I’ve already shared that I’m a bit of a Winter Olympic junkie. Winter athletes are faced with so many variables in their sports particularly the outdoor events. The temperature, the amount of wind, the amount of light, and the quality of the snow and/or ice. They have to train to and build in strategies to handle each possible variable and combination. They must be resilient.
Today I was watching part of the women luge run. It amazing and bit crazy to think that they can reach speeds up to 140 km per hour, on a tiny little sled going feet first. One racer, I don’t remember the country, fell off her slid, was able to keep her grip on it, get back on her slid and finish the race all while traveling down at speeds as fast as we drive our cars!
It was amazing! The training and the resilience it takes to be able to achieve that.
How much resilience do you have built into your business? The definition of resilience (from the Oxford Dictionary) is: The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.
Business owners and entrepreneurs can learn a lesson from athletes. There are many factors in our business that we need to consider. For example, what circumstances effect your business? An obvious example is a snow removal company. They need to plan how to manage seasonal work, how to make a profit if the there is little snow, how to handle a winter when it never seems to stop snowing, and what happens if equipment breaks down or employees get sick. The successful snow removal contractors plan for all of these possibilities but there are many who end up going out of business because they don’t.
Personally, one hard lesson I had to learn as a consultant was what to do when you main contracts end unexpectedly. I went from fully booked to “oh my god what do I do next?” in a matter of months when several of my contracts came to end. Some expected, some not. I didn’t have the resilience built into my business that I needed. It was a hard lesson to learn, since that time I’m focused on learning how to building resilience into my business.
Have you thought about how you can build resilience into your business? Do you know how to react if you “sled” falls out from under you? Do you know what you major variables are?
I love to see entrepreneurs follow their passions, serve more people and create the lifestyle of their dreams.
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Great post Heather.
I have noticed that all successful people undergo life challenges, but they have something in common:
They never use the bumps in the road as an excuse.
They take 100% responsibility for making things happen.
They find resilience, motivation and are persistent.
They endure.
Rachel – Well said, excellent addition to this post. Thank you for sharing!
Athletes and Entrepreneurs are very much alike. Both are competitive in spirit and both are striving to achieve success in their fields. At the end of the day it’s all about being resilient towards what it is that you’re after! Thanks for the great post!
Nate – I think the key is SUCCESSFUL athletes and entrepreneurs are very much alike. I know many entrepreneurs who have lessons to learn from both. It is nice to avoid some of the pitfalls but studying others and building resilience to a business.
As always thanks for sharing.
Hello there Heather,
I was once a man who had put all his eggs in the same basket, with no back up plan. And them boom, suddenly life tooka strange twist and I was left stranded. I recovered quicly but learned that I would never put my eggs in one basket again. Just like Katrina I don´t rely on one kind of income but I believe in multiple streams of income. Thank you for sharing this story with us. Kind regards David
David – It is so important not to put all our eggs in one basket and it is hard lesson to learn. Multiple streams of income is the best way to build resilience into your business.
Thank you for sharing.
Heather
Hey Heather,
This is probably the most important skill I had to learn as an entrepreneur. Never give up.
Thanks for the reminder!
Marion – It an important skill and I think it is one that most of us have to learn. I love the word resilience, it is such a positive way to view things.
Thanks for commenting.
Resilience is being able to keep moving forward because that is when the magic happens. I have been building in resilience to my Blogging Course, Affiliate Marketing, and Network Marketing. I don’t rely on one source of income. I look to build and just keep building.
Fantastic article and great insight on being an entrepreneur in this day and age.
Katrina – Thank you for commenting and congratulations on getting 1,000 comments. That another great point is multiple points of income.
Resilience is a great word! Nice article, thank you!
Michelle – thank you for commenting. I love the world resilience, I think it is what we need into today’s business world.