Resilience and Entrepreneurship

In my last post, I talked about personal experiences in my life that helped me develop resilience, I suspect that many of you who are reading this were attracted by either the word resilience or the word entrepreneurship. In my world view it is hard to be an entrepreneur without becoming resilient if you are going to be successful. I’ll share a few personal examples to help you understand how I have developed resilience in my business journey.

I gave up my “day job” in 2006 and embarked on a journey that focused on leadership development consulting and executive search services. This also parallels with a six-year stretch where we had two sons in college. If you have had children in college you realize that the college experience can be somewhat draining both in an interpersonal as well as a fiscal manner. Also, consider that the wonderful economic downturn occurred beginning in 2008 and started to turn around in 2011. This also fits into that six-year college window and the first six years of my entrepreneurial journey.

As I stated in the earlier post, two of the things that I have leaned upon to develop resilience are a supportive spouse and my faith in God. Both of these got a lot of my attention during the beginning of my self-employment journey. I find that both still support me today and they are the foundation of all that I am.

If you have embarked upon an entrepreneurial journey, what are you using to help develop resilience in your journey? What has pushed you back and how have you bounced back when those obstacles appear, and they will appear?

More about this in my next post. I am interested in hearing what you have overcome in your entrepreneurial journey. Your comments are invited.