This article was first published by Anthony Ware on Substack on 7-June-2019.

It was around 6 a.m. on a Saturday, a few minutes earlier I stumbled in from spending all night out with co-workers at a few local bars. My phone was ringing non-stop. I was pissed.

Who the hell is calling me at 6 in the morning?

After the calls stopped and silence set in, I decided to check if they left a voicemail.

They did.

It was my dad, in a shaky tone, he said, “Damon’s gone”. I was frozen...stuck in time between my dad’s last word and when it registered through the fog of my hungover brain.

When I called him back, my dad explained to me that my youngest brother, Damon, shot himself in the head after an incident involving a couple of other people. It was a short call. Dad was still dealing with the police and his own shock...and told me he had to call me back later.

After I hung up, I immediately called my ex-fiance. She kept me on the phone for over two hours to make sure that I didn’t drive the twelve hours from Florida to Indiana. At one point, I opened my tear-filled eyes to find myself on my back in the middle of the parking lot of the apartment complex.

This was September 14, 2003.

My youngest brother died by suicide. He was an entrepreneur. What I know for sure is that my brother’s death was due to the situation in those early hours and experiences he had as a kid that impacted his mental health.

It has taken me almost 16 years to finally make the connection as to why I can’t let go of creating generational mental wealth.

I’m not able to bring back my brother. If I can help save the life of one underestimated founder, then my work is worth it.

Life

When I first started to write this article, I thought about finding the right words to say or data to include. Then, after some serious procrastination due to fear, I just started typing. I decided that I don’t need to find the “right” words because these are my words...my story and thoughts about mental wealth.

Since 2003, I’ve lived in Indianapolis, Nashville, Miami, San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles.

It’s been easy to get rid of the physical stuff that I no longer need. The challenge has been building my mental wealth. Unlike physical stuff, my mental health and wealth are always with me. Old mindsets, habits, and unresolved traumas have been harder to get rid of than cockroaches.

Wherever I’ve gone, there I was.

My greatest challenge has been peeling back the layers of generational programming to see who I am. Over the past 10 years, therapy and yoga have helped me move in the right direction.

More recently, a few key books have helped me to shorten my learning curve including Leapfrog by Nathalie Molina Niño, The Upside of Stress by Kelly McGonigal, Essentialism by Greg Mckeown, and The Naked Mind by Annie Grace.

I’ve learned that there’s never an endgame to our mental health. Even as I type these words, I realize that I was in a major mental fog in May 2019. It was a month filled with extended periods of anxiety, depression, and burnout.

In the short-term...I adjust.

In the long-term...I evolve.

My dad says,***“***A hard head makes a soft butt”. His way of saying, that I better learn my lesson or the butt whoopin’ is going to hurt even more. As a kid, I had less than 8-10 butt whoopin’s. As an adult, the whoopin’s are still happening...instead of dad, it’s life.

***

As a Black man in the United States, I know there are generational issues that are threaded in the fabric of my life. Mental health has been part of the things we whisper like cancer or call by something different like “The Sugars” instead of diabetes.

African Americans are 20% more likely to experience serious mental health problems than the general population. Why?

Here are a couple of reasons:

• In the U.S., generational mental health issues created by institutionalized racism.

• Then, there’s the distrust of healthcare professionals due to events like the Tuskegee Experiment.

I haven’t spoken about this much in the past, but I remember, as a kid, on early Saturday mornings at the barbershop, hearing stories about lynchings and job discrimination. That was part of my mental training. It prepared me for adult life like the time in the early 2000s, when I was called a nigger by a racist in a pick up truck, while I was standing in a suit speaking with my white co-worker in the parking lot near Parisian or Nordstrom.

This is a baseline of life for many of my peers, long before we add the mental and physical challenges of starting a business.

What’s mental wealth?

I’m confident that mental wealth is the foundation of the next evolution of humanity.

But first, let’s start with mental health.

Mental health is a continuum. Mental health is not the lack of mental illness. I can have a day where depression and anxiety are messing with me, AND I find joy in knocking out a ton of work to grow the business. The states of being can coexist.

Mental wealth is the collection of intentional thoughts, behaviors, and experiences—mental wealth deposits—you do to make a positive impact on your mental health. These individual deposits have a cumulative impact, especially during times when you’re challenged with mental illnesses and external events.

What are examples of mental wealth deposits?

A mental wealth deposit can be going to a therapist, editing your circle or friends, spending time by large bodies of water to connect with nature, or going on a vacation.

