Climate entrepreneurs are in the trenches of creating positive change. This change often isn’t linear, so they don’t see the wider impact of their efforts within the larger system. They’re well-versed in the urgency of the climate crisis, so much so that they’ve devoted their careers to fixing it. And they’re constantly exposed, first-hand, to the challenges of driving change at scale; not just in their business, but in society in general.

What does this mean for their systemic self-doubt?

(Note: I’ll be using the term ‘eco-anxiety’ interchangeably in this article, as it’s a term many people use already. However, as we teach at Climate Change Coaches, the complexity of emotion around climate change is far more nuanced than anxiety. It encompasses grief, despair, anger, futility, helplessness, numbness, and many others. With that caveat — let’s continue.)

 (1) Eco-anxiety is a pendulum

As with personal self-doubt, people’s eco-anxiety flared up and died down depending on the day:

• “I have ‘yes’ days, when I’m really trying to look at all the things happening. I like to look at it in terms of: we really never had so much action in the climate space, there are so many kinds of initiatives, so much capital being invested in entrepreneurship, all of that. And I think it's super exciting because it really feels like finally things are really moving in the right direction, though whether at a sufficient speed and scale is a different conversation. That's when I think I also feel more excited about being in the space, and I want to help.

  And then on the ‘no’ days, it's just too big of a problem to solve. And I find some time myself stuck in the complexity of the system. And the fact that, you know, there’s no single solution. It’s more about how everything is connected – the social and environmental aspects, the economic and all of that – and it just feels like no matter which kind of lever you try to pull or change, the system is just going to slow any kind of effort down.”

Many also expressed frustration at feeling like they were at arm’s length from the impact they could measure:

• “The more complex the system gets, the more you somehow feel like you're so far away from the actionable results. The problem you’re solving starts really big, but then what you can actually do is always kind of small. I dwell between the big and the small and the concrete and the abstract.”

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(2) 4 groups are most impacted by systemic self-doubt

Across all my conversations, there was a spectrum of systemic self-doubt. At one end: entrepreneurs with a great deal of climate heaviness or helplessness. At the other: entrepreneurs whose climate action was the very antidote to their despair. Interestingly, this second group seemed most common (we’ll get to that below).

Systemic self-doubt seems most prevalent across four groups:

(a) Very early (concept) stage founders

These people often want to move full-time into their climate entrepreneurship, but aren’t quite there yet. Maybe they don't yet have proof that their ideas can be viable, or they haven't monetised their idea. Not being in action exacerbates this systemic anxiety. They're aware of this huge crisis and don't feel like they're playing their part yet.

• “It feels big, because I'm sitting here at my desk, in my day job. And my desire is to be doing this [entrepreneurial] work full-time. It's a better fit with what I feel passionate about.  It's just a pain, a sore spot to be looking at all kinds of spreadsheets and metrics that have nothing to do with anything I care about. And then I think: ‘you're never going to be able to do it fast enough to make the kind of impact that's necessary…you won't be able to figure it out’.”

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(b) Leaders tasked with changing existing organisations

These people have been hired to drive climate action within existing organisations, which are often complex and/or bureaucratic.

They often feel self-doubt about their leadership capabilities, especially around managing stakeholder relationships. They also feel a great deal of pressure around being the figureheads of driving wider change, with a weight of responsibility to keep 'looking the part'. They know how complex the changes need to be, and don’t always feel able to share that.

• “My number one challenge around self-doubt is not doing a good enough job when it's such an important time. There's so much resting on it. You know, we literally just have a few years in which to make such a transformational change. I find that quite scary. And I don't want to look back and feel like I failed. It feels very heavy. You know, nothing's changing quickly enough. I need to be inspiring without scaremongering and terrifying people. But actually, it is terrifying, you know, and I somehow have to remain incredibly optimistic when sometimes I'm just absolutely in despair that we're just never going to fix it. And I do sometimes, personally, wish I could just run away and go and enjoy the rest of my life and not care about it. But for whatever reason, I can't. And I always feel slightly exposed. I always feel like somebody is going to scratch the surface and find I don't have all the answers. I just need to put my brave pants on.”

• “It’s the system — not just climate change, but this organisation — that really triggers my self-doubt. As in: how on earth do I break through this, shift this, change this?! Lots of things feel against me in terms of how the organisation is set up and how decisions are made. And then as soon as I see a chink of light through the system, the self-doubt totally swings back to me. And I just go: am I good enough for this? Can I do this, change it?”

Loneliness is common for these leaders.

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(c) Entrepreneurs influencing the unconvinced

These are those whose business is all about enrolling others to change their behaviour. Think sustainability advisors, certain types of coaches, and business consultancies. They're used to facing resistance, and not seeing immediate results from their efforts.

My hunch here is that climate entrepreneurs operating outside the ‘green bubble’ feel this more acutely. If the lynchpin of climate action is changing behaviour, they’re right in the thick of it.

• “Clients tell me they don’t have budget for sustainability; they’re focusing on more important things. But for me, this is the most important thing. I feel like I’m a prophet and there’s nobody listening. I’m like Cassandra in the Greek myths. She can see into the future. She sees the Greeks coming with their horses, and nobody listens to her.”

• “I ask myself: am I good enough at being a spokesperson? Because people buy stories, right? At the end of the day, I know it's my job to convert people. And if I don't, it’s my fault. That’s how I'm reading it. I'm so scared of failure.”

• “It feels like we're not getting anywhere. If we can’t explain this to to a decently intelligent person, how is the wider public going to understand what we're trying to do? And after we run these these sessions, I feel completely drained.”

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  (d) Founders ambivalent about the bigger system

  These people have been in entrepreneurship for a while, and are good at it. But they feel ambivalent about whether business (and capitalism) is the right vehicle to change systems. A minority of these people were climate activists in a previous life, or are considering climate activism.

  • “On my ‘yes’ days, I believe we can make positive change, and we need to have that business savviness, that entrepreneurial spark, to solve these problems. And that's the brand that I try to put out there on social media. And then on the ‘no’ days I think, why am I spending my time doing this? Shouldn't we all be mobilising to try and solve the climate crisis? How can I be more hands-on?”

  They're taking steps to mitigate this (and challenge others' paradigms), but wonder whether it's enough.