top of page
Writer's pictureJamsheed Hamza

Resilience: The Foundation Skill Necessary for Entrepreneurs/Start-up Founders.

One thing common in people who remain calm in the face of disaster is resilience. They understand that setbacks happen and that sometimes, life is hard and painful. They still experience the negative emotions, but their mental outlook allows them to work through these feelings and bounce back faster.


3 key tips to help in building resilience are:

  • Stay Connected

  • Stay Afloat

  • Stay Current


Stay Connected

Staying connected is required to build resilience. To stay connected, we need to surround ourselves with people who can help. This network that we create around ourselves help us in having psychological safety net when time demands their presence in our lives. Especially when you are an entrepreneur or a start up founder the instances are very high of constantly seeking help and hence it is a good bet to have them around.


As part of staying connected, it is very important to have mentors. Mentoring is an activity that every person should rely on to benefit from the experience of the experts as well as have a faster learning curve and shorter time for the achievements. If we do not find mentors, we have a longer learning curve which can be expensive from a time and money perspective.


Special emphasis needs to be made regarding having people who are in the line of business we are trying to pursue. Generally, people are open to sharing and helping others especially if approached with seeking help in areas they are best in. Hence, do not hesitate to have a network of people who have already proved their ability in building businesses that we are planning to work on.



Stay Afloat

It is easier said than done. But the intention to stay afloat is a key resilience builder outlook. This can be done by being self-awareness and staying positive, consciously. When every disastrous situation is taking as a challenge, you stay more positive. Because, when the self-talk is that it is a challenge, the natural tendency is to look for solutions.


With such an outlook, you will be taking every criticism as constructive feedback. That is a huge paradigm shift! A huge relief. As soon as you take every criticism as constructive feedback, you immediately cut the noise and emotions from the criticism and naturally it becomes feedback. When such an approach is taken irrespective of the who the person is and what the occasion is of the criticism, you will take it as feedback. This helps in building resilience in you.


Lastly, as part of staying afloat, the focus that you need to put is on what is in control. When you look at the circle of control, there is circle of no control and circle of influence, which is of least concern to us. As an entrepreneur, resilient person, the focus will be always on what is in control. Primarily the control is on how we react and that is where our focus will be. As soon as the focus shifts to what is in control, the natural next step in our thoughts will be on solution and steps to be taken to overcome the challenge which is in our control.


Stay Current

The third key tip to build resilience is to create the reading habit. This is very important for us to have our control on the subject, be the expert on the idea, be aware of challenges. Reading increases the domain knowledge and it will be a great idea to read on the subject we are specializing. The reading should be done in depth as well as in breath. This gives a wider approach to the area we are building on. This trait can be seen in every success leader/businessman. As part of staying current, importance on the data cannot be stressed enough. We need to understand the data on what we intend to do so that the decisions taken are on data and facts, which is a more informed decision making. Even before going to the decision-making part, the approach of staying current and updated helps in being resilient.


There are numerous other attributes in building this skill and ability of resilience. But remembering and practicing the above 3 key steps will surely help you in being resilient and have a head start in the journey of facing challenges especially if you are an aspiring entrepreneur or start up founder.


Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page