If you own a business, you know what it means to work late,
start early, swill coffee and generally rank sleep last on your
list of priorities. You don't want to waste one single minute
when you can be getting that sale or making that extra widget--so
what if it's 3 a.m.? Read on to find out how these successful
entrepreneurs deal with sleep deprivation.
Jennifer Kushell, 32
Co-founder with her husband, Scott Kaufman, 30, of Young &
Successful Media Corp., a media and education company in Marina
del Rey, California
2005 projected sales: In the millions
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Sleep stats: Kushell, who gets an average of three to
four hours of sleep when she's really busy--or a luxurious
eight or nine hours when she's not--says, "We've been
known to work into the early morning when we're writing or
working on intensive documents. Sometimes it's just impossible
to get work done in the office with the phones, e-mails, meetings,
etc."
Losing sleep: In a sleepy fog, Kushell went to the wrong
airport once and called someone she'd known for 10 years by the
wrong name in a meeting. She also cites the peril of the "work
hangover." Says Kushell, "That's what I call the day
after a seriously intense sleepless binge. [It has] all the same
symptoms of a hangover, just without the alcohol."
Rejuvenation: Kushell knows the importance of sleep--and
she generally makes up her sleep debt on weekends. "After an
exhausting stretch, I've been known to seriously hibernate when
I have the opportunity," she says, "Unfortunately, it
only happens a handful of times a year. My world record is 23 hours
[of sleep] in Thailand after a month and a half on the
road."
Josh Reid, 38
Co-founder with Paul Maravetz, 38, of Rome Snowboard
Design Syndicate, a snowboard manufacturing company in
Waterbury, Vermont
2005 projected sales: More than $5 million
Sleep stats: Reid, who gets about six hours of sleep on
average, recalls a specific eight-day stretch when he and his crew
were desperate to deliver their snowboard orders to retailers on
deadline. The marathon week had them stealing an hour of sleep here
and there--using the cab of the delivery truck for a bed.
"That was purely entrepreneurial survival, doing what we had
to do," he says.
Losing sleep: Reid says his body is used to not getting
much sleep when he's at trade shows or on business trips
interacting with customers. "If I'm responsible for
opening the [trade show booth] every day and have to socialize with
my customers at night, I end up getting two or three hours of
sleep."
Rejuvenation: Even the chronically sleep-deprived Reid
notes that, after a whirlwind trip, "you get on the plane
really shot and exhausted. I get home, and it takes a couple of
days to recuperate."
Jason Wagner, 34
Founder of Trackitback, a loss protection and recovery service
provider that manufactures coded ID labels for valuables in
Winnipeg, Manitoba
2005 projected sales: $1.5 million
Sleep stats: Wagner, who gets an average of four to six
hours of sleep a night, says he's used to getting by on scant
sleep--and it doesn't seem to hurt his business. In fact, he
says, "Ninety percent of my ideas, revelations and planning
occur to me when I'm supposed to be sleeping at night."
For example, the epiphany of his company name, Trackitback, came
during those twilight hours.
Losing sleep: He confesses that losing sleep can leave
him irritable. "I counter [the irritability] by walking,
working out or playing sports," he says. "[Sleep
deprivation] also makes me send out the odd 'should have
thought about that a bit more' e-mail."
Rejuvenation: When Wagner doesn't get enough sleep
during the week, he catches up on weekends. "I always take a
two-hour nap on Sundays to recharge my batteries for the upcoming
week."