Although there’s a very slim chance you may never experience failure as a business owner—that all the businesses you touch will turn to billion-dollar gold—the reality is you’re likely to experience rejection or fall flat on your face at some point. When this happens, will you quit or dust yourself off and try again?
General George S. Patton said, “I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs, but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.” Those who hit bottom and bounce, dusting themselves off along the way, are resilient. Resilience is the ability to recover quickly after facing difficult circumstances. Instead of dwelling on the failure or setback and letting the disappointment discourage them, resilient people use the experience as motivation to start over. It’s so easy to give up. However, you’ll never, ever reach the heights you could have achieved if you had just stuck with it and started again.
Successful people embody resilience
Think of the success stories of notable leaders in any field. Take Walt Disney, who was fired from his job because his employer felt he lacked imagination and had no good ideas. That’s right, the guy responsible for Mickey Mouse, legendary movies like Fantasia, and who created one of the top vacation destinations in the world supposedly had no imagination.
Or take J.K. Rowling, whose fantasy story of the adventures of a young wizard and his friends was rejected by 12 publishers before the manuscript was picked up and inspired millions of people—children and adults alike—to read.
Or Thomas Edison, who in his quest to invent the first commercially viable lightbulb failed a staggering 10,000 times! He famously said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” That is resilience!
Stop…then, restart
It’s natural to stop after a failure; to take a moment to regroup. However, in order to succeed, you have to start again. Like Og Mandino said, “I will persevere until I succeed.” The word “until” is key; it gives you the motivation to continue, even in the face of setbacks and challenges.
Want more tips to help you develop resilience and achieve all of your goals? Listen to episode #115 of The Brian Buffini Show where Brian outlines the how-to tasks to do today in order to enjoy the benefits of success tomorrow. Click here to listen.
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