A Close Call with Mental Health: Interview with Michael Wendland

Kevin Lawrence inter­views Michael Welland, a fin­tech founder who spent 17 years build­ing a com­pa­ny — then hit a slow, com­pound­ing burnout as busi­ness chal­lenges inten­si­fied and COVID added pressure.

What made it dif­fer­ent was per­son­al guar­an­tees tied to debt from close fam­i­ly friends, so the cri­sis spilled into home life and rela­tion­ships. Michael describes becom­ing ​“robot­ic,” iso­lat­ed, and over­whelmed by increas­ing­ly dark thoughts. In 2020, he attempt­ed to take his own life.

The turn­ing point came when Kevin asked direct­ly, ​“Are you okay?” That opened the door to week­ly check-ins, pro­fes­sion­al coun­sel­ing, and talk­ing with oth­er lead­ers who’d been through sim­i­lar crises — help­ing Michael feel less alone and regain perspective.

Michael’s key take­aways: men­tal health can hap­pen to any­one; you need a ​“men­tal fit­ness plan” like phys­i­cal fit­ness; build sup­port rela­tion­ships before cri­sis; grat­i­tude helps rewire think­ing; and pro­cess­ing thoughts out loud with the right peo­ple is heal­ing. His clos­ing mes­sage: you are not alone.

Here are some high­lights cap­tured in clips:

When Push­ing Through Does­n’t Work

The Low­est Point

Sup­port Tools

You Are Not Alone

Or watch the full inter­view here:

Addi­tion­al Resources Relat­ed to the Interview:

• An Inter­view with One of Us Who Had a Close Call with Men­tal Health
• What Every CEO Needs to Know About Men­tal Health
• Man­age Your Men­tal Health