I probably need to talk to Shawn Lesser. He’s the founder of the Real Mental Health Foundation, which works to help people in high-stress jobs survive burnout and other mental and emotional pitfalls. So me. He’s not messing around, either. He’s vowed to raise at least $10 billion for mental health treatment and prevention, help at least 10 million people get through mental health problems, and get 1,000,001 people repping the REAL brand all by 2030.
He’s got a book and a website full of resources, but he also travels the world helping men with their mental struggles. Last year, that included hosting “Real Summits” to bring together investors, philanthropists, and mental health innovators, which he held in places like the World Economic Forum in Davos in January and London in June.
Lesser’s main message is for men to embrace vulnerability as a strength rather than repress it as a weakness and he bases that on his own experience with a mental breakdown. The strategy is working, evidenced by the more than 350 ambassadors his Foundation now has in over 30 countries.
