We often hear the business media lauding the excitement and importance of startups.

Entrepreneurs are considered heroes. Brave adventurers into the economic unknown. American and world heroes.

We’ll we’re here to say that the most important startup in the world is you.

Because we’ve all seen the result of business people who throw themselves so deeply into their work that their health falls apart. Fattens up. Clogs the heart. And lungs. So enough with that kind of “hero.” What is there to admire in a person who “wins the game” and yet loses the most important thing in life, which is quality of life.

There’s nothing that can make you more uncomfortable in life than being in a business situation where the person across the table is mopping their brow with a handkerchief because their weight is too high and their blood pressure through the roof. It’s enough to make you not want to do business with them. Or just give them the deal…whatever it is. Just get them out of my sight!

And it works the other way around as well. If you have someone on your team or in your company, or the boss of your company is so out of shape they create a scene everywhere they go, you know it is costing you good impressions at some level. People want to know you’ll be there tomorrow if they’re going to shake hands and sign a contract with you or your company. Not a good way to start up business.

So while we love to celebrate the heroics of startup businesses because they contribute to the economy, perhaps a real accounting, a true accounting when you get right down to the numbers, is whether the people pushing themselves to unhealthy lengths in business are contributing more to society or leaching more out of it in the long run. And can we afford it? Can anyone? Especially those who are so obsessed with business they lose sight of themselves?

Have a heart. Help someone start up. 

We can have compassion. Some people working to make a living claim they have no time to work out. Their days are wall to wall work or meetings. But do we really, truly buy that line? As friends and good associates, we need to be guides and compatriots in helping our co-workers and even our bosses back into a healthy cycle. It doesn’t help to start up a company or a deal only to hit the brakes when someone’s health suddenly, or tragically even, slows them down.

When some of us get pushed that far, we still find time between the shower and getting dressed to manage 25 or so pushups, some situps, a few constructive knee exercises and maybe a plank or two. It’s amazing what a 10 minute routine can do to raise your heart rate, build core and posture strength and over the long term, keep things at least manageably together.

Pacing yourself and others

I once served as a “trainer” of sorts for the international president of one of the world’s best known ad agencies. He lived a fast-paced lifestyle, with a mistress and everything. But he wanted to “take care of himself” he told me, and I was in a phase of life where I had time, and the conditioning, to help him do just that. So I led him through intensive workouts in collaboration with his personal coach. He went on to set local age group records and drop his 5K time from 20:00 down to 17:15. He wound up marrying the mistress, by the way. I was his trainer, not his marriage counselor. There are limits in some of these things, you know.

Get in touch with the basics

Even if you run just 20 minutes a day, you are doing tremendous things for your health. It doesn’t matter how fast or far you go. Just get moving. That’s the most important startup investment you can make in yourself.

Inspiration is all around us

There’s a guy down the block from my house that gets up and rides his bikes in almost every season. Mountain bikes all winter. Road bikes all summer. Up at 5:00. Back by 6:30. Off to wherever he works by 7:00 a.m.

And if he can do it, I don’t care who you are, you can do it too. That’s your personal capital, after all. The investment pays not only for yourself, but for the ones you love, who count on you not only for economic support, but for physical health and emotional leadership as well.

Keep it in perspective

Unless you get really, reallly carried away, investing in exercise is always a good investment. It really is the most important startup in your life. You’ll be inspired with new thoughts while you’re out moving, pushing blood through your heart and brain. Forgetting the limitations you impose on yourself and thinking of new ways to invest in your future. It’s a fresh start every day. Like spring rain, running and riding brings the new back into life, and washes away that which is best left behind.

Be your own startup. It’s worth it in every way.