"Work is health," sang Henri Salvador in 1965. Can the bosses confirm? One in six managers is threatened by burnout, according to a survey by the Amarok observatory, which studies the quality of work life of SME bosses. Farmers, artisans and accountants are the categories of entrepreneurs most exposed to this risk. We could leave it there and find it depressing. But another much more positive observation emerges from this survey of 1,500 managers: entrepreneurship gives form, physical and moral.
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Unlike everything that is pathogenic, there would be a lot of "salutogenic" elements, good for health, when you create and run a business. "A man or a woman who says 'if I succeed, it's thanks to me, if I fail it's my fault' it's the feeling of mastering their destiny, which generates good health", explains Olivier Torrès, professor at the University of Montpellier and founder of the Amarok observatory. "When you are an entrepreneur, you are also an investor, a trainer, an employer. All these functions are riveted to the future. It also generates optimism. It is also endurance, that is - say: I fall, I get up. And that, the fact of undertaking increases these factors. "
An observation shared by Fred Potter, who has founded several technology companies for 25 years. "There are moments of euphoria in entrepreneurship. When you have great successes, when you are in a period when everything is going well for the business, optimism invades you and invades all aspects of your life" , develops the serial entrepreneur. "For an entrepreneur, the difference between personal and professional life may be more tenuous. And therefore more naturally your whole life will be impacted by the successes or difficulties of the business." A healthy entrepreneur, on condition that his company too is doing well.