Recognize your ‘perfect storm’: why your health story is a business asset, not a liability

A few years ago, I found myself sitting on the couch, holding my baby, feeling utterly exhausted, itchy, and scared. My liver was inflamed, my energy was gone, and my spirit felt broken. As a physician, I knew how to care for others, but I had no idea how to care for myself as a patient. My body, it seemed, had completely betrayed me.

If you are an entrepreneur living with a chronic condition, this feeling may be deeply familiar. You may feel that your body is a liability—an unpredictable variable that threatens the business you are working so hard to build.

But I’ve learned, both as a physician and a patient, that our symptoms rarely come from a single, isolated cause. More often, they arise from a “perfect storm”—a unique convergence of genetics, lifestyle, environment, and stressors that contributes to a “misbehaving immune system.”

This isn’t about finding a single thing to blame. It’s about listening to your whole story. Grounded in science, the “epithelial barrier hypothesis” suggests that our body’s natural defenses can be worn down by a collection of modern insults like stress, pollution, and certain food additives, leading to chronic inflammation and symptoms.

This article will help you map your own storm, not to dwell on the past, but to gather the critical intelligence you need to build a more resilient and sustainable business.

How to map your storm (a gentle inquiry)

This is not an exercise in diagnosis or blame. It is an act of compassionate curiosity. For a Chronic Boss, building this kind of deep self-awareness is a foundational leadership skill. It’s about finally giving yourself permission to connect the dots.

Take a moment to reflect on these questions gently:

1. Your unique climate (the baseline):
   • What is your health history? Can you recall seemingly unrelated complaints from your childhood, teens and twenties that might have been early signs?
   • What patterns have you noticed over the years, even before your official diagnosis?
   • What is your known genetic predisposition or family history of immune-related conditions?
2. The atmospheric pressure (the chronic stressors):
   • What are the non-negotiable stressors in your business? Think about launch cycles, financial pressures, or the weight of responsibility.
   • How does the pressure of “hustle culture” show up in your work? How does that feeling of constant urgency land in your body?
   • Have you ever felt dismissed by a healthcare system that didn’t connect the dots for you or told you your labs were normal when you knew something was wrong?
3. The weather events (the acute triggers):
   • What specific events seem to precede a flare or an increase in symptoms? Consider lack of sleep, travel, certain foods, or high-stakes client meetings.
   • Think about the times you’ve pushed through fatigue or ignored subtle pains because your business demanded it. What was the eventual cost?

From liability to strategic asset

Looking at this map, you might see a list of problems. But what you have actually created is a powerful business intelligence tool. Your lived experience is your expertise, and your health story is a strategic asset.

Here is how that shift in perspective happens:

Sustainable by design

When you understand your storm, you can stop fighting your body and start designing a business that works with it. You can build in rest before you become exhausted. You can align your most demanding tasks with your peak energy windows. You proactively build the support you need, transforming your business from a source of depletion into a source of nourishment.

Authentic connection

As a physician who has been on both sides of the exam room, I know that my personal health journey has given me a unique capacity for empathy. Your journey does the same. It allows you to build immense trust and loyalty with clients and a community that feels truly seen and understood by you because you get it.

Innovation born from necessity

The gaps you’ve experienced in your own search for support are often massive business opportunities. My passion for holistic, trauma-informed care led me to found The Immune Confident Institute, a practice built on the very principles I sought during my own struggles. The solutions you create for yourself are often the very solutions others are desperately seeking.

You are the expert CEO of your body

Your symptoms are real, even when the labs are normal. Recognizing your ‘perfect storm’ is the first step toward reclaiming your voice, choice, and agency—not just in your health, but in your business. It moves you from reacting to health challenges to proactively designing a business and a life where you can truly thrive.

Your action step this week is this: Choose one small insight from your storm map. Just one. And make one corresponding adjustment to your schedule. Perhaps it’s blocking out 30 minutes of quiet time after a stressful meeting or delegating a task that always drains you.

This is your first move in using your health intelligence as your greatest business asset.