I strongly believe that adversity and challenge are the essential elements of life which one must welcome now and then, it is nothing to shy away from or feel intimidated. Only through these hurdles we learn to leap higher and emerge stronger along the way or at the end.
How have you felt if/when someone told you:
“There’s no way you can do it!”
“This is no job for a woman.”
“You’ve failed once, what makes you think you wouldn’t again?”
Challenged; time to prove them they are wrong! The will to fight becomes stronger and often you would work harder to achieve what you normally would have taken longer.
What would you say?
Here’s a lesson from a very inspiring and informative article on Entrepreneur magazine about Tina Aldatz of Foot Petals who runs a $10 million company with 17 employees and three offices.
It all started when she was finding a solution for herself to wear high heels without the pain, Aldatz burned her feet as a child and wearing heels was a big issue for her since she was in the fashion industry. Over the last few years she had a plan and worked hard on it and finally has a great product which sells well and helps people find relief wearing high heels for longer hours.
What’s to be noted in her story is how a challenge helped her find a solution to a problem and helped her reach heights which she would not perhaps achieved as an employee to a company.
And so goes the story with many entrepreneurs who have taken upon a challenge in positive or negative way to churn up huge profits or better still to make the world a better place.
Adversity and failures are part of our lives, it is only when we learn how to turn it around to our benefits that we realize why they were such an important ingredients that have perhaps given more than what a smooth and tension free life would not have.
In the current world scenario where the economy is fluid and the concept of a stable vocation or income stream on unstable grounds, we are more than ever before exposed to challenges and problems that we would not have thought about. It seems daunting and the pressure affects us in many ways, but then again these challenges nudge us to go a step further than our present efforts, and how wonderful would it be if let us leap higher that what we would have done had we not encountered the challenge in the first place!
When challenged – leap higher! In failure -find opportunity – to do much better that ever. Never say that there are too many rocks on the mountain – instead go and find the best shoes that will make rock hopping easier. Didn’t find one that’s perfect? Go make one!
We often underestimate our abilities because giving up is much simpler than fighting back – that is what deprives us of exploring the opportunity that destiny had offered – to find out how resilient and robust we actually are.
So next time when something knocks you down, I hope you not only fight to rebound back but come back on destiny to make your own path – your path to a new success goal – a destination that is larger than your present dreams but with a clarity and practical plan to get there.
“Opposition is a natural part of life. Just as we develop our physical muscles through overcoming opposition – such as lifting weights – we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity.”
~ Stephen R. Covey
How have you turned a challenge or a problem to your benefit? Would love to hear your thoughts or ideas, do share in the comments.