I met Sara in Istanbul.

Sara is a couture fashion designer based in Belgium, with more than fifteen years in business. Her work is shown at major events (film festivals, fashion shows, tradeshows…) and she sells and collaborates internationally.

From the outside, this looks like success.

She runs a serious atelier. She is visionary and meticulous. She has built a strong team that shares her standards for craft and quality.

And yet, she struggles.

Not because she lacks talent.
Not because she avoids work.She struggles to keep things stable.
She struggles to make the business work without compromising her standards.
She struggles with pressure that never really goes away.

This struggle is not isolated

Sara’s situation is not unusual.

I see the same pattern across founders working in very different industries and contexts. Designers, engineers, artists, manufacturers, educators. Capable, responsible people who take their work seriously, and still find things harder than expected.

This is not random.

And it is not personal failure.

The same founders who are thoughtful, disciplined, and committed often carry more pressure than seems reasonable. The more responsibility they take on (for their team, their clients, their craft …etc) the heavier it feels.

Looking beyond personal explanations

Personal explanations are tempting here, but they often hide what actually creates the pressure. Looking instead at the structural conditions these businesses operate in is more constructive.

Many of these businesses operate in environments where trust is uneven or fragile. Payments could be delayed. Agreements are sometimes informal or difficult to enforce. Expectations are unclear. Founders cannot always rely on systems to quietly absorb risk.

Often, there is little room to absorb mistakes or delays. When something goes wrong, the impact is felt immediately.

Responsibility is concentrated. When something breaks, it lands directly on the founder. Employees, suppliers, clients: everyone expects the same person to come up with the solution!

There are few buffers. Limited protection against shocks that are outside the founder’s control.

And on top of that, the decision load is constant. Every choice matters. Every mistake is expensive. Every delay has consequences.

This combination creates pressure that is structural, not psychological.

Struggle is not the signal you think it is

Seen from the outside, it can look like the founder is struggling because they are not competent enough.

Seen from the inside, it feels like you are constantly carrying more than the system is designed to hold.

Here is the reframe that matters.

Struggle does not mean incompetence.

Struggle often means operating under constraint.

When you are building a business in conditions where trust is fragile, room for error is limited, responsibility is concentrated, and buffers are scarce, effort alone will never feel sufficient. Even good decisions feel heavy. Even success feels precarious.

Naming this changes the game.

It doesn’t remove the constraints.

But it removes the shame.

And once you can see the conditions you are actually operating in, you can start making decisions that fit reality.Not an imagined version of entrepreneurship that assumes stability, protection, and support that may not exist.

A little step forward

If you want one simple place to pause, try this:

Name one pressure you usually interpret as a personal shortcoming, and ask whether it might come from the conditions you’re operating in instead.

Sometimes, that question alone changes how the work feels.