To be successful as an entrepreneur, you have to be resilient. If you can’t take getting rejected, knocked down and discouraged only to get up to try again, you are probably better off working for someone else.
I’ve been spending a lot of time lately learning what it takes to develop and maintain resilience. I was recently speaking at a conference, and I shared the calamity of events our family has gone through over the last two years. A few people came up to me and asked how I get back up after being knocked down so many times.
In my attempt to find solutions and coping strategies to help me raise my son, who suffers from a severe mental illness, and in dealing with a lot of setbacks along the way, I’ve discovered a formula for overcoming life’s inevitable hard knocks: Courage plus resilience equals triumph. This applies not just to big tragedies, but also the everyday stuff we all deal with that weighs us down.
Not a day goes by when people aren’t affected by a challenge or some misfortune. Maybe you lost your job, got a divorce or declared bankruptcy. Or, perhaps like me, you started your business while caring for a child with special needs, juggling work engagements with emergencies, hospitalizations and health crises for yourself and your child.
Any one of these or countless other situations can be traumatic and life changing. How do we keep getting up after we have been knocked down? One answer lies in taking steps to become more resilient. Resilient people don’t waste difficult experiences and difficult times, but instead choose to use them as a catalyst for growth. Resilience is a skill that can be learned, and whether we like it or not, life gives us plenty of chances to practice.
A good way to gauge your current level of resilience is to consider how you react when things don’t go your way. Research shows that the way we cope with little stressors strongly predicts how we will deal with the big ones.
To become more aware…