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How to Handle Adversities by Being Resilient



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How to Handle Adversities by Being Resilient

 

Life is full of challenges and adversities, a journey of ups and downs, and a roller coaster experience. It is a matter of success and failure, trying and learning while at the same time developing our own personal and professional skills. We are always bound to make mistakes, but these mistakes must never be a reason to give up and continue becoming the person we ought to be. There are a lot of prominent names in the industries who have been an inspiration that reminds us that failure is not the opposite of success but a part of it. Bill Gates is now one of the wealthiest people in the world, but he didn’t get there overnight. Gates began the business world with Traf-O-Data, a startup that attempted to handle and analyze data from traffic recordings (think of it like an early version of big data). He tried to market the concept alongside his business partner, Paul Allen, but the device was barely functional. It was a total disaster. However, Gates was not deterred from seeking other options, and a few years later, he launched his first Microsoft product, forging a new road to success. Walt Disney’s story of the accusations that he is not good enough to create films, in order to survive, Disney founded his first animation firm, Laugh-O-Gram Films. He raised $15,000 for the firm but was finally forced to dissolve it due to the loss of an essential distribution partner. Strapped for cash, Disney embarked on a journey to Hollywood, where he suffered even more criticism and failure until his first few legendary pictures began to surge in popularity. Steve Jobs is a remarkable entrepreneur not just for his endless ideas, but also for his forceful comeback from a seemingly irreversible failure. Jobs achieved success in his twenties as Apple grew into a gigantic empire, but when he reached thirty, Apple’s board of directors chose to terminate him. Undaunted by the loss, Jobs launched NeXT, which was subsequently bought by Apple. When Jobs returned to Apple, he demonstrated his genius by redefining the company’s image and propelling the Apple brand to unprecedented peaks. The failures of these amazing individuals have shown the world what it takes to not give up. Instead, be more motivated to do something amidst the failure that we may encounter along the way. We all are experiencing mistakes or failures in life, we sometimes are bombarded with many mistakes to the point where we already do not know what to do or how to act in a certain situation. We are sometimes traumatized by circumstances where we failed to do what we wanted to do and at some point in time we feel demotivated because our life has no direction. We are not sure what path we will take because we are afraid to make the same mistakes that lead to the same failure to success.

 

At this point in time, I have failed several times, I made a lot of mistakes, I chose wrong decisions, I failed many times, yet it does not stop me from working hard and achieving the goals I set for myself. I learned from my mistakes, I grew up more mature, wiser and better than ever. I take all those mistakes as an opportunity to change and to learn so that I will not make the same mistakes over and over again. We are all capable of failing. However, only a few people understand how to use it to their advantage in the future. It’s instinctive to prevent a situation that might lead to failure. Failure may be both humiliating and unpleasant. Failure may be beneficial. We can learn from it, get new ideas, and improve our performance the following time. The appropriate kinds of failures teach us new knowledge and get us closer to our goals. I always  believe that if you’re not failing, you’re not taking large enough chances. In other words, if everything you do comes out precisely as intended and feels quite comfortable, you are probably not extending yourself. And if you don’t stretch, you won’t grow. Paula Thompson, in her article about “What is failure and how can we make the most of it”, reminds us that failure is an excellent teacher. In the long run, it might be a great lesson for us. We should be able to evaluate it and learn valuable lessons from it. A major method of learning from failure is to do a failure analysis and investigate the fundamental reasons of our failure. This is especially true if you experience a complex failure for which the cause is not immediately apparent. It’s helpful to know what we’re doing well in our careers or businesses. However, failure feedback provides us with something equally valuable: a learning process or instructional moment about what we are doing incorrectly.

Failures may also be applicable not just in our personal life, it may also be applicable between friends, families, colleagues, or between people within the same organization. Keysar, B. (2022) has devoted his career researching interpersonal communication and has discovered that interacting with individuals we know well is really more difficult than communicating with persons we know little or nothing about. His research reveals that difficulties talking with our loved ones and friends are caused by a three variety of reasons. One, according to him, most people vastly overestimate their capacity to communicate successfully. Two we have a tendency to believe that our knowledge is visible to others. Three, because we connect with family and friends so regularly, our intended message might be obscure at times. In business settings, managers, employees and other people within the organization are also prone to committing mistakes and may be subjected to failing over and over again but the business does not just stop there. We must not let our adversities hinder us from achieving the success we desire for our business and personal life. We must always look at the brighter side, learn from the mistakes and make failures as an inspiration to grow. Think of what you have done so far and recalibrate ways on how to continually improve, take single steps at a time and handle criticisms with poise and dignity. Sooner or later, some of us will dig through different paths, some will be business owners, some will be entrepreneurs, managers, and others will continue learning and enriching knowledge.

