07/07/2026
Nobody warns you about the loneliness. đź’ˇ
In 2021 I moved my entire family to Costa Rica for 14 months. My wife was with me. My family was with me. From the outside it looked like the dream.
But I was launching a remote-first business for the first time, making every major decision in complete professional isolation. No peer who had done what I was trying to do. Nobody to call when a hire felt wrong or a contract felt risky.
I spent too much on staff I did not need. I hired people for roles that did not need to exist yet. I wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on mistakes that a single honest conversation with the right founder would have prevented.
That is what professional loneliness actually costs. Not a mood. A number.
A study published in Science this past June analyzed 588,000 Americans over 13 years. Remote work is responsible for roughly one-third of all post-pandemic mental health distress increases. 55% of CEOs reported mental health struggles last year, up 24 points from 2023.
61% say the loneliness is hurting their performance.
Since coming home, I have been deliberate about something I used to treat as a luxury: being around other founders who get it. Real entrepreneur groups. Live meetings. People who own companies and can say the things your employees never will.
Entrepreneurs with peer community are three times more likely to hit their goals.
One thing you can do today: find a peer group at your revenue level and apply. EO has 18,000 members worldwide. YPO has 36,000. There is a chapter near you. This week, not someday.
The business that runs without you should make room for the life that runs with people in it.
Full breakdown in this week's Velocity Brief → https://bemodo.com/blog/nobody-warns-you-about-the-loneliness
