Stan.
The Cost · 04
04 Real Weight
The numbers are fine. The cost lives somewhere else.

The cost is real. Not on the P&L.

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Sleep is the first line item. You are losing 30 to 90 minutes per night to the part of your brain that will not stop reviewing the decisions.
1
Your judgment on unrelated decisions degrades with the sleep. The decisions this week are worse than the decisions six months ago. You can feel it.
2
Your partner has started asking in a different tone of voice. "Are you okay" used to be casual. It is not casual anymore.
3
Your best team member has seen the weight and is managing you quietly. They are doing it because they care. It is also a slow kind of distance.

The weight costs your sleep, your judgment, and your closest relationships.
It does not cost revenue. Not yet.

The line between "founder carrying a lot" and "founder quietly breaking" is invisible to everyone including you. Until it is not.
· The arithmetic of weight ·

The weight is not free.
You are financing it with something other than money.

4 down. 3 to go.

You know all of this. It is still worth naming.

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