Handling adversities is something that is important to learn because no matter where we go, it is always an advantage to deal with all the failures and a huge edge to easily cope with it. According to Ahmad Ali, failure is painful but it makes you strong. However, it is not just about knowing how to handle failures but more of practicing it  in our daily lives. The article of Ahmad Ali (2022), allows us to know seven strategies on how to handle failures as an entrepreneur. His article helps us deal with failures in entrepreneurship while at the same time helps us achieve our peak of success upon dealing with all the failures. The first strategy is about being mentally prepared before failure. We must already condition our minds that there is no smooth way to achieve success. There is always failure that may come along the way and by being mentally prepared we ensure that we will not be disappointed to work even harder. Always consider that failure is a bridge that connects you to the success of the business and if you’re not willing to stand up after failing then you will lose. The second strategy is about identifying what makes you feel good. Failing can be devastating at times, it makes us anxious, allows us to overthink and creates so much trouble when we deal with it and allow ourselves to be swallowed by it. It is important that along the way we need to know what are the things that will revive us to ensure that we are still relaxed or calm under pressure. Along with dealing with the failure, we must know what makes us feel comfortable, so that we can handle the failure rationally. It can be something related to our passion such as doing arts, spending time with family or anything that could shift our focus from failure to other things. Sometimes we just need time to refresh ourselves so that we can think more rationally to handle failures and when we are calm under pressure, there are more possibilities to think good ideas in handling failures.  The third strategy is about avoiding reacting with emotions, as human beings we easily express things and burst out our emotions to anyone especially during the times when we are in the middle of unexpected circumstances such as failures and disappointments. This is something that entrepreneurs must take note of. As an entrepreneur, you should be able to manage your emotions and not let your emotions overwhelm your thoughts. Instead, the right way to deal with failures is to be objective and adopt rational thoughts. Whether the failure is little or major, accept it intellectually rather than emotionally. Always remember that if your reaction is emotional, it will not only exacerbate the situation but will also stifle your innovation.The fourth strategy is to surround yourself and take time to spend with supportive people. Always remember that we cannot be successful alone, there are always people who helped us, people who motivated us, and people who are secretly supporting us along the way and we must not forget those people. If we have a problem, we usually tell it to other people we entrusted the most.

The same principle applies to entrepreneurs, when we are in the middle of failures, it is also okay to share it with other people. Sometimes, the answers to our failures are from them, they might suggest something that can be helpful. Talking to our colleagues, friends, mentors or professionals does not indicate that you are dependent and weak, sometimes we just need someone to rely on, some who will motivate us, someone who is willing to share their expertise for others’ growth. The fifth strategy is to avoid sticking our minds to failures. Failure is always a part of life, it has always been there no matter what profession you are in. This strategy reminds us that we must deal with the failures but we should not deal with them too much because sometimes, when we are too focused on failures we forget that there are a lot more things we can do and appreciate rather than the failures. It is also important that we do not dwell on the past failures, instead, we focus on the present and move on from the past. The past failures should just be a lesson and learn from it.

The sixth strategy is to learn to develop the habit of acceptance in failures. The first way to cope with any problem or to move on from the failures is acceptance. Take the failures as a part of life but do not abuse it to the point of having the mindset that failures are part of life so it is okay to fail over and over again. Accepting failure means that we are taking the responsibilities for the mistakes that we did and we will do our best to deal with them rationally. We do not have to blame other people for failing. As an entrepreneur, it is important to accept your failure before it is raised by others and the situation becomes severe. Discuss issues with your management and have regular meetings to gather diverse perspectives and solutions. To assess each area of a firm, present them with your financial accounts. Accepting your shortcomings does not imply that you should blame yourself for them. Simply notice and investigate the causes to guarantee that they do not occur again in the future. Keep smiling and learning along the way. The last strategy on how entrepreneurs handle failures is to take failures as an opportunity to grow. It has always been a reminder that failure should not limit us from achieving our personal and organizational goals. Examine your failures whenever they happen. Discover why it happened and how to prevent it from happening again. Find a way to improve yourself in the future. Improve yourself and forget about the money you lost due to failure. Instead, to avoid repeat mistakes, steer your future decisions by learning from ups and downs. It enables you to make more specific judgments in the future. In the end, it is still our decision as entrepreneurs to rise up again after our fall.

