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.
Joseph Dibartolo
Over the years, various people and life experiences have shaped my resilience. From a young age, watching my father run his businesses and navigate adversity left a lasting impression on me. The lessons he taught me, both directly and through example, have been invaluable. My ability to withstand and recover from challenges grew further during my career as a hockey player. Read More>>
Huiyue (ada) Zhang
My resilience comes from learning to let go of control and embrace the unexpected—something I’ve picked up both in my art and in life. It really started with watching my younger siblings back home. They approach the world so fearlessly, and I’ve always admired that about them. Their toys are scattered everywhere, crayons are picked up and abandoned for something new, and they create without hesitation. Read More>>
Hagar Chemali
When you look at my career path (and really anyone’s career path), it can appear as though I glided seamlessly from one thing to the next. What’s hard to see in that resume are the rejections, challenges, and mistakes hidden behind each chapter. We’ve all had moments where we feel like a failure, but I don’t allow myself to wallow in that for long. I grieve for a bit, get back up, and figure out my next step. Read More>>
Joe Fear
My resilience comes from not liking to be told I can’t do something. I’ve always had an attitude of, “oh yeah? Watch me.” The first huge instance of this I can remember was in third grade. I don’t remember why, but I was in a meeting with the counselor and my mom. Towards the end of the meeting the counselor looked at my mom and said to her, “you might as well give up on him, he’ll never amount to anything.” Read More>>
Hayle Howland
Everyone faces challenges that force them to adapt and recover. In my work life, I have spent the last 16 years with such high- highs, and low-lows, that I have developed mental toughness and resourcefulness. My work life shaped me into a professional that was able to thrive when I saw a challenge. I knew that the ebb and flow in sales, the “no’s”, and the unexpected fallouts, would come and go. Read More>>
Chrys 3v3ntive Alva
Photography is not just a hobby, it is my passion. It fulfills me more than anything else and when I’m not with my camera I feel like I’m lacking purpose. My resilience is linked to my deep need to create, it’s outside my control, a drive to continue learning this craft. Read More>>
Adam Peters
My resilience wasn’t built in a day – it was forged through a lifetime of challenges, starting way before I ever put on a uniform. Being the oldest of three in a broken home, I had to be strong not just for myself, but for my siblings. When you’re watching your mother use you and your siblings as pawns against your father, you learn to adapt, to protect, to endure. That was my first battlefield, really. Read More>>
Relentless Jay
I think my resilience comes from having to overcome many challenges, setbacks, and adversity throughout my life. I feel everything I have overcome has made me who I am today. There are often times when I it seems everything goes wrong and I can’t catch a break, these are the times I remind myself that I have a purpose and mission to complete. Read More>>
Christina Canuto
I come from parents who both had immigrant parents. Although I was closer to my paternal grandparents, I believe resilience was passed down generationally from the immigrant mentality of hard work, family-mindedness, and motivation to improve generational conditions. My dad comes from Filipino heritage and my mom comes from a Cherokee, Polish, Portuguese, and Dutch background. My Filipino grandparents, my lolo (grandfather) and lola (grandmother), played a huge role in raising me and I consider them my role models for resilience. Read More>>
Vj Morris
Where do you get your resilience from? My mother! She’s one of the strongest women I’ve known—dedicated, hardworking, always challenging herself. Even now, in her 60s, she runs 10 miles at least twice a week. We even ran Broad Street together, a moment I cherish with pride as she tackled it one mile at a time. Her resilience that day is my driving force. Read More>>
Tracey Ross
My Kids! Resilience came from my awesome kids
Leaving my alcoholic husband after 21 years wasn’t just the end of a marriage, it was the start of a journey into the unknown. After two decades of emotional turmoil and coping with a partner who was consumed by addiction, I found myself standing at a crossroads. Read More>>
Kimberly Barbosa
I think a lot of my resilience comes from the foundation my parents laid down for me growing up. They’re immigrants who came to America with big dreams and little more than their hopes and hard work. They always taught me that nothing worth having comes easy, and that persistence is key. Watching them overcome every obstacle, whether it was navigating a new culture, starting over with nothing, or fