Stress. As I mentioned in my first post, stress is just a natural byproduct of starting a company. Shawn has always handled stress so much better than me. Maybe because he is the true entrepreneur in the family and built to handle the pressures that come with a start-up, because me and stress? Well let’s just say that the manifestation plays out in a slightly psychotic fashion. Hypochondria.

I would love to give you a little history on this super fun mental disease of mine, but I honestly can’t remember when I wasn’t a hypochondriac. (Well, actually I was in a beautiful remission for about 12 years but it recently came back with a vengeance.) In my high school senior year book, there was a description about each kid and what they were “leaving” high school with. Like, “Sally leaves with a stack full of books to study.” Or “Michael leaves with a million trophies.” Me? “Tennille leaves with concocted diseases in her head.” I am not even kidding.

And for me, it rears its ugly head during two times. One, when I am super stressed out or two, when someone close to me has a serious medical condition. When my cousin had a brain tumor? Of course I had one too and got a CT scan. When my dear college friend was diagnosed with MS? Of course I was seeing double on the clock on my oven, so yet another CT scan. When my mom was diagnosed with lymphoma? Of course I was at the oncologist getting blood work done. The most frustrating part is that I am TOTALLY aware that I am being a complete psychopath, but I just won’t relax until I have had some test to make sure. (I have probably caused more harm by all of the unnecessary radiation I have been exposed to!)

So it should have been no surprise when things were REALLY hard at Snagajob early on…and I am talking we were all not getting paid for a while and we had to turn the lights off in every room to keep every single cost down, that I was ridden with disease. I think I hit bottom when I pulled Shawn out of a meeting because I was definitely having a heart attack and we drove full force to patient first with flashers on, forcing him to run red lights. Or maybe that was when I thought my throat was closing up due to an allergic reaction. I literally cannot remember which one that was. But you get the picture.

So once things settled out and Snagajob was actually making money, I was magically cured. And surprisingly I wasn’t a total nut job when I was pregnant, or with the kids after they were born. I was actually way more laid back than I think anyone expected.

So now? With goHappy? Well, let’s just say I just hung up with the cardiologist about ten minutes ago. Although I feel like this time it’s legit. Every night when I get in bed and lay down, I can feel my heart doing some weird, off beat rhythm. I don’t notice it during the day, but it most definitely is happening at night. Am I lying there thinking about how to get more downloads for the app? Or an article I read today on start-up PR efforts? Or trying to think up some design feature that might be the next genius idea? Sometimes yes, but mostly no. Mostly I am just looking at work-outs on Pinterest that I will probably never do. But yet, that underlying stress is still there, just lurking. Just taunting me with the constant “what if’s” that turn me into a crazy little looney toon.

But it’s all going to be worth it right? It’s all going to work out in the end. It’s going to work. That’s the mantra in our house. And it has to be. If we didn’t have that mantra at Snagajob, there wouldn’t be a Snagajob right now. Last week when we were driving home from the beach, my 5 year old had to pee (the idea of just going in the empty water bottle dawned on us but we have a new car and I don’t trust his aim), so we pulled off some tiny little exit and into an Exxon/Burger King type of thing. When we opened the door to walk in, there sat a sign on the door saying “Now Hiring. Apply on Snagajob.com” Shawn and I were both surprised, proud and nostalgic. And we both thought, it’s a sign. We had just been in the car talking about how long of a road we are on right now and then we open that door and are reminded of what it takes to start a company. Yes you will have stress, but you will also experience something more rewarding than I can put into words. goHappy is going to work.