A trillion dollar issue

It’s estimated that mental health disorders cost the global economy $16 trillion by 2030.

That’s $16 Trillion with a ‘T’.

For entrepreneurs, there’s an exponential impact. One of the more cited studies is 2015 research by Freeman et al. titled Are Entrepreneurs Touched with Fire?). The researchers learned that 72% of entrepreneurs are directly or indirectly affected by mental health conditions, compared to 48% of the general public.

Entrepreneurs are 50% more likely to report living with a mental health condition, and

• 2X more likely to suffer from depression

• 6X more likely to suffer from ADHD

• 3X more likely to suffer from substance abuse

• 10X more likely to suffer from bipolar disorder

• 2X more likely to have suicidal thoughts

We need to have more conversations and training around this topic at the same time people are learning about business models, MVPs, and pitch decks.

Get down to business

I envision a world in which we prioritize the mental health of the founders and their teams, with the same effort and resources as we do for revenue and operations.

Entrepreneurs have the ability to create exponential impact. We start businesses, create workplaces, impact our communities, and model behaviors for our peers and future generations.

In the past year, reading stories from other founders and the underreporting of founder suicide and mental illness has really hit me hard. Here are two articles that capture the essence of our challenges as people and startup founders:

• Dealing with my anxiety by Richard Fagbolagun

• How raising a $2+M Seed Round really, actually went by Emily Best

We voluntarily subject ourselves to rejection, long hours than our salaried gigs, financial pressures, and the mental weight that our decisions impact the lives of the people on our teams.

I’m excited and inspired by the amazing work being done by, Backstage Capital, Harlem Capital, and others, to increase funding of startups led by “underestimated founders”—PoC, Women, and LGBTQ+.

My work as a startup founder and working with founders has opened my eyes to how we view mental wealth is an afterthought, unless we’re on the verge of being hospitalized.

As founders, we are the most important investment...mental, physical and spiritual...for our businesses. A founder’s mental health impacts their decisions in the business from operations to hiring to firing to sales and partnerships. There’s a focus on compounding interest on product development and financial growth. The same holds true for our mental wealth.

Why focus on the mental wealth of underestimated founders?

When I chose to be a founder, I knew I was standing on the shoulders of past and present leaders while facing the institutionalized forces created to attack to undermine me and my peers.

Underestimated founders include people from all genders in the U.S. whose race or ethnicity includes Black, Hispanic/Latinx, African (54 countries), Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Middle Eastern, Native/First Nations, Indigenous, or Aboriginal, Pacific Islander.

We may be underestimated, but I’ll be damned if we were ever underrepresented. It’s more...we’ve been deliberately excluded.

At my business, AWare Catalysts, I choose to help people that are on a similar life path as me… entrepreneurs launching or running startups and small businesses, who identify as Black, Latinx, People of Color, Women, LGBTQ+.

My goals don’t include being the next $1 billion company. Instead, one of my goals is helping 1,000,000+ of my peers with my time, voice, and money. Don’t get it twisted, I run a for-profit business and realize the power of money to create generational change.

I’m focused on what happens before and after you, a founder, get the money. The “before” includes those days when you’re short on funds to cover groceries or childcare.

After you secured the bag...and have positive cash flow, your mental wealth helps increase the quality of your decisions about your culture, hiring, operations, employer value proposition.

All of this creates a positive impact on your people and profits.

What’s Next?

We’ve been living the mental health version of “paycheck-to-paycheck”. Now, it’s time to take the leap to create generational mental wealth.

If financial literacy is an early step to financial wealth, then mental health literacy is what I’ll focus on specifically for underestimated startup founders.

Currently, I’m researching self-care practices of 1000+ historically ignored and underestimated founders in the U.K. and US. The inaugural Founder Mental Wealth Report will help us create positive generational mental wealth. The final report will be published before July 15, 2019.

I want to leave you with 3 things that you can do to help increase generational mental wealth:

• MAKE a mental wealth deposit. If you need ideas,** go here.**

• SHARE your Mental Wealth Deposit with other people on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn and use the #MentalWealthDeposit. What you share will impact someone’s life without you even knowing it.

• **COMPLETE **the research survey before **July 4th **for the upcoming report. ***Open only to founders in the U.K. and the U.S. who identify as Black, Latinx, LGBTQ+, Woman, and/or Person of Color—*as I referenced earlier.

