Resilience Matters
If there’s anything you can count on as a business owner, it’s that you’ll get curveballs. Every day.
Resilience Matters
I had a packed day today of back-to-back meetings, which left me very little extra time to get from my home office to the city an hour away for an afternoon meeting where we were showing our product to a potential new customer, who we are very interested in landing.
When I went to open my garage and pull out my car, the garage door wouldn’t open. It would open a frustratingly tiny bit and then close again. I knew something was wrong but no idea what.
I thought of how I would try and explain to my new client why I was late or couldn’t show up at all and started to get anxious. Showing up late is completely out of integrity for me and not showing up at all would delay a potential new deal, which was time-dependent.
Right away, I flipped into problem solving mode. I did a quick assessment of the situation and mustered all the things I knew about garage doors to try and figure out what was wrong. Within short order, I’d checked everything and knew I wasn’t going to be able to fix it. I called my business partners to prepare them that I would be late and got them ready to start the presentation on their own.
I found some hefty men working on a neighbour’s house and had them come over and lift the door, which I couldn’t lift on my own. Phoned the landlord to arrange a service call, phoned a friend to prepare her to pick up my kids in case the meeting had to start and end late, set up a conference call number and got on the road within 7 minutes.
My resilience allowed me to work through my roadblock and focus on solutions rather than breaking down in panic. I made it to the meeting early and we had a successful presentation.
Developing resilience and a solution-focused approach will help you navigate those curveballs so they don’t become anchors.
Tell me in the comments…
What helps you be resilient? Where do you feel most or least empowered to solve problems?
[ess_post]
Get Down To Business
You’ve been looking for a lifeline – here it is
Sign up for the Get Down to Business newsletter and I’ll send you weekly articles, tips and tools that you can use on your entrepreneur’s journey. I promise not to fill your inbox with anything other than useful, actionable, timely stuff.
0 Comments