In our building blocks of success series, we tackle the various foundational blocks we believe are essential for success. Resilience is near the top of the list, because pursuing greatness almost always means you will face losses, mistakes and tough times along your journey. The ability to bounce back is so critical and we hope the stories below will inspire you to dig deep and discover more of your own resiliency.
Miya Lewis
I believe I get my relliance from the amazing loved ones in my life. I’ve had the privilege to witness numerous of people throughout my family, and in the relationships that I built through friends and partners, my husband, how resilient people can be, and when you’re able to watch someone go through trials and tribulations and be able to bounce back watch someone go through different obstacles and be able to get back up-subconsciously your mind, body and soul adapt to that energy. Read more>>
Yusuke Watanabe
I think there are several factors involved, not just one. What I am most aware of is increasing the number of people/things I can depend on. This includes family, friends, jobs, hobbies, health, etc. I think t nt you will be. I also think it’s really importtant to take time at least a few hours in a week for yourself and allow you to do what you love. Read more>>
Jehlad Hickson
I get my resilience from my mother. We both went through so much. She went through a lot more than I have. Plus she’s a breast cancer survivor. I lost my grandmother in 1989 to breast cancer. I never got to meet her. Through all the issues, problems, adversities, she’s always taught me to stay positive and keep going. Nothing can limit the human condition if they stay positive, and continue the course! Read more>>
Bryan Talbot
It is a calculated effort to maintain a positive mindset and take a look at the bigger picture even when facing difficulties. Challenges can be opportunities for growth rather than insurmountable obstacles although we may not see it that way in the moment. This mindset helps me persist and continue striving for goals, even when faced with setbacks. Read more>>
Sharon Lewis-Ruff
Wow! This is a loaded question, but I’ll start here. Read more>>
Eddie Kim
I would say my resilience comes from when I started pre-school. I began speaking coherently at four years old, even family members thought it was best for me to be held back. My parents disagreed and knew I was fine, I did not start kindergarten very well, but definitely fought that through and did fairly well academically. Read more>>
Tomsy
I draw my resilience from an unwavering dedication to my objectives. I am deeply committed to achieving my goals, refining my approach if initial attempts fall short. The music industry often presents numerous rejections, but I see them as opportunities for growth and am invigorated by the challenges. This aspect greatly enriches my experience with my artist project, Tomsy, making it an exciting journey. Read more>>
Bruce Hamilton
Well, you see, resilience is an essential trait for anyone pursuing their passion. For me, it stems from a deep belief in the power of what I do. I’ve always been driven by a desire to create something meaningful, something that has the potential to change the world. This belief gives me the strength to weather the storms, to face challenges head-on. Read more>>
Lauren Cipollo
I’ve built resilience over time by learning to appreciate and celebrate the small successes. Any creative career is full of nos… until you get the one yes. Even when you ‘succeed,’ the process starts all over again and you have to learn to keep going if you want to achieve your goals. Appreciating how far I’ve come, even if it’s not exactly where I want to be, helps me keep moving forward. Read more>>
Jesika La Rusch
It all started with a story and a promise. Read more>>
Dru Davis
Scars are never there to remind you of your pain but to remind you that you are strong! I would never be where I am today without God and my support system that encourages me everyday! Since 2017, I have experienced much hardship physically starting with the car accident that changed everything. Read more>>
Roxanne Golkar
My resilience comes from my parents. My parents have been divorced since I was 3 years old but I got to watch both of them growing up and they made a huge impact on my life, even though I never knew it at the time. Read more>>
Lyntoya Williamson
I get my resilience from the depths of my soul. There is this belief in my purpose & future self that will not allow me to not continue on this path that I’ve been shown in my dream state. Read more>>
Leah Jones
Becoming a teenage mother is a journey marked by overwhelming emotions. The weight of shame and the fear of becoming a statistic bear heavily on one’s shoulders. As I navigated my senior year of high school, I openly anticipated, and prided myself on, the possibility of becoming the first person in my family to reach the age of 18 without the added challenge of an unplanned pregnancy. However, that would not be my reality. Read more>>
Ariana Molkara
I credit my resilience to the hardships I’ve experienced along my journey. If it weren’t for my suffering, I would never have found my strength. This is precisely why I embrace challenges as I’m faced with them because I know that behind every setback, every obstacle, there’s a purpose. Anybody pursuing entertainment professionally can probably recount a thousand stories of heartbreak and disappointment. Read more>>
