When Entertainment Meets Entrepreneurship; How Hollywood Stars Are Dealing With Entrepreneurial Burnout

Before the dawn of the internet, an acting career was considered more akin to a regular job than it was to entrepreneurship. The internet and social media changed all that, and more power and responsibility for branding and marketing now resides in the hands of the actor and his agents. Essentially, Hollywood Actors today are brands that need to be propagated by the actors themselves.

As the old cliche says, “with great power comes great responsibility”, this cliche has translated to most celebrities as, “with great power comes great exhaustion”, as many A-listers continue to complain about the exhaustion they often have to deal with. However, this is something that most entrepreneurs can relate to; it’s the untold side of most success stories.

Burnout is a Medical Diagnosis

In an April 2020 interview with Parade, Golden Globe winner and ‘End of the Road’ star Queen Latifah admitted to having to go away to recover from burnout. In her words, “Burnout is not just a word; you can be physically exhausted on a cellular level.”

The World Health Organization seems to agree as they have also recently redefined Burnout as a ‘syndrome’ linked to ‘chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.’

Nick Komodina, the founder of Impakt Industries, a mind and body fitness company that helps leaders and athletes attain peak performance and peak fitness while dealing with huge responsibilities weighs in on this redefinition; “Most of the people that end up in Hollywood or as entrepreneurs are creative or visionary people who choose this path to avoid the perceived exhaustion and inflexibility of working a 9-5, but then as they push to grow their brands, they end up outworking the 9-5 worker and becoming even more exhausted. Burnout is not what you get from the simple exhaustion from one or two days of pushing hard, it’s what you get from consistently ignoring exhaustion of your mind or body over a protracted period of time.”

Komodina is well known as a Perspective Performance Coach who believes that the secret to manifesting your full potential lies mainly in the mind’s attitude and the body’s state.

Hollywood Stars Are Increasingly Taking Time Off

In 2016, when many considered the height of her career, Hollywood darling Selena Gomez disappeared from social media and TV for a while. Gomez later explained that she had been dealing with severe burnout and had to take a career hiatus.

The actress and singer explained that part of her recovery routine had involved a 90-day break from her cell phone; “It was the most refreshing, calming, rejuvenating feeling, now I rarely pick up my phone, and only limited people have access to me.”

“Sometimes, you just have to take a break and drop everything,” Komodina said, “Burnout will never really be cured if you remain in the same bubble that is causing it. You will have to step away from that bubble and exist away from it for a while. Social media has the power to bring your mind right back into that chaotic space, and so it isn’t advisable either. Many leaders and celebrities take many vacations but never really deal with burnout because while their bodies are elsewhere, their minds are stuck in the exact same place. Staying away from burnout does not just mean taking intermittent breaks; it means lifestyle changes, and these changes can only be made when you remove your body and mind from the chaos that achievement demands.”

Songstress and Hollywood royalty Beyoncé has also openly spoken about her multiple experiences with burnout. In 2011 she took a year off of work for her mental well-being. Her break seemed to do her a world of good as she returned strong with her self-named 2013 award-winning album, ‘Beyonce.’

Beyonce’s smashing return illustrates what Komodina refers to as, ‘Bounceback energy’. According to him, “Burnout can be very challenging to deal with; the clearest symptoms are feelings of energy depletion, increased mental distance from your work, cynicism towards your work, and reduced professional efficacy. We have our physical and mental fitness regimens, but I always strongly advise taking some time off; more importantly, we show them how to take time off because many people don’t know how to turn it off.”

A-Listers Are Seeking External Help To Deal With Burnout

In the same Parade interview, Queen Latifah also admitted to getting external help sometimes when the burnout seemed a little too persistent; “If I need to have conversations with my friends—my friends are a good support system—my family, but if I need to speak to somebody professionally, I have no problem doing that, as well,” she shared.

Most professionals, entrepreneurs, and Hollywood celebrities are beginning to recognize the need to pay close attention to their energy and exhaustion levels. While most A-listers can afford to have mental and physical fitness coaches on staff, others seek help.

“Sometimes, it is just wise to put your hand up out of the water and let someone else pull you up.” Komodina explains, “I have worked closely with professional athletes who live in a constant atmosphere of intense pressure; pressure to perform at the highest level all day, everyday. This kind of pressure exists in most high-profile careers and if not managed well, it can be lead to debilitating exhaustion and burnout. Sometimes, we find that the reason people get easily exhausted is because they haven’t yet deeply learned themselves or are pursuing a course that isn’t genuinely theirs. It’s important to focus on the body and the mind. We have often seen people change course in their careers rather drastically after recuperation. The way we approach each case is often customized to tackle the specific type of pressure and strain that led to the burnout.”

“Every kind of entrepreneurship is often born from a strong dream and a burning desire to build a legacy, and this desire can very often push us to work ourselves into exhaustion,” Komodina explains, “The human body and mind are so powerfully intertwined that what affects one eventually affects the other. Burnout is like a drought that quickly dries up the wells of creativity, and many entrepreneurs in Hollywood and beyond have had to learn this the hard way.”