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Throughout my career, I navigated undeveloped markets within environments where things hadn’t been figured out, and the world didn’t yet understand what we were creating. My one saving grace has always been resilience.
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Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, bounce back, then proceed, no matter what. It can be defined as the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape. (A recent study of 1,000 parents conducted by the PBS program, Thomas & Friends, ranked it #12 within the top 20 traits they most want in their children.)
Resilience is the power of never giving up no matter what life swings your way.
I was inspired by the epic career of Sir Winston Churchill at a young age, which can be summed up in one of his more famous quotes: “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
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Staying the course
The path to prosperity is often misunderstood, as when the going gets tough, many are not equipped to stand up to the test of time and quit before they reach their goals.
Thomas Edison claimed his many wins were “10% inspiration and 90% perspiration”. My addendum would be that 90% of people give up when they’re just 10% away from success.
The closer we get to breaking through, the harder it becomes, yet testing our spirit is part of the achievement process. If things were easy, it wouldn’t be worth the effort and our sense of achievement would be considerably diminished.
Humans are incredibly intelligent, adaptable and resilient beings. Achieving your wildest dreams is just a case of just being passionate and determined enough to achieve those goals.
These techniques may sound rudimentary, but if you learn to train yourself to overcome any hurdle and never give up until you reach success.
David beat Goliath, Beethoven outshone his teachers and Galileo outsmarted his peers when the odds were all against them. Only with resilience did they all succeed to leave their legacies.
Rebuilding your brain
I learned of stick–to–itive-ness as a toddler, being scalded by hot water in an unfortunate accident and suffering the pain and heartache of that mistake for many years after.
Difficult experiences in business were to follow. You name it? I’ve experienced it. It’s still impossible to imagine a time in my career when things were “easy”. That’s just not how it works.
The benefit of struggle is that you learn and adapt and become wiser. Many give up along the way, which leaves more opportunities for those of us who are determined to reach our target.
If I hadn’t failed so many times, I wouldn’t have realized how resilient I needed to be. Meeting challenges is part of the path to success. It’s how you deal with hardships and what you do to overcome them.
As Albert Einstein put it: “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
If you’re doing something new? Expect to make mistakes. If you hit problems? Simply work out how to overcome them. Resilience is the ability to beat every challenge and push through with your agenda.
Related: 4 Ways to Use the Past to Capture Success
Recording the process
Write lists! This is the way I ensure that things from my brain are put on paper and actioned as a task list. I don’t recommend writing these lists in your phone, there is something physical about writing the tasks out and extracting them from your brain.
Update your lists constantly, crossing off tasks that you have achieved and adding new tasks to achieve. Be organized and be determined. Every day complete a number of tasks on your list and cross them off. Do this every single day.
Be an independent thinker and have enough self-confidence to stand up against the barrage of challenges and let-downs on the path to success. You need to believe in yourself before anyone else will believe in you. Confidence begets confidence.
I work harder than anyone I know; this has always been my mantra. As Elon Musk puts it “Work like hell. I mean, you just have to put in 80-to-100-hour weeks every week. This improves the odds of success.”
There is no such thing as a free lunch or something that comes easily. You will find in life things that come easy, go easy, or have a very limited shelf or value. Working hard brings personal satisfaction that is critical to a healthy body and mind and of course, entrepreneurial success.
That being said, everything is a balance and it’s important to rest, sleep, eat and exercise as well, but whatever you do in life…work to be more determined and be more resilient.
David showed Goliath the difference between a person who is resilient and a person who is privileged, and there is simply no competition.
Related: 4 Ways to Capitalize on Being Your Own Worst Critic
Resilience takes focus, resilience takes devotion, resilience takes passion and determination, but be assured, if you arm yourself with the power of resilience, no-one will be able to stop you from achieving your goals.
Jonny Caplan
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