Edie Swaggard-Green
My resilience is a gift from God. He has given me the ability to learn from life’s lessons, good and bad: what is the take home message, what I should or shouldn’t have done, how can I improve the next time, without beating myself up or putting myself on a pedestal. Before I was able to venture out on my own, God showed me that I needed to humble myself, because this journey was not for me, but for the ones that I would help along the way. Read more>>
Viaje Nahual
Our resilience comes from our belief in ourselves and our music, knowing that we have something special that needs to be out into the world and that’s why we keep pushing our craft. Read more>>
J Renee
I would have to say I developed my resilience from my life experiences. Before, I would answer this question saying it came from my mother, even though I did gain a lot of it from watching her as a child. Now, I’ve grown to learn that my past life experiences has really played a major roll on the amount of resilience I’ve gained. Read more>>
John DeMena
I have gone through a lot of adversity since I was a kid, so navigating hardships is almost second nature to me. I was born in Spain and grew up in the bosom of a blue-collar family. My sister and I were raised by a single mom and went through a lot of ups and downs as a family, but we always managed to stay afloat by sticking together and lived a somewhat normal childhood. Read more>>
Shā Donna Sanchez
My resilience comes from a combination of factors. Firstly, growing up in the South and facing inequality and adversity at a young age taught me to adapt and persevere. Hearing the word “no” or being denied something became a normal occurrence, but it never stopped me from pursuing my goals. Read more>>
Colleen Lippert
My dad passed away when I was eleven years old. I learned at an early age that life isn’t always going to go as planned, but we need to make the best of the one we have. I was raised by a single mom for more than half of my life, so we both powered through the unknown together. We had each other to lean on and, without that, I don’t think I would have been able to bounce back like I did. Read more>>
Shenita Allen
I received my resilience from my faith in God. Without God I am nothing. Without God I wouldn’t been able to overcome life changes. The knowing of trouble not lasting always, pushes me to stand strong through the trials and tribulations of life. Read more>>
Vicky Vicious
I get my resilience from all of my life lessons. Both my achievements and my failures have taught me to be resilient. They have taught me to be strong and to see that failures are useful lessons that I can use to become stronger. I have learned that resilience is the ability to bounce back from a challenge, stay focused on goals, and come out stronger than ever. Read more>>
Nicole Pringle
I get my resilience from my mommy. She did everything she could to make sure that we had what we needed. She was a mother, homemaker, choir director, our teacher, our seamstress/stylist. She even figured out how to build a wooden TV stand on her own lol. When things needed to be done and there was no one else to do it/them, she was the example to just jump in and get it done. Read more>>
CHRISTY LEE
Resilience for me came from my mom who always taught me the importance of confidence and positivity through high but reachable expectations. As an adult, I have learned to keep moving forward and keep trying my best despite complicated obstacles and overcome criticism. I feel that time is too valuable and having to reach my goals in life is too important for failure to get in the way. Read more>>
Christine Trinidad
My resilience stems from the financial and emotional hardships I experienced in my childhood and adult life. I lost my dad at the tender age of 15 and my family experienced extreme financial strains as my widowed mom struggled to support 4 young kids. My parents raised us to trust God despite the circumstances and to do our part in the waiting of a struggle. Read more>>
Christina Shurts
The best way I can describe resilience is in the company I keep. Read more>>
Freaking Ding Bat
In the last four years I’ve had my apartment broken into and everything I owned was stolen. I had to put my dog down, my father died and my business was destroyed from covid lock downs. Art gets me through it. It’s my escape. It’s the place I can turn my brain off to the outside world. Read more>>
Eric Carlino
My resilience comes from my family. I grew up in a modest lower middle income family. We didn’t have a lot of extras growing up, but at the same time my parents made sure none of us were left needing. I kept that mindset once I had a family of my own. I would give anything for my family, and they are what keep me going day to day. Read more>>
Guido Segal
I used to believe life was a struggle but my perspective has shifted. Now I try to think of it as a game or a journey. So I would say my resilience comes from what drives me, from desire. I focus on choosing jobs that motivate me, that feel meaningful. If I’m motivated, I don’t feel the strain. Read more>>
Notorio 718
Being that I was raised by a single mother, my resilience comes from her. At times she would work 2 to 3 jobs at a time. She never complained and did everything she could for me and my brothers. She’s the strongest person I know. She always preached to never quit. There is no such thing as can’t and there is no problem that cannot be conquered. Read more>>
Tonya Nalls, Ph.D.
Webster’s Dictionary defines resilience as an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change. There are many biblical examples that drives home that resilience is the quality of being able to adapt to stressful life changes and to “bounce back” from hardship such as: tragedy, crisis, or other life-altering changes of which I had many – from birth. The fact that I’ve survived each potentially devastating life event does not mean that I am unaffected but with each struggle came great growth and spiritual wisdom. Read more>>
Matt Szychowski
As lucky and fortunate as I feel to be working as a self-employed artist, it has definitely had its hurdles. The COVID-19 pandemic being one of the biggest. I make most of my income from selling my work at in person shows. And I clearly remember those early days of the coronavirus where show after show was getting cancelled. Eventually it become difficult to imagine when shows would actually start back up again. Read more>>
Christina Massalay
I am the daughter of a West African survivor of human trafficking, who gave birth to me on her fourteenth birthday; once I was born, we were placed into Foster Care. The woman who raised my mom and I, my grandmother, although not biologically related, provided us with a home, love, support, and prayer. Undoubtedly my resilience comes from both my mother and grandmother. I witnessed my mother work two and sometimes three jobs to make ends meet only to come up short many months. Read more>>
Darian Agudelo
On Christmas day 2012 I was in a severe car accident that caused me to restart my life. My boyfriend at the time was trying to turn left and while he was slipping on ice the Jeep sped up to avoid a red light and we were T- boned on my side. While he only sustained a minor concision, My injuries were so severe they had to put me into a coma and just hope I would heal enough to wake up again. Read more>>
Ethel Rubio
Resilience is in my DNA. I come from a lineage of resilient women, that is! I realize I have it all along through the challenges that I have encountered in my life. Read more>>
Kysha Woods
Resilience, often considered an innate trait, can also be profoundly shaped by our environment and the influences around us. In my case, resilience was both a part of my character and a quality nurtured through the wisdom and example of my remarkable mother. Read more>>
David Je’
My resilience comes from the life that I have been blessed to live to this point. There is a picture in my house that says ‘Don’t pray for life to be easy, but pray for yourself to be strong’ and this has indeed been my experience. Life made me ‘grow up’ early and I have seen a lot of loss from close family members, to close friends since I was pretty young. Perhaps the most impactful was the loss of my father the day before my 30th birthday. Read more>>
Sophia Trunzo & Lior Root
While we’d like to convey our optimism throughout this journey, it’s important to acknowledge the setbacks we encountered from having an idea to the actual execution. In 2022, when we first had the idea of Loopholes, we embarked on a journey of self-education about building a tech product and starting a SaaS company—both unfamiliar territories for us. We quickly recognized that reaching out to our network was the most pivotal step we could take. Read more>>
Tasha Marie
Born and raised in the westside of Atlanta, I was able to learn very quickly the true meaning of the words resilience and determination. I was determined not to let my current situation be my final destination. I lost my father at the age of 4, so I learned quickly to turn my pain into power. Growing up in a single family household, I witnessed true resilience and perseverance in my mother. Read more>>
Burak Ozcan
My resilience started as a young child. I grew up in a small town in Turkey surrounded by family. Every day I saw my mom work incredibly hard to support me with a loving home while also working long hours to earn a living. She has served as a powerful example of resilience. Read more>>
raquel Madikians
I get my resilience from knowing that if I keep going I will get to where I want. That there is light at the end of the tunnel. That I will get to my destination but I need resilience to get me there. I get my resilience from hope and faith.I get my resilience from my parents hardships, from my families love, from my children. Read more>>
Diana McLaughlin
I think the quickest way to push yourself in every way possible is to move abroad. The second quickest is to change careers. In the last 15 years I have done both. I got my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Music – I was an opera singer. I moved to Ireland with my Irish husband the same year I finished college and opened a music studio where I taught happily for over a decade, then something in me switched. Read more>>
Derrick Hawkins
I learned resilience from failure. I made up my mind that failure was never an option for me. My resilience has been developed in moments of failure, disappointment, making bad decisions, and even frustration. There is something that failure produces that some moments of success without process never can. Read more>>