  Founder Mental Wealth Survey

If your business is interested in being one of the financial partners inaugural report, then schedule a quick convo.

To teach future generations, we, the current community of underestimated entrepreneurs, must have our mental wealth practices in place and share them with our peers. Technology will help as an enabler, but it will be the human connections we have with ourselves and others...that will make the difference.

Much love and gratitude for sharing your time with me. Feel free to connect with me on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram with any questions or comments.

NOTE: I’m not a licensed mental health professional. Everything I shared is from my life experiences, and research. If you’re in a really tough spot, get help. If you don’t know who to call, then reach out to me and I’ll help the best I can. You are not alone.

Anthony Ware is a latchkey kid from Indianapolis. Anthony and his two younger brothers were raised by his dad. First gig…cleaning toilets for his dad’s janitorial business.

Anthony jumped from the corporate ladder to launch startups. He ignored his scarcity mentality until it broke him in November 2010, he had to live in a car in New Orleans after his third startup failed. Two months later, thanks to mentors and yoga teacher training, Anthony was a phoenix.

Eight years later, Anthony’s business helps underestimated startup founders use their mental wealth and company culture to leapfrog business norms, and create new generational wealth.

• Anthony Ware

Short version:

The state of a person's mental health is the foundation for everything they do.

For this project, we focus on creating a resource that can be part of the foundation for all current and future ENS and ENS DAO tools, events, and policies.

The hubris of the people who created the foundations of web2 resulted in challenges to our mental health, including burnout, anxiety, depression. Why? Mental health was an afterthought.

This project centers on the people of the ENS and ENS DAO ecosystem. The creators of tools and procedures and the people impacted by these tools and procedures.

This research and report are on the current state of people's mental health in the ENS and ENS DAO ecosystem. The intention is to design it to generate outcomes and action. We're not publishing data to create yet another report that its intended audience will not use. Yes, we're tired of those too.

While the focus is on the ENS and ENS DAO ecosystem, the report and insights will be available for public use to help other ecosystems. Our goal is generational change by centering on mental health today in web3, not ten years from now. 

Short Roadmap

• Research study

• Publish report with data and insights

• Publish recommended action items (qualitative and quantitative) for ENS and ENS DAO Ecosystem based on data and insights

• Publish outcomes from actions items

Overview:

"I'll sleep when I'm dead." Have you heard that before reading this? You might have said it at one point in your life. That mindset is a quick path to, at best, the hospital and, at worst, the cemetery. Plus, when you're dead, you are dead. There's no waking up from that.

With self-sovereignty, public good, and digital identities, comes a significant shift in personal responsibility and how people interact with the world.

We intend to have data and insights linked with specific actions for the ENS and ENS DAO ecosystem and community. While we can't change what has already happened, we can re-center mental health as part of the foundation for all tools and policies created in the ENS and ENS DAO ecosystem. 

This project is part of the beginning instead of cure-all. Our goal is to be proactive and preventative rather than reactive, which has been the case in web2. This project is shining a light on what, up until this point, has been one-off stories of mental health challenges. It's a nice change of pace to help the ENS and ENS DAO ecosystem while the foundation is being created instead of trying to retrofit solutions.

There will be hundreds of tools created for the ENS and ENS DAO ecosystem. This project focuses on the people making and using the tools and impacted by policies and procedures. With the outcomes from this project, we can move from solely focusing on tools to the impact that the tools will make on individuals and the ecosystem.

The term community has been around long before web3 existed. People have been at the core of every community and ecosystem throughout history. Every decision each individual in the community and ecosystem makes is grounded in the state of their mental health. The report and action items will be an artifact, baseline, and resource for the ENS and ENS DAO Ecosystem.

The ENS and the ENS DAO continue to expand. The change will impact the mental health of existing and new people in the ENS ecosystem. That said, some people will choose not to change their behaviors.

By centering on mental health, we will directly impact the ENS and ENS DAO Ecosystem from community interactions, policies and procedures, and tools and platforms.

Generational impact on the ENS and ENS DAO Ecosystem, and web3

• Set a foundation that supports the mental health of entrepreneurs, creators, customers, and community members

• As the ENS and ENS DAO continue to expand by the number of people and tools, if we don't have an awareness of mental health baked into the foundation, we will repeat web2 mistakes. 

• Support the people building the tools and the ones using the tools.

