EP #177 - Mathias Wegmüller: An Entrepreneur's Guide To Optimal Health

Mathias is an accomplished entrepreneur, board member and investor, with multi-year expertise in digital transformation. Together with Simon Scheurer, Mathias co-founded Qumram in 2011 and led it in different roles - CEO, Head of Business Development and Sales - until the successful exit and trade-sale in November 2017 to Dynatrace. Throughout his entrepreneurial journey, Mathias learned by trial and error how to best maintain his health. Below are a few of his tips.

Cultivating your social circle:

- It's a good idea to make friends with your co-workers, because you spend a good deal of your time at work.

- When having quality time with your family, don't go on and on and on about work.

- If necessary/possible, you can take your romantic partner on business trips.

- The number of close friendships you can have really varies from person to person.

Managing your stress:

- If you have lots of muscle pain, can't sleep, and have a hard time focusing, these might be the side effects of chronic stress. A healthy person should be free of pain most of the time.

- Make sure you exercise regularly and that your job is not incompatible with your in-built stress tolerance capability (which varies genetically from person to person).

- Exercise-wise, if the workout you've picked leaves you in pain, and/or doesn't help you build muscle or flexibility, it's probably not the right workout for you.

Balancing your diet:

- You might wanna consider investing money in a test that tells you how well you digest carbs. Not everyone is intolerant.

- Before you splurge on supplements, make sure you've already got the "carbs/proteins/fat" balance right.

- You might wanna look into the 16/8 intermittent fasting regime.

Improving your sleep:

- If you can power nap to make up for lost sleep, do it. But investing in a good night's sleep is better. 6h of good sleep is the ideal number, in Mathias' opinion.

- Go to sleep at more or less the same time everyday or you'll mess up your circadian rhythm.

- Invest in a good mattress, a good pillow, and black-out curtains.

- Avoid screens in the last 1-2h before bedtime.

Final takeaways:

- Don't sacrifice your health for work performance. A life full of professional failures can still be a rich life as long as you are healthy.

- You can try to stay on top of your health through metrics like your resting heart beat, but at the end of the day qualitative feedback is much better. When you run into someone you haven't seen in a long time, do they tell you you look tired/old/too skinny/too fat? We look at ourselves everyday, so incremental changes can slip below our notice.

Memorable Quotes:

"Successful founders just have an in-built high stress tolerance — otherwise they wouldn't be where they are."

Resources Mentioned:

Der Ernährungskompass, by Bas Kast