Tough times happen to everyone. Major projects don't move ahead smoothly without bumps in the road. Be persistent so you can thrive after running into those inevitable obstacles.
"Whatever talent or skills you have, if you crumble in the face of adversity, they're not going to take you very far," said Candace Nelson, Los Angeles-based author of "Sweet Success" and founder of cupcake bakery Sprinkles and pizza chain Pizzana. "In the entrepreneurial world, it's the people who are the most resilient and persist who win the race."
Resilience is more vital now, says Aaron De Smet, New Jersey-based co-author of "Deliberate Calm" and senior partner at consulting firm McKinsey.
"We're faced with more uncertainty, disruption and change now," he said. "It's always been important for leaders to deal effectively with setbacks. But that skill gets more important when you face more disruptions."
Be Persistent While You Shift
Nelson met with her share of adversity. She was working for an internet startup when the tech bubble burst in the early 2000s. Suddenly she lost her job.
"I was devastated," she said. "And I hadn't built up much resilience. You don't learn that in school. You're not encouraged to fail."
But she used it as a chance to try something new.
"That challenge led to an opportunity that changed my life," she said. "It opened my mindset to take some risks."
Be Persistent Through Setbacks
She went to pastry school and then launched cupcake bakery Sprinkles in 2003, but not after overcoming adversity. Her initial plan was to open a cooking school in Dallas. She even had a location picked out. But before she could nail it down, she saw a sign on the building saying another cooking school was coming to that location.
She bounced back quickly. She and her husband moved to Los Angeles and she launched Sprinkles. It grew rapidly and she later launched the first "Cupcake ATM," a 24-hour fresh cupcake vending machine. There are now 26 around the country.
When Nelson and her husband opened a Pizzana location in Dallas, opening night had disaster written all over it. A fire alarm in the office building where it's located went off. But the staff made the best of it. They cranked up the music to drown out the noise and gave out free drinks.
"Our team had seen us roll with adversity and keep a positive attitude," Nelson said.
Resilience has changed, De Smet says. To be persistent, you mainly used to get back up after you got knocked down and simply push harder. Now it requires people to decide whether they need to adapt, learn and change directions.
He used the example of pilot Sully Sullenberger, who safely landed a US Airways flight in the Hudson River after a bird strike knocked out both engines.
Think On Your Feet
One key is to remain calm in drastic situations, he says. But it also requires the resilience to realize normal training might not work. Sullenberger and other pilots were trained to head back to the airport after a bird strike. But that advice didn't envision both engines being disabled. He wouldn't make it back.
"Sully realized, 'My training doesn't suit the situation. I'm going to have to on the fly come up with a different plan,' " De Smet said.
Much of dealing with adversity stems from how people view failure.
"You're not encouraging failure but accepting it because you know people are pushing themselves," Nelson said. "I ask our boys at dinner every evening, 'What did you fail at today?' "
View setbacks as a springboard.
"The brain will be more creative if you can reframe a crisis as an opportunity," De Smet said.
When a crisis arises, take a second.
"No matter how much you want to jump into action, take a quick pause and take a breath," he said. "Even a few seconds makes a huge difference."