• Focus on the entire ecosystem, including archivists, scribes, marketers, attorneys, translators, interpreters, and future roles 

• Reduce the hurdles that cause negative stress for non-developer interactions with ENS and ENS DAO ecosystem

• Improve adoption and awareness by being an ecosystem and community that is proactive with mental health rather than reactionary.

The mental health of people connected to the ENS and ENS DAO Ecosystem

• Web3 has an "always-on" flow which has and will continue to lead to the following, which are all made worse from scams, bullying, sexism, racism, and much more.

  • FOMO - Fear of Missing Out

  • Burnout

  • Overwhelm from various parts of the ecosystem, learning a new language (acronyms, existing terms like rugged or noob, computer terms, etc.), new tech (Discord, etc.)

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

  • Financial stress

• Pandemic much? This pandemic has impacted the majority of the people on Earth, including the people connected to ENS and the ENS DAO Ecosystem.

Outcomes focused on Action

• Focused on results and behavior change instead of optics and media stunts

• Content will be publicly accessible

• Specific actions (qualitative and quantitative) recommended to ENS DAO Working Groups and ENS Ecosystem

• Progress reports on the recommended actions

Roadmap - 3 to 6 months

• Finalize research study design

  • Qualitative and quantitative research

• Confirm and announce team members as they are added

• Start the research process through multiple communication channels to the global ENS Community (ENS DAO, $ENS holders/yet to be claimed, supporters, etc.)

• Data analysis and review

• Publish State of Mental Health of People in ENS Report online

• Host online events for multiple time zones

• Share recommended action steps with ENS and ENS DAO, including working groups.

• Publish progress reports on recommended action steps

• Ongoing research and action with a focus on outcomes, not data for the sake of data

Matching Funds

• The total amount of Matching Funds is based on your contribution and the verification level of your profile (Trust Bonus - see FAQs below). This calculation is part of the Quadratic Funding (QF) method (see FAQs below). In short, with QF, it's better for ten people to contribute $1.00 ($10.00) than to have one person contribute $10.

• This project is part of the Main Round for GR13 and two Ecosystem Rounds, ENS and Radicle. The rounds happen at the same time and have a maximum matching amount: Main (2.5% of $1.2M), ENS (10% of $69,420), and Radicle (10% of$25,000). 

• SPECIAL NOTE:

  • As part of the Radicle Ecosystem Round, we're stoked to commit 25% of the matching funds from Radicle to the following five grants in GR13. The funding allocation will be automated using the Radicle Drips platform.

    • (5%) ENS Newsletter - https://gitcoin.co/grants/4861/ens-dao-newsletter

      • Why? There is so much information to consume when it comes to ENS Ecosystem. The ENS NEwsletter is an accessible way for people to consume content, especially since they decided to add a non-ENS Forum version of the newsletter.

    • (5%) Planting fruit trees in 64 schools and 40 health centers across Tororo district in Uganda East Africa / Ecosystems Restoration in Uganda - https://gitcoin.co/grants/4014/planting-fruit-trees-in-64-schools-and-40-health-

      • Why? This project combines two causes that need more attention and resources: helping the planet and sustainable food security.

    • (5%) Nectar: zk-rollups and HIPAA compliant decentralized storage for the $7T healthcare system - https://gitcoin.co/grants/3475/nectar-zk-rollups-and-hipaa-compliant-decentraliz

      • Why? Female-founded and working to shift the power dynamic when it comes to patient health data

    • (5%) Surge - https://gitcoin.co/grants/4054/surge

      • Why? Focused on educating and securing women's place in Web3

    • (5%) Grassroots Economics CIC Support - Kenya & Beyond - https://gitcoin.co/grants/816/grassroots-economics-cic-support-kenya-beyond

      • Why? They use digital currencies to eradicate poverty and redefine value exchange in communities.

Funding Use

The following are the current main areas for the use of funding:

• Team, tech, and tools to get the work completed

• Publishing of report including translations into multiple languages

• Host multiple virtual events to accommodate global time zones

Team:

Anthony Ware, Principal, AWare Catalysts

• In this project, my team and I are focused on making sure that a business like my current one doesn't need to exist for web3 in 10 years because we helped create a people and mental health-centric foundation. I am not a technology developer. I focus on the impact of the tools and tech created by developers on the mental health of everyone in the ENS and ENS DAO ecosystem.

• I'm a Mental Wealth Strategist and Principal at AWare Catalysts. My life is a spicy gumbo with a side of cheesecake. During my 10+ years as a serial entrepreneur, I successfully launched five companies in multiple industries, including logistics and information security. As a speaker, moderator, and panelist, I've shared my insights and frameworks on mental wealth and health for audiences and organizations in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. 

