Resilience is in my opinion one of the most precious abilities an entrepreneur can have. Resilience can be everything. Missing resiliency can destroy your business in a second, and the chances are pretty high that you as an entrepreneur need to prove to the world every day and multiple times that you have that ability. That you have the guts to bounce. We all know that. Except for Wikipedia. When I looked up the term recently, I thought Wikipedia was kidding me when I read:
Resilience is most commonly understood as a process, and not a trait of an individual.
Apparently, for Wikipedia resilience is a process, not a trait. That is laughable. Sure the fact that you survive something, that you overcome business challenges, difficult situations, setbacks and failures, is a process. Sometimes, this process is very hard for the individual and it can take a long time, too. However, the fact that you are able to “bounce back” is due to your trait or ability to be resilient. A little outside of this context, famous German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche coined the following quote:
What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.
F. Nietzsche
I like Friedrich Nietzsche more than Wikipedia. When you start a new business, especially when you try to be innovative to the point that your services or products are even disruptive, that means game-changing or market-changing, you and your few peers will have the whole world against you. You will need to be able to bounce back like you didn’t believe you would need to in your life. Nietzsche’s quote here reflects exactly the mindset that entrepreneurs and startup artists need to have to get up every morning again to pursue their dream of changing the world with their product, service or idea. And of course, this is a trait and not a process, remember that, Wikipedia!
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