Failure does not just apply to a personal level, sometimes it can also arise in different groups or within the team. Sooner or later we will also emerge ourselves with diverse groups and along the way, failures within the group may also happen. It is important that as early as now, we are being aware of the possibilities to happen and at the same time we should be able to look for the opportunities to learn from this paper on how to handle team failures. Jim Burgoon, the founder of Everyday Leader shares his idea about how to manage a failing team. According to him, managing a failed team may be extremely challenging. The way you handle it will decide whether or not the team is failing. If you manage your team well, you can take a poor situation and work together to turn it around. As a leader or as a concerned individual in a team, you should be able to inspire your team about the goal and the factors that you consider in achieving it. Jim Bargoon (2022), shares his idea on how to manage a failing team. The first way is to define success. We all have a subjective definition of success but as a team, there should be something that we aim to achieve. Many teams are failing because they are not oriented about what goal they are trying to achieve. There should be a clear direction on where the team is going to and achieve as a group not as an individual. The second is by having coaching or mentoring. These two terms share the same value which is interaction but are different in  terms of the level of relationship. Both of them are crucial in terms of dealing with the team. As a leader, you should be able to mentor or coach the people within your team. In this way, we are assured that they feel valued, thus, it helps them be more effective and productive. The third way is to look for a solution and not the problem, try to look for what can be done to solve the problem rather than adding another problem to the problem to the point that the problem is compiling while the solution is still something that is missing. Take it easy, solve one problem at a time. Rather than complaining, why not try to understand the problem and create a solution, always remember that it is better to do something than do nothing. The fourth to handle team failure is to become a conductor. The main role of a conductor is to ensure that each member of the team plays their individual role. Sometimes other members of the team are not doing their role because there is no one who are pushing them to do so, no one is guiding them what to do, or simply no one is encouraging them to do an action. To handle a team, there should be one person to serve as a mediator or someone to push other members of the team to work on their part and make sure that each has contributed to the success of the team. The fifth way is to have courage in the decision making. We are all afraid to make a decision for the team because we are uncertain what might happen when we decide to do this or do that. However, a decision is always a part of a team, there should be someone to decide for a team, someone to serve as a decision maker to think for the good of all. Be someone who will take the risk because after all the decision may fall either to another failure or another success. Do not be afraid to take risks in every decision we make, we can either learn or rejoice. The sixth way is communication, this is one of the most important aspects of the team. Communication allows each member of the team to express their opinions, suggestions, and ideas about a certain thing. Through communication we are able to understand the sentiments of the other members and we are assured that we are able to hear what they have to say. Lastly, we have to be proactive and not reactive. The difference between these two ideas is that proactive is about anticipating ourselves to the possibilities of what might happen or conditioning ourselves with the possibilities of what might happen in the future while reactive is more on responding to the concerns of the present. This reminds us about the idea that prevention is better than cure, instead of creating solutions to the present, we have to recalibrate new ideas. Create plans ahead. Create a framework and culture based on growth and prevention rather than response and emotion. The sooner you transition from a reactive to a proactive mindset, the better your chances of successfully managing your underperforming team and turning them around.

The strategies and ways on how to deal and handle failures as entrepreneurs or someone handling a team is something that helps us to improve our leadership skills that might be helpful not just for a team but more so for our personal gain. We are being reminded that failures are a part of life and it has always been there no matter what profession we are in. Failures are sometimes demotivating, devastating and it sometimes affects our overall well-being but it should never be our reason to keep going and achieving our goals and meeting the success that we set for ourselves. I learned that as an entrepreneur, we have responsibilities that lie in our hands, the lessons I learned from here reminds us that we have to be objective and rational about the decisions we make. It is also important to note that we do not need to focus too much on adversities because the more we are focused on it, we tend to forget that there are still more things we can do and we can focus on. Sometimes we need other people to help us deal with it and it is totally fine to seek guidance and help from others. I also learned that in handling a team, one should be able to deal and divert himself/herself to the different groups. As a leader, one should be able to take risks in making decisions, be proactive and think of the welfare of the people under their care. Communication is one way to understand each other and it can be a great way to establish a healthier and better relationship with one another. In the end, it reminds us that failures should be our lesson to grow wiser and better individuals.

 

References:

https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/6-stories-of-super-successes-who-overcame-failure/240492

https://www.mentalhelp.net/blogs/communication-challenges-with-family-and-friends/

https://www.betterup.com/blog/what-is-failure#:~:text=Failure%20is%20defined%20as%20a,created%20in%20our%20own%20head.

 

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/120815/4-most-common-reasons-small-business-fails.asp

https://ahmadali859k.medium.com/7-strategies-for-entrepreneurs-to-handle-failures-ec6c139788aa#:~:text=Be%20mentally%20prepared%20before%20failure&text=You%27re%20going%20to%20join,challenges%20come%20along%20the%20way.&text=There%20is%20no%20need%20for,And%20that%27s%20it.

https://www.lifehack.org/914900/how-to-manage-a-failing-team

 

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