• The diverse intersections of my life experiences have helped me develop a deep level of empathy and grace. This foundation allows me to connect with people, find key insights, and synthesize solutions to help people in powerful ways.

• I'm a proud alumnus of Purdue University with a degree in Biochemistry. When I'm not working to help people create generational mental wealth, I've traveled to 7 countries and finished three marathons and three half-marathons.

• Quick notes on me:

  • ENS DAO 

  • $ENS token holder

  • Nominee to be Steward of ENS DAO Public Goods (PG) Working Group (WG)

    • Even though I wasn't selected, I'm attending PG WG meetings to learn and uncover ways to contribute.

    • Here's my Position Statement as a PG WG Nominee [https://snapshot.org/#/nominations.ens.eth/proposal/0x9e60f0d8443c7722dd1b92ab67b936d77054f734c1ae1a8418bb72d5fb08a870]

  • Researched and published the Founder Mental Wealth Report at the end of 2019: https://foundermentalwealth.com/report/

  • Twitter - https://twitter.com/theanthonyware

  • LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyware/

  • Interviews and Panels:

    • Tech Intersect - Episode 98 - https://open.spotify.com/episode/4TGehrGjB5MyhVu2hCfbRa?si=haUPQA1GRtSYrm2BcIVmuQ

    • Tech Intersect - Episode 6 - https://open.spotify.com/episode/4TRE36hMb5DLi3J9Tr7JhX?si=WcRHHBVoQF-2_QJWXo8mlA

    • Tech Inclusion 2020 - Managing Your Mental Health in a Pandemic while Building Mental Wealth for a Post-Pandemic World - https://youtu.be/_svtSqjytqU

    • Icon Summit 2021 - How Companies Can Support Your Mental Health (panel) - https://youtu.be/NU0nVPWWPII

    • Icon Summit 2019 - The Time is Now for Mental Health and Wellness in Tech (panel) - https://theiconproject.org/events/the-time-is-now-for-mental-health-and-wellness-in-tech/

Additional team members will come from my network, the community, and Runner (https://www.hirerunner.co/ | https://twitter.com/hirerunner)  

Asks:

1. Contribute an amount you are comfortable making today. Even 1 DAI ($1.00) will make an impact thanks to the Quadratic Funding method of Gitcoin (see FAQs below). DEADLINE for contributions: Thursday, March 24, 2022 (6 PM) MDT

2. Get your profile verified. 

   1. This verification helps maximize your contribution and get up to 150% of the marching funds allocation. Here's how to get verified: TK (LINK)

   2. Example: I used Twitter, SMS, and my MetaMask for ENS (.eth) and POAP verification. Now, my contributions to other grants are 130% out of 150%

3. Amplify within your communities using the link to this grant [INSERT LINK TO YOUR GRANT PAGE]

   1. If Twitter, please use something like "I just funded a grant by @theanthonyware in the @ensdomains and @radicle ecosystem rounds for GR13 on @gitcoin [INSERT LINK TO YOUR GRANT PAGE]" ← you can copy and paste this into your post.

4. Make time this week to step away from work. Do something that brings you joy that has nothing to do with technology. ** **

Updates

• Updates will be shared every week during GR13 and bi-weekly after GR13 ends

  • There will be regular updates on the progress of this project here on Gitcoin and other platforms like https://mirror.xyz/

• Special updates may occur on a limited basis ** **

FAQs

• How do I fund this grant? [LINK]

  • What is the process?

  • What are the fees? How are the fees calculated?

  • What is the process for someone not versed in the tech platforms?

  • What currencies/tokens can I use to fund this grant?

  • What are the contribution and checkout options?

• What is Quadratic Funding? https://twitter.com/owocki/status/1341017326590840833

  • More info: https://wtfisqf.com

• What is the Trust Bonus?

  • This Trust Bonus (verification) is key to maximizing your contribution to this project. The more verifications, the higher the multiple up to 150% of your contribution.

  • A verification method makes it more challenging for people who create tech bots to game the system.

  • As Gitcoin states: "grants that are funded by more real people get more real money"

  • More details: https://gitcoin.co/blog/trust-bonus

  • What are Gitcoin and GR13 grants? For more information, go here: https://gitcoin.co/blog/announcing-grants-round-13/