Why do so many successful founders end up drinking too much?

Because high-pressure environments produce predictable patterns of self-medication, and bourbon plus excuses is one of the most common. Kris Kluver, in The Dysfunctional Family Office, has Ryan describe his own pattern with unusual honesty. He told himself he was functional. Technically he was. He showed up. He performed. He was also dying slowly while everyone around him could see it except him. He medicated the stress of building businesses the same way many UHNW founders do. The pattern is functional addiction. The performance is real. The cost is hidden but compounding. Most functional addicts in this category don't see the pattern until someone close to them, usually a spouse, refuses to keep pretending. The fix usually requires admitting the addiction is real, even when the work output suggests otherwise. The performance is what makes it dangerous, not safe.