In this episode of Burnout Triumphants, Tomi goes over his own experience with burnout, his personal turning point, as well as what the recovery process was like for him.
Burnout Triumphant Series
Our Burnout Triumphant Series is here to share real-life stories of people having gone through severe burnout syndrome and coming out victorious on the other end. Burnout is a serious condition and needs to be addressed proactively and responsibly in order to prevent its occurrence in the very first place and overcome an already existing burned-out state. By sharing the stories of our guests we want to raise awareness, spread the word, and enable our viewers to recognize any potential red flags with their own lifestyle.
We’d like you to meet Tomi Kaukinen, an entrepreneur, burnout survivor, keynote speaker, CMO at Cuckoo, and a dreamer, in our third episode of Burnout Triumphants.
After going through what could be described as a little existential crisis in 2012, he chose to leave his well-paid position in fund management, largely due to an idea shared with me by an 18-year summer intern. He made the decision to start his own business. His initial businesses, which he started without understanding anything about technology, were failures, but they taught him a valuable lesson. After a few years, things began to fall into place, and he expanded his businesses into the Spanish and Southeast Asian markets, partnering with some of the world’s most prestigious sports clubs and media corporations.
He burned out and eventually grew depressed after he reached the wall in 2017.
Tomi now uses his experiences to help other people and businesses. In Finland, he was a finalist for Speaker of the Year 2020. He is the founder of Licence to Fail, Finland’s most comprehensive resource for start-up advice, public financing assistance, and entrepreneurial stories. Tomi also does public speeches in schools, universities, businesses, and other settings. In the year 2021, he sheds light on burnout.
In this episode, Tomi talks about his own experience with burnout, dealing with customers, and balancing life and recovery, and explains the difference between burnout and depression. He also discusses how entrepreneurship affects burnout and the overachievement cycle.
Most importantly, he discusses his personal turning point, existential problems, a psychological crisis, and the need for external validation, as well as his healing process.
Check out Tomi’s Burnout Triumphants video if you want to understand more about his story.