The Math of Self-Care

Why investing in your well-being now is far cheaper than paying for recovery later.

This post is the third of a series in collaboration with Claudiu Manea. He is a licensed psychologist with over 10 years of experience working with founders, executives, and high-performers. He specializes in burnout prevention, nervous system regulation, and sustainable leadership performance. Connect with Claudiu on LinkedIn or visit his website for more information!

Founders respect numbers, so let’s talk numbers.

The Cost of Prevention (Annually)

• Coaching or therapy: ~$350–$1,000/month

• Nervous system regulation training: one-time investmen

• Time investment: 2–4 hours/month

Total: ~$5K–$15K per year

The Cost of Recovery (After Breakdown)

• Months of lost productivity

• Leadership vacuum during critical decisions

• Lost deals and delayed strategy

• Team attrition when stability disappears

• Long-term relationship damage

• Opportunity cost that easily reaches $250K–$1M+

And that assumes full recovery, many founders don’t fully rebound.

Why Prevention Works

This isn’t about bubble baths or retreats.

Prevention means:

• Faster, clearer decisions

• Lower emotional reactivity

• Stronger teams (calm leadership cascades)

• Longer founder runway

• Sustainable performance over 10+ years, not 3–5

Consistency beats intensity, especially in leadership.

This Isn’t (just) Self-Care. It’s Risk Management.

You wouldn’t skip security audits because you’re “too busy.” You wouldn’t ignore server maintenance until things crash.

Your nervous system is no different. Maintenance prevents costly crashes.

What’s Next

Understanding the cost is one thing. Knowing what to do about it is another. In the final post of this series, we’ll outline what sustainable founder performance actually looks like in practice (without fluff, spas, or vague advice) and how prevention becomes a repeatable system.

👉 Want to quantify your real risk exposure?
Take the Work Well-Being Assessment to understand the hidden costs you may already be paying.

👉 Check out Claudiu’s The Alignment Method.