. But with hard work, skill, help from others, and luck, you can change the world. It's a huge challenge, but for many people it is worthwhile, and improving the world depends on a lot more people doing it." I believe that a more sober message like that will in the longer term be more effective.

[peterg76]

You mean all this time those role models in magazines, television and movies were unrealistic?

[noneIn2008]

Maybe they could cut me a little slack on my taxes. I bust my rear 24X7 to see most of it consumed by taxes. When I die, taxes will take most of the estate from my family. Ever wonder why I get depressed? Actually, why try anymore.