I thought having people around would make it easier. My 6-year-old son plays just a few steps away from my desk here in Dubai, our live-in nanny helps with daily routines, yet here I am feeling completely alone in my business. How is this possible?
The silence hits me hardest during those moments when I have to make big decisions. Who do I ask? Who really understands what it feels like to risk everything on an idea that exists only in your head? My husband supports me, our nanny keeps our household running, but they can’t share the weight pressing down on my chest when I’m staring at my laptop at 9 AM wondering if I’m making the right choices.
I used to work in busy offices filled with colleagues and meeting rooms buzzing with conversations. Now? The only sounds are my son’s toys and my own thoughts spinning endlessly. The isolation crept up slowly at first, then hit me like a wave. Some days I catch myself talking out loud just to hear a voice.
Research says loneliness affects us like smoking 15 cigarettes daily. Worse than obesity, they claim. I believe it. Some mornings I wake up feeling like I’ve been holding my breath for months.
This wasn’t what I expected when I started my business. Financial Independence, yes. Freedom to work from home, absolutely. But this hollow feeling? No one warned me about that. Every success feels smaller when you have no team to celebrate with. Every failure feels massive when it’s only your name on the responsibility list.
I found myself wondering if other mother entrepreneurs felt the same crushing weight. Were they also sitting in their home offices feeling like the only person in the world facing these challenges? That question wouldn’t leave me alone. It kept me awake, made me restless during family dinners.
So I did what I always do when something bothers me this much. I took action. I started the Mumpreneurs UAE Community because I needed to know I wasn’t the only one struggling with this. And thankfully, I wasn’t.
What I discovered changed everything about how I approach solopreneurship. There are ways to feel less alone without giving up the financial independence I fought so hard to build. The solutions aren’t complicated, but they require admitting something most of us don’t want to face first.
We need each other. Even us stubborn, independent solopreneurs.
Why We End Up Feeling So Damn Alone
“The work life of most solopreneurs is a lonely one by definition.” — Minda Zetlin, Business and technology journalist, Inc. Magazine columnist
People love to paint solopreneurs as these brave souls who escaped the corporate world to chase freedom. What they don’t tell you is that freedom sometimes feels like being trapped in your own head.
Sitting here at my desk in Dubai, I’ve realized something that hit me harder than I expected. Only 10% of UAE expats work for themselves. That means 90% of the people I talk to have never felt the weight of building something from nothing, completely alone. When I try to explain what my days look like, I see their eyes glaze over. They think I’m complaining about having too much freedom.
But here’s what really gets to me. Every single decision falls on my shoulders. Should I raise my prices? Is this marketing strategy worth the money? Do I hire someone or keep doing everything myself? In corporate jobs, you argue with your team, someone makes the call, and you all move forward together. Here? It’s just me and my racing thoughts at 3 AM.
I miss the most ridiculous things from office life. The random conversations while making a tea. Someone asking how my weekend was. The shared frustration when the printer breaks down. Even the boring lunch meetings where nothing gets decided. Those moments weren’t just social, they were how ideas got born, how problems got solved without you even realizing it.
My son plays with his cars and superheroes downstairs. Our nanny keeps everything running smoothly. But neither of them can understand why I sometimes stare at my computer screen feeling completely lost. They can’t share the panic when a client cancels or the excitement when a new opportunity appears. That’s not their job, and it’s not fair to expect them to carry my professional worries.
Harvard Business Review says half of CEOs feel lonely in their roles. Half! And they have entire teams, board members, and endless meetings. What does that say about those of us working completely alone? We don’t even have the luxury of feeling lonely with other people around.
This is exactly why I had to create the Mumpreneurs UAE Community. My husband is amazing with our son, supportive of my business, but he can’t understand what it feels like to be solely responsible for every aspect of a company. He has colleagues, team meetings, shared projects. I have my laptop and my doubts.
You know what’s worse? The research shows 70% of employees say friends at work are crucial for happiness. Friends at work. That phrase makes me laugh now. My work friends are my email inbox and my coffee maker.
The boundaries between work and life disappear when you work alone. I check emails during dinner, think about business strategies while playing with my son, and dream about client calls. There’s no leaving the office because the office is everywhere. Even on vacation, I’m still the only one responsible for keeping everything running.
Maybe that’s why so many of us end up feeling like we’re stuck in our own heads. Because we are.
What This Loneliness Actually Does to You
I didn’t realize how badly the isolation was affecting me until I found myself crying over spilled tea one Tuesday morning. My son looked at me confused, our nanny asked if I was okay, and I couldn’t explain why such a small thing broke me. That’s when I knew something was seriously wrong.
The sleepless nights came first. I’d lie awake replaying every business decision, wondering if I’d made the right choice about that client proposal or marketing strategy. My mind wouldn’t stop spinning. Even when exhaustion finally took over, I’d wake up feeling like I’d been running marathons in my dreams.
Then my body started rebelling. My back ached constantly from hunching over my laptop, my shoulders carried tension I couldn’t shake off. I stopped exercising because I was always “too busy” or “too tired.” The irony wasn’t lost on me – I was working from home but felt less healthy than when I commuted to an office every day.
The decision-making became torture. Should I take on this new project? Raise my prices? Pivot my business model? Every choice felt massive because it was mine alone to make. Some days I’d stare at my email for hours, paralyzed by the simplest decisions. I read somewhere that we make 35,000 decisions daily. No wonder my brain felt fried.
My work started suffering too. The creative ideas that used to flow easily felt forced and stale. I’d sit at client calls feeling disconnected, going through the motions but missing that spark I once had. Deadlines that used to energize me now felt overwhelming. I was producing work, but it wasn’t my best work.
The scary part? I almost convinced myself this was normal. “This is just what entrepreneurship looks like,” I told myself. “Successful people push through.” But pushing through was destroying me piece by piece.
Studies show that one in three entrepreneurs live with depression, and 75% worry about their mental health. I became part of those statistics without even realizing it. The isolation wasn’t just uncomfortable anymore – it was dangerous.
What psychiatrists call “the most terrifying and destructive feeling that a person can experience” had quietly taken root in my daily life. I felt helpless and completely alone, even surrounded by my family.
This realization hit me hard one evening while watching my son play. He deserved a mother who was present, energetic, and happy. My husband deserved a partner who wasn’t constantly stressed and withdrawn. I deserved better than this constant state of anxiety and exhaustion.
That’s when I knew I had to do something different. The Mumpreneurs UAE Community wasn’t just about helping other mother entrepreneurs – it was about saving myself from drowning in isolation. Because the truth is, we can’t build successful businesses while slowly destroying ourselves in the process.
What I Did to Stop Feeling So Alone
“Many solopreneurs combat this by networking, joining online communities, or collaborating with others, ensuring they stay connected while maintaining their independence.” — PR Newswire (as cited by Higo Creative), Market research and business statistics provider
The loneliness was eating away at my productivity and my sanity. Something had to change. I wasn’t going to accept feeling isolated as just part of being a solopreneur. So I started experimenting with different approaches until I found what actually worked.
First thing I did? I stopped trying to solve everything by myself. I know, I know. Defeats the whole point of being a solopreneur, right? Wrong. I needed people who understood what I was going through, not just supportive family members who meant well.
I started meeting other entrepreneurs for coffee. Not networking events with business cards and fake smiles. Real conversations with people running their own businesses. My live-in nanny watches my son during these weekly meetups, and honestly? These lunch breaks energize my creativity in ways motivational podcasts simply cannot. Research backs this up too – 70% of people consider friends at work the most crucial element to a happy working life. Made sense why I felt so drained working alone.
The community thing happened because I kept looking for mother entrepreneurs specifically. Turns out, there weren’t many places where we could connect and talk about the unique challenges we face. My husband supports our family life completely, but he can’t understand what it feels like to build a business while being the primary parent. That’s when I decided to create the Mumpreneurs UAE Community.
I also found myself an accountability partner. Someone who checks in with me weekly, even virtually. This isn’t about having a business mentor or coach. It’s about having someone who gets what your Tuesday looks like, who understands why you’re stressed about a client email that arrived at 9 PM. Meeting with someone regularly creates mutual responsibility that cuts through the isolation. She’s like my work spouse, really.
When I can manage it, I work from coworking spaces around Dubai. The background noise of other people working helps more than I expected. You get to “work independently but not alone”, which is exactly what I needed. Sometimes I don’t talk to anyone there, but just being around other people focusing on their work makes me feel less like I’m the only person in the world trying to make a business work.
Most importantly, I learned to set boundaries that actually stick. Specific working hours. Non-negotiable time with my son. I had to become intentional about paying attention to what I need in any given moment. Some days that mean working late, other days it means shutting the laptop at 3 PM and playing with building F1 cars..
The thing is, none of these solutions require giving up independence. They just require admitting you’re human and humans need other humans.
If you’re a mother entrepreneur dealing with this same isolation, come join us at Mumpreneurs UAE Community. We get it, and we’re here for the real conversations about what this journey actually looks like.
Here’s What I Know Now
I sit here at my desk in Dubai, my son’s laughter echoing from the next room, and I realize something has shifted. The loneliness that used to suffocate me during those late-night decision-making moments? It’s still there sometimes, but it doesn’t control me anymore.
Starting the Mumpreneurs UAE Community wasn’t just about helping other mother entrepreneurs. It was about saving myself from drowning in isolation. I needed to know I wasn’t the only one carrying this weight, making these impossible choices, wondering if I was strong enough to build something meaningful on my own.
What I discovered changed my entire understanding of what it means to be a solopreneur. Independence doesn’t have to mean isolation. Freedom doesn’t require sacrificing connection. The strongest entrepreneurs I know understand this truth: we need each other, even when we’re determined to go it alone.
The strategies I shared aren’t theoretical concepts I read about somewhere. They grew from my desperate need to feel less alone while maintaining the financial independence I fought so hard to achieve. Every weekly lunch with fellow entrepreneurs, every accountability partner check-in, every moment I chose connection over isolation—these small acts built a foundation I didn’t know I was missing.
My husband still can’t understand what it feels like to risk everything on a business idea. Our nanny still can’t share the burden of making decisions that affect our family’s future. My son still plays happily while I wrestle with choices that keep me awake at night. But now I have something I didn’t have before: a community of women who look at me and say, “I know exactly what you mean.”
This journey taught me that admitting you need help isn’t weakness. It’s wisdom. Reaching out when you feel alone isn’t giving up your independence. It’s protecting it by ensuring you stay strong enough to keep going.
Loneliness might be common among solopreneurs, but it doesn’t have to be permanent. The path forward isn’t complicated, but it requires taking that first scary step: acknowledging that even the most independent among us need connection to truly thrive.
I’m grateful for every moment of isolation that led me here. Without it, I never would have discovered how powerful it feels to build something meaningful alongside other women who understand the cost of independence and the price of dreams.
FAQs
Q1. How can solopreneurs combat feelings of loneliness?
Solopreneurs can combat loneliness by joining online and offline communities, scheduling regular meetups with other entrepreneurs, finding an accountability partner, utilizing coworking spaces, and setting clear boundaries between work and personal life.
Q2. What are the main challenges solopreneurs face when it comes to isolation?
The main challenges include the emotional weight of making all decisions alone, lack of daily social interaction in a traditional work environment, blurred lines between work and personal life, and the absence of a team to share ideas or responsibilities with.
Q3. How does loneliness impact a solopreneur’s business performance?
Loneliness can negatively impact a solopreneur’s business performance by causing mental health issues, decision fatigue, decreased productivity, impaired creativity, and diminished executive functioning, which affects decision-making and logical reasoning.
Q4. Why is it important for solopreneurs to maintain social connections?
Maintaining social connections is crucial for solopreneurs because it provides emotional support, opportunities for idea exchange, networking possibilities, and a sense of belonging. Research shows that people who feel connected to groups experience more life satisfaction and a stronger sense of purpose.
Q5. What are some practical ways for solopreneurs to create a support system?
Solopreneurs can create a support system by joining industry-specific communities, attending networking events, finding a mentor or coach, participating in online forums or social media groups for entrepreneurs, and maintaining regular contact with friends and family who understand their journey.
Recent Comments