iRoko TV Boss Jason Njoku on success,hard work and his health..."I need to be alive to enjoy my wealth"

iROKO Tv boss Jason Njoku has attributed his sudden breakdown to his dedicating too much time to work and very little hours to rest.  Writing about the pressure he has put on himself to succeed, the 34-year-old says he has resolved to slow down so that he will be alive to enjoy his efforts.

Read what he wrote below; 

“On 20th November 2014 I hit a wall. I have always had incredible amounts of energy. I have always prided myself on my ability to work harder (not necessarily smarter) than anyone around me. But something changed on the 20th November 2014. I hit my physical limit. To my horror it finally dawned on my that I wasn’t invincible.
Hitting the wall.
I was on the final leg of a brutal 6-city [JoBurg-LA-SF-NY-Paris-London-Lagos] tour which had me visit all the mentioned cities within 11 days. As soon as I landed in Lagos, I knew something was not right. I was exhausted. Not the usual take a few hours nap and come into the office tired. But my very being was tired. True to form, I landed at 5am and was in the office by 1pm the same day. The only issue was half of my entire body was numb. Pins and needles numb. My vision blurred and I realised something was awry. I still managed to attend a friend’s wedding but had to leave early as I could barely stand up.Continue....

So I went home and fell ill. I basically worked (I still don’t know how to stop) from home and rested for the rest of the month. Today is December. A new month. Today I at least feel able to climb out of bed in the morning.
I had pushed myself to my physical limit and probably damaged myself in the process. Why? Because that’s the only way I know how to work. 1,000%. My wife refers to me as an extremist. Everything I do is in the extreme. I had a health check recently and realised if I don’t start working on my health I probably won’t be around long enough to enjoy the small success I have created. But as I have always said, this startup shit is hard. Whether you are capitalised or not. It’s just fucking hard. But it’s definitely not something worth dying over. Not now I have a son who needs me.
Health vs Wealth
They shouldn’t be mutually exclusive. I completely abandoned any health related issues to chase the almighty dollar over the last few years. The result? My BMI (body mass index) is dangerously high, I recently had a 30 min conversation with a client. Called back the few hours later to have the exact same conversation as I realised I hadn’t recalled a thing she had said.
For the next 6 months I am going to focus on my health. I am grossly overweight and need to realign myself to a healthier reality. Since I landed in Nigeria some 4 years ago, my weight has increased 39%. I am 34 on 11th December, it’s around this time I start my ‘annual accounting’ and start fretting about all the things I haven’t achieved yet. A work/life balance isn’t usually one of them. It needs to be prioritised.
I am fortunate, that I get. I have a beautiful family, a completely fulfilling business and enough value created to ensure I shouldn’t go hungry anytime soon. Yet I have to begin to create a balance otherwise they will all be in vain. 2014 has been an emotionally taxing year. But then again 2013 was horrid. The future looks challenging on all fronts.
This is a very personal battle I need to wage. One where my natural indiscipline and hard headedness will work against me. But I need to regain my former self. The Jason who used to run half marathons without any training. I need to be myself. Only better because I guess I’m not as invincible as I believed I was.”