Bengaluru founder says ‘accident’ that left him in ICU changed his view on work-life balance

Sivaram Briyas, co-founder of MillD Protein Atta, has opened up about how a serious accident that left him in the ICU for four months changed the way he looked at work and rest.

Before the accident, Briyas said he had become accustomed to treating every day, including Sundays, as a workday. “For most of my career, Sunday was just a slower Monday,” he said in a LinkedIn post.

The Bengaluru-based entrepreneur, who launched Briyas Tofu in 2014, said his weekends were frequently occupied with factory visits and work-related calls. Although he was physically around his family, he admitted that he was often mentally preoccupied with work.

“I answered calls. I visited the factory ‘for ten minutes’ that became three hours. I told my family I was present while my mind ran inventory numbers,” he confessed.

‘Entrepreneurs don't take off days’: Briyas

Briyas said he had once viewed long working hours as something to be proud of and believed that entrepreneurs were expected to keep working without taking breaks.

“I wore it with some pride. Entrepreneurs don't take off days. Or that's what I believed,” he said.

However, his perspective changed after a serious accident resulted in a prolonged hospital stay.

“Then I spent four months in an ICU, and I got all my off days at once,” said Briyas.

He later clarified that his hospitalisation was the result of the accident and not his demanding work schedule.

“I was in the ICU because I had met with a serious accident. Not because I worked too much. Not because I worked weekends. Not because I didn’t take enough days off. I’ve always been passionate about what I do. I still am. And I still believe in working hard,” he said in a follow-up post.

“But that accident was my turning point.”

What doctors told Briyas about the importance of rest

The months spent recovering gave Briyas an opportunity to rethink his approach to work. He recalled advice from his doctors about how the body recovers and becomes stronger.

“Lying there, I kept thinking about something the doctors told me about recovery. The body doesn't grow stronger during effort. It grows stronger during rest. The surgery is the damage. The healing happens in between, in the sleeping, the eating, the waiting,” he said.

For Briyas, the lesson went beyond physical recovery. He began considering how periods of rest could also help entrepreneurs think more clearly and make better business decisions.

‘The thinking that changes a company rarely happens in the meeting’

Briyas said some of the most valuable ideas do not necessarily emerge while people are actively working. Instead, they can come during moments when the mind is allowed to step away from work.

“The thinking that changes a company rarely happens in the meeting. It happens on the walk after the meeting. The customer insight doesn't arrive while staring at a dashboard. It arrives at a Sunday lunch, watching how your own family actually eats,” Briyas wrote on LinkedIn.

MillD Protein Atta co-founder now protects his Sundays

The entrepreneur said his approach to work-life balance has changed since the accident. Although he continues to work hard, he now tries to keep Sundays free from work.

“I still work hard. Probably harder than before, because now there's less time and more purpose.

“But I try to protect my Sundays now. Not because I've earned rest. Because rest is where the work completes itself,” he concluded.

(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. Livemint has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)