Why Resilience Matters So Much in Business and Life

There are many traits that a small business owner must have to survive and thrive in today’s world, and ‘resilience’ is one that comes up in most expert’s key elements list. With the forces of change gathering pace at an explosive rate, however, resilience has become increasingly important, not just in business, but also in everyday life. It’s hardly surprising then that we are so drawn to tales of courage in what has become known as ‘The Hero’s Journey, a framework used by writers and filmmakers – more about that in a moment.

Tales of Resilience in Business

Resilience is an aspect of successful leadership has been a fascinating study topic for me since I first went into my management career as a young man. I was intrigued by the case studies outlined by authors, such as Peter Drucker and John Adair about how CEO’s of major companies not only survived major setbacks, but turned their fortunes around with a sheer determination to survive and succeed. Napoleon Hill wrote about this trait after years of researching the top businessmen in the U.S. Today’s top authors have continued exploring this tenacity, with writers, such as Stephen Bartlett, Mel Robbins, Seth Godin, Brene Brown, Ariana Huffington, Angela Duckworth, and many others, all attesting to the vital importance of developing resilience.

One of my favourite stories is that of Jan Carlzon in ‘Moments of Truth’, and how he became CEO of Scandinavian Airlines in the 1980’s. His story combined resilience, adaptability and innovation to turn around a loss-making organisation into a highly profitable airline.

Tales of Resilience in Life

Perhaps among the most powerful for me were the personal stories of overcoming adversity, such as Turia Pitt in “Happy’ where she graphically relives her survival of a bush fire in Australia’s north whilst running in an ultra-marathon event. The journey back from being horrifically burnt, to rebuilding not just a normal, average life, but an extremely inspirational and very successful one, is a testament to her incredible resilience.

Another standout for me was Viktor Frankel’s tale of surviving unimaginable cruelties in a Nazi concentration camp in ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’. He explored the question of why so many prisoners lost the will to live and simply gave up, versus those who found purpose in the struggle to survive.

Many years ago, I was blessed to hear a man speak on stage in the Perth Entertainment Centre, named John Perkins, who had survived a nearly fatal accident when a steel drum he was cutting with an oxy torch, that was thought to be empty, exploded. His story is told in the book, ‘Get Perky’ by Vailima Calton, where he had to teach himself to talk and walk again after suffering severe brain damage. Not only did he bounce back through a long and arduous journey, but he then cycled across Australia to raise awareness and funding for head trauma research.

Another person whose story blew my mind was that of mountaineer, Tom Whittaker, who lost a leg in a vehicle accident, but was challenged by a friend to pursue his dream of climbing Everest, despite his disability. Reporter Jim Waley did a feature in his Sunday program about the incredible resilience shown by Tom in overcoming various setbacks to achieve his goal, including being trapped in a storm three quarters of the way to the summit, then developing altitude sickness and having to go back to Basecamp, before using every ounce of his strength to go again all the way to the top.

Resilience in ‘The Hero’s Journey’

Screenwriter, Christopher Vogler is attributed to have outlined this story-telling structure that is used by many filmmakers and authors today as a go-to template. His book, ‘The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers’ described the twelve steps that your standard hero has to take on his or her journey.

1. Ordinary World: The hero is in their everyday life
2. Call to Adventure: The hero is faced with a challenge that starts their journey
3. Refusal of the Call: The hero hesitates to answer the call
4. Meeting the Mentor: The hero gains knowledge and confidence from a mentor
5. Crossing the Threshold: The hero leaves their ordinary world
6. Tests, Allies, and Enemies: The hero faces challenges, makes friends, and meets enemies
7. Approach to the Innermost Cave: The hero gets closer to their goal
8. The Ordeal: The hero faces their biggest challenge
9. Reward: The hero earns a reward that allows them to take on the biggest conflict
10. The Road Back: The hero returns to their ordinary world
11. Resurrection: The hero experiences a final moment of death and rebirth
12. Return with the Elixir: The hero returns with something to improve their ordinary world

As you can see, there are several challenges along the way that build the tension and keep the audience in suspense about whether or not the hero will succeed, but it is his or her resilience in persevering, despite the odds, to finally triumph.

Is Resilience Enough to Succeed?

I did an AI search on the key traits for a small business owner and it came back with these suggestions:

Key success traits for a small business owner include: adaptability, passion, resilience, strong leadership, creativity, risk tolerance, customer focus, strong communication skills, financial literacy, and the ability to learn and adapt to changing market conditions; essentially, being able to pivot, take calculated risks, and stay motivated while providing excellent customer service in a dynamic environment.

Wow! That’s a lot – no wonder small business success isn’t always easy! So, there are a lot of ingredients needed for the results you want.

Consider this though – whilst resilience is of course not all you need to succeed, its absence would mean that you would probably crumble in the face of adversity, no matter how talented you are.

So, how do you build resilience? I’ll answer that one in my upcoming book.

Stay tuned!