“Tell me about a decision you have lost sleep over.”

It’s a question that carries more weight than it appears to. On the surface, it sounds like an invitation to share a story. But it is almost a quiet judgment to the founders or leaders. It is seen as a test of seriousness. The implication is that if you haven’t agonized over a decision to the point of exhaustion, are you even doing it right?

My answer is that I haven’t lost sleep over any decision.

The Myth of Exhaustion as Proof of Commitment

We have been fed a steady narrative that the best founders are the ones who grind continuously, sacrifice sleep, skip meals and push themselves to the edge. Burnout here becomes a badge of honour. They suggest that the more you punish yourself, the more deserving you are of success. But working hard and working unhealthily are not the same thing. And most importantly commitment is not measured by how much you endure. It is measured by the consistency and quality of your decisions made.

Now, let’s consider the alternative, a founder who makes decisions with clarity, sleeps well, and approaches challenges with a steady mind. Does that make the person less serious? No, it does not. In fact, when you are well-rested, you think more clearly, communicate more effectively and make better decisions.

So if you are not losing sleep over decisions, it might not be a flaw. It might be a sign that you have built a healthier and more sustainable way of working. It can mean that:

• You have developed decision-making confidence
• You understand that no decision is perfect
• You prioritize mental health

And here’s the irony that the same culture that celebrates burnout rarely talks about recovery. You will hear stories of sleepless nights but not the after story when founders struggle with exhaustion and loss of motivation.

The Power of a Rested Mind

As a healthtech founder, I believe that a founder who sleeps well is not a founder who cares less. They are often someone who understands their own mind. They know that every choice carries some level of uncertainty. There will always be variables you cannot control and risks you cannot fully eliminate. Losing sleep over that does not change anything. It does not magically give you better answers, it just drains the energy you need. So what they do is they learn to work with it. The confidence to trust the process does not appear overnight. It’s built over time through experience, mistakes and reflection.

When your mind is clear, you see patterns faster, you connect ideas more easily and you start to communicate more clearly. You will start approaching challenges with the resources you need to handle them effectively.

What Hard Work Actually Looks Like

It is high time to reframe the conversation about what we mean when we talk about hard work.

Hard work is not about how many hours you put in or how much you sacrifice along the way. It’s about how effectively you use your time, your energy and your attention. Real hard work looks like:

• prioritization, knowing what matters most and focusing on that, instead of trying to do everything at once.
• discipline, showing up consistently, even when it’s not exciting and when progress feels slow.
• strategic thinking, taking the time to understand the problem before jumping into action.

The Quiet Strength of Balance

You can suffer and still make poor decisions. You can push yourself to the edge and still end up going in the wrong direction. When you equate suffering with success, you start to seek out difficulty unnecessarily. You push through when you should pause.

The founders who last, the ones who build something meaningful over the long term, are not always the ones who work the hardest in the short term. They are the ones who have found a rhythm that they can maintain.

There is a quiet strength in being a founder who does not glorify exhaustion or feel the need to prove their dedication through exhaustion. Their work shows up in consistency, resilience and in the ability to keep going without burning out. Here, you are defining success on your own terms. This requires a different kind of mindset.

So when someone asks, “Tell me about a decision you have lost sleep over,” maybe the answer does not have to follow the expected script. You can use it as an opportunity to shift the conversation.