#Elon Musk

All night — no friends, nothing,” Elon Musk reveals his lonely 24 hours on his 47th birthday.

Loneliness can make the world feel a little bit devoid of color and bleak at times. Not solitude, but loneliness. That feeling of being alone, craving human company, conversation and accountability.

Combined with the pressures of starting and setting up a business, it is hard to be the leader, the person responsible for all decision-making. It is tough at the top.

After an exhausting week at the office, you've put on a brave face and given literally everything you've got to give. You cancel all social engagements by making up a lame excuse and you confine yourself to the four safe walls of your home to try and recuperate.

You struggle alone, suffocating under an increasing pile of responsibilities, pressures, bills, emails, orders, complaints and when you get home to your partner they ask if everything is okay? you respond with the usual “I’m fine”. You both know you’re not fine!

You receive a complaint, perhaps a bad review and you take this as a personal attack. It drains your energy to the point of exhaustion and regardless of how hard you try its impossible to switch off and forget.

Your closest friends and family question your decisions. Why don’t you get a normal job? Why are you so serious? Why do you work such long hours? With each piercing judgement from those closest to you, you withdraw a little. Until eventually you are completely withdrawn and isolated.

You work harder and harder, longer and longer. Continually setting the bar of success higher. Without recognizing it you set yourself up to fail. Every time you fail you question your worth, sabotaging yourself until the point your self-worth hits rock bottom.