Beyond Debt: Choosing Life Over Despair

There are some news reports that disturb you for a day, and then there are some that quietly stay with you. A recent report about a 34-year-old businessman, who allegedly died by suicide while battling financial stress and depression, has been one of those stories for me. Every time I thought about it, my mind went back to the same image—not of a businessman in debt, but of a young family whose life changed forever. A wife who must now find the strength to move ahead, a four-year-old child who will one day ask questions no one can answer, and parents who have lost a son they never imagined they would outlive.

Perhaps what affected me most was not the incident itself but the silence that must have existed before it.

For more than a decade, I have been working closely with entrepreneurs through WomenShine and the WomenShine Chamber of Entrepreneurship. Every event introduces me to people with dreams in their eyes and determination in their voices. They talk about new products, expansion plans, marketing ideas and future goals. Yet the conversations I remember the most have never happened on stage. They happen after the event is over, when the crowd has dispersed and the formalities are behind us. That is when people begin to speak honestly.

I have listened to entrepreneurs who worried about paying salaries before paying themselves. I have met business owners who were waiting for payments that never came on time. Some spoke about loans, some about shrinking markets, while others simply admitted they were exhausted. Interestingly, very few asked for advice. Most just wanted someone to listen without judging them. Almost all of them smiled before leaving and said, “I’ll manage.”

For a long time, I accepted those words without thinking much about them. Today, I hear them differently. Sometimes “I’ll manage” isn’t confidence; it is a shield. It is a way of hiding fear, protecting one’s dignity or avoiding uncomfortable questions. Somewhere along the way, many of us have started believing that asking for help makes us look weak. We have become comfortable sharing achievements but uncomfortable sharing struggles.

Entrepreneurship has always involved risk. There will be good years and difficult ones. Businesses grow, businesses fail, markets change and financial pressures come without warning. None of this is new. What has changed is the emotional burden people carry while trying to keep up appearances. Social media celebrates success every single day, but very few people talk about the anxiety that comes with uncertainty, unpaid bills, mounting responsibilities or the fear of letting loved ones down.

I am not qualified to explain depression, nor do I know what was going through the mind of the young businessman whose death prompted these thoughts. It would be unfair for any of us to assume we know his story. But I do believe that financial stress and emotional well-being are far more closely connected than we acknowledge. When people feel trapped, isolated or overwhelmed, they don’t always think the way we expect them to. That is precisely why conversations around mental health need to become as normal as conversations around business growth.

Over the years, I have also met entrepreneurs who have rebuilt their lives after losing almost everything. Some started again from a small room after shutting down their offices. Others took up consulting assignments until they could stand on their feet again. A few changed industries altogether. None of those journeys were easy, but they remind us that financial setbacks are chapters in life, not the entire story.

As a society, we often encourage people to dream big, build businesses and become financially independent. Perhaps we should also remind them that there is no shame in admitting that they are struggling. Every entrepreneur needs a support system just as much as they need a business plan. Sometimes support comes from family, sometimes from friends, and sometimes from people who simply take the time to ask the right question at the right moment.

This article is not about one businessman whose story made the headlines. It is about the many people around us who quietly carry invisible burdens while telling the world that everything is under control. We may never know what battles another person is fighting, but we can certainly become more aware, more compassionate and more willing to listen.

The next time someone says, “I’ll manage,” I know I won’t hear those words quite so casually. I will probably stop for a while, sit beside them if time permits, and ask if they would like to talk. They may still smile and say everything is fine. Or perhaps, for the first time, they may decide not to carry the weight alone.