People die. CEOs included. Even startup people.
I've written before about how serial entrepreneurs respect their health programs. They work on their health, do not ignore it. That's how they successively became winners.
Today I'll share with you a testimony about the importance of one aspect of health to aggressive CEOs like you. It came in the form of an email from a very creative entrepreneur in India who I met a few years ago in Mumbai and have grown to respect, Mohit Dubey founder of carwale.com.
Here is our exchange of our emails. The lesson for you will be clear.
=========================================================================================
Mohit,
You are “A
Winner”. I am so impressed that you remembered and have acted on a bit of
advice. Healthy gray cells (brain) result in very creative work and wise
decisions. REM = fresh gray cells every morning.
After reading
your email I then went to look at carwale.com to see what had progressed since
we last chatted. It is clear that your creativity has lifted the quality of
your business up to a new level. I had just used the U.S. car sites to purchase
a new VW for my pregnant daughter (our first grandchild). Yours is far
superior. I especially liked the Forums and Blog. I could get people’s
impressions of cars as well as see the latest fresh news without tedious searching
and blogging. What I’m waiting for is the arrival in the U.S. of the Tata Nano.
It will be a game changer here.
So today I’ll
use Carwale.com in my blog, with pride and joy at seeing you doing so well.
Hang in there during the coming difficult times, pick only excellent people to
work with you, and then with a few breaks you’ll emerge a big winner for a lot
of people, as well as for you and your family. I’ll pop the cork for you when
that happens!
Wishing you
The Best on your Adventure,
JOHN
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Hi John,
Trust this finds you well!
Thought of sharing this with you (and I shared it with my all colleagues), as
the stress and sleep correlation got heated up in India again after the SAP
India CEO died of heart attacka t a young age of 42.
I remember reading in your blog- how serial entrepreneurs know the importance
of sleeping 8 hrs every day!
Thanks.
--
Mohit
CEO, CarWale | Automotive Exchange Private Limited
www.carwale.com
M: +91 9967 11 3000
O: +91 22 6739 8888
Fax: +91 22 66459665, 6739 8877
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Great Mangers and entrepreneurs take 6 to 8 hrs of sleep everyday!
Building a career or company is a marathon and not sprint- so take good care of
yourself.
Cheers!
----
Mohit Dubey
CEO, CarWale.com
What killed
Ranjan Das and Lessons for Corporate India:-
A month ago, many of us heard about the
sad demise of Ranjan Das from Bandra, Mumbai. Ranjan, just 42 years of age, was
the CEO of SAP-Indian Subcontinent, the youngest CEO of an MNC in India. He was
very active in sports, was a fitness freak and a marathon runner. It was
common to see him run on Bandra's Carter Road. Just after Diwali, on 21st Oct,
he returned home from his gym after a workout, collapsed with a massive heart
attack and died. He is survived by his wife and two very young kids.
It was certainly a wake-up call for
corporate India. However, it was even more disastrous for runners amongst us.
Since Ranjan was anavid
marathoner (in
Feb 09, he ran Chennai Marathon at the same time some of us were running
Pondicherry Marathon 180 km away), the question came as to why an exceptionally
active, athletic person succumb to heart attack at 42 years of age.
Was it the stress?
A couple of you called me asking about the
reasons. While Ranjan had mentioned that he faced a lot of stress, that is a
common element in most of our lives. We used to think that by being fit, one
can conquer the bad effects of stress. So I doubted if the cause was stress.
The Real Reason
However, everyone missed out a small line
in the reports that Ranjan used to make do with 4-5 hours of sleep. This is an
earlier interview of Ranjan on NDTV in the program 'Boss' Day Out':
http://connect.in.com/ranjan-das/play-video-boss-day-out-ranjan-das-of-sap-india-229111-807ecfcf1ad966036c289b3ba6c376f2530d7484.html
Here he himself admits that he would love
to get more sleep (and that he was not proud of his ability to manage without
sleep, contrary to what others extolled).
The Evidence
Last week, I was working with a well-known
cardiologist on the subject of ‘Heart Disease caused by Lack of Sleep’. While I
cannot share the video nor the slides because of confidentiality reasons, I
have distilled the key points below in the hope it will save some of our lives.
Some Excerpts:
· Short sleep duration (<5 or 5-6 hours)
increased risk for high BP by 350% to 500% compared to those who slept longer than 6 hours
per night. Paper published in 2009.
As you know,
high BP kills.
· Young people (25-49 years of age)
are twice as likely
to get high BP if
they sleep less. Paper published in 2006.
· Individuals who slept less than 5 hours a night had a 3-fold
increased risk of heart attacks. Paper published in 1999.
· Complete and partial lack of sleep
increased the blood concentrations of High sensitivity C-Reactive Protein
(hs-cRP), the
strongest predictor of heart attacks. Even after getting adequate sleep later, the
levels stayed high!!
· Just one night of sleep loss increases very toxic substances in
body such as Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Tumour Necrosis Factor-Alpha (TNF-alpha) and
C-reactive protein (cRP). They increase risks of many medical conditions,
including cancer,
arthritis andheart disease. Paper published in 2004.
· Sleeping for <=5 hours per night leads to 39% increase in heart disease. Sleeping for <=6 hours per night leads to 18%
increase in heart
disease. Paper published in 2006.
Ideal Sleep
For lack of space, I cannot explain here
the ideal sleep architecture. But in brief, sleep is composed of two stages: REM
(Rapid Eye Movement) and non-REM. The former helps in mental consolidation while the latter helps in physical repair and rebuilding. During the night, you alternate between
REM and non-REM stages 4-5 times.
The earlier part of sleep is mostly
non-REM. During that period, your pituitary gland releases growth hormones that
repair your body. The latter part of sleep is more and more REM type.
For you to be mentally alert during the
day, the latter part of sleep is more important. No wonder when you wake up
with an alarm clock after 5-6 hours of sleep, you are mentally irritable throughout the day (lack of REM sleep). And if you have slept for less than 5 hours, your body is in a complete physical mess
(lack of non-REM sleep), you are tired throughout the day,
moving like a zombie and your immunity is way down (I’ve been there, done
that L)
Finally, as long-distance runners, you
need an hour of extra sleep to repair the running related damage.
If you want to know if you are
getting adequate
sleep, take Epworth
Sleepiness Test below.
Interpretation: Score of 0-9 is considered normal while
10 and above abnormal. Many a times, I have clocked 21 out the maximum possible
24, the only saving grace being the last situation, since I don’t like to drive
(maybe, I should ask my driver to answer that lineJ)
In conclusion:
Barring stress control, Ranjan Das did
everything right: eating proper food, exercising (marathoning!), maintaining
proper weight. But he missed getting proper and adequate sleep, minimum 7
hours. In my opinion, that killed him.
If you are not getting enough
sleep (7 hours), you are playing with fire, even if you have low stress.
I always took pride in my ability to work
50 hours at a stretch whenever the situation warranted. But I was so spooked
after seeing the scientific evidence last week that since Saturday night, I
ensure I do not even set the alarm clock under 7 hours. Now, that is a nice
excuse to get some more sleep. J
Unfortunately, Ranjan Das is not alone
when it comes to missing sleep. Many of us are doing exactly the same, perhaps
out of ignorance. Please forward this mail to as many of your colleagues as
possible, especially those who might be short-changing their sleep. If we can
save even one young life because of this email, I would be the happiest person
on earth.
