Many entrepreneurs don't even think twice when it comes to working around the clock. Marissa Mayer, Google's 20th employee and current vice president of location and local services, is no exception. When Google was a young company, she worked 130 hours per week and often slept at her desk.

"For my first five years at Google, I pulled an all-nighter every week," Mayer said in a recent talk at New York's 92Y cultural center. "It was a lot of hard work."

Hard work, she says, has been the key to Google's success, as well as her own.

For young companies that demand so much of their employees, hard work can spiral into burnout. Learning to prevent it—for yourself and your employees—is essential to your success as a business owner. Here are three steps to get started:

Step 1. Watch for signs of resentment.

"Burnout is about resentment," Mayer told the audience at 92Y. "[Preventing it is] about knowing yourself well enough to know what it is you're giving up that makes you resentful."

Her assessment is right on target. "The question is whether you can replenish your energy when you get tired," says Michael Leiter, professor of psychology at Acadia University in Nova Scotia. If you can't restore your energy or resolve your values conflict with your work, you feel exhausted, cynical, and discouraged--the hallmarks of burnout.

Step 2. Find your rhythm.

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