Sometimes It Doesn’t Work Out, Then It Does

Resilience and Grit are words that are popular in entrepreneurship circles.  How do you know when someone has it?  It’s not readily apparent.  People can talk good games about it but you really have to see it to know if they have it or not.  You can ask them about their past to see if there is evidence of grit or resilience.  Sometimes you get a scent of it there.

I think the hardest is when you climbed a mountain only to see it shift under your feet and fall.

That happened to me.  It’s brutal. It works on your mental health.  You had it, then gone.   In an instant.

That’s where grit kicks in.  How you respond shows how tough you are.  If you haven’t tasted failure before in your life, it can really really sting.  Fortunately for me, I tasted a lot of failures, some of imposed by things I couldn’t control.  Some caused by things I could control.  Some of it was just totally stupid decision making on my part.  When it happens you feel like a rudderless ship at sea.  Unable to do anything.  You lose your identity as a person.  You also have a life to lead while you are lost at sea.  You might have a family.  I did.  You might have to support them, and yourself.  All while you are bleeding.

I have some friends going through that process now.  I feel for them. I truly do.

When you get to the other side, you don’t forget.  But, somehow you are forged of iron.  You will fail again in a different way.  But, somehow, your mental state is different.

I was so lucky to have the experiences I did before high school which helped me develop grit and resilience.  I appreciate it, but the path is not smooth getting there.  You get cut up a lot.