In 2017, I met the owner of a small restaurant in Rotterdam, Mediterranean kitchen, fifty seats, full most nights.
His name was Karim. The food was honest, the reviews glowing, the staff loyal.
But that winter, the lights stayed off. Not for renovation. Not for sale. Just… off.
When we spoke, he was sitting alone at a corner table, coat still on, invoices piled next to an untouched espresso. “I’m not tired of cooking,” he said. “I’m tired of being the accountant, the recruiter, the IT guy, and the cleaner, every day.”
He didn’t need motivation. He needed governance.
THE WHY
If you run a 3–20 person business in the Netherlands, this isn’t a metaphor. It’s a warning.
When you, the founder, become the central nervous system of your company, holding HR, taxes, suppliers, tech, compliance, invoices, and vision in your head, you don’t just risk burnout.
You risk a governance collapse.
No policies. No backups. No audit trails. No decision-making logic that can survive your absence.
And when governance breaks, trust breaks. Staff get confused. Mistakes multiply. Penalties appear. Talent leaves. And you, the irreplaceable center, start to crack.
THE NUMBERS
Let’s translate that into what hurts most: loss.
- €4,200: average yearly cost of compliance penalties for Dutch SMEs without a documented GRC structure (source: CBS + Belastingdienst 2023).
- 2 out of 3: Dutch micro-enterprises that experience project failure or financial disruption after founder illness longer than 10 days (KVK, 2022).
- €1,000/month: hidden labor loss in administrative rework when internal rules are unclear and unshared (based on data from Wigepa clients).
Burnout doesn’t announce itself. But your calendar already knows it’s coming.
WHAT NO ONE TELLS YOU
Governance isn’t for “big companies.”
This lie poisons small businesses.
In reality, governance is the daily habit of sanity. It’s not about bureaucracy. It’s about clarity.
It asks questions like:
- Who approves this expense?
- When are we obligated to report this?
- What do we check before trusting this supplier?
- If I disappear, who knows how we onboard a new client?
Yet Dutch entrepreneurial culture romanticizes doing everything yourself. Especially in English-speaking circles, where immigrants are often told:
“Build first. Fix later.”
Later becomes never.
Until Karim walks away from his oven.
DECISION COMPASS
Ask yourself today:
- If I got sick tomorrow, what would collapse first?
- What tasks am I doing that a €35/hour assistant could handle with a checklist?
- Are there rules in my company that only exist in my head?
- When was the last time we audited our decision-making process, not our balance sheet?
- Does my staff trust the system, or do they just rely on me?
If these questions unsettle you, good. That’s where change begins.
FINAL REFLECTION
Burnout isn’t a weakness.
It’s often the natural end result of unstructured loyalty, to your clients, your people, your dream.
But loyalty without governance is martyrdom.
Structure isn’t the enemy of passion.
It is how passion survives.
Long enough to become a legacy.
Co-Creator of Xtroverso | Head of Global GRC @ Zentriq
Paolo Maria Pavan is the structural mind behind Xtroverso, blending compliance acumen with entrepreneurial foresight. He observes markets not as a trader, but as a reader of patterns, tracking behaviors, risks, and distortions to guide ethical transformation. His work challenges conventions and reframes governance as a force for clarity, trust, and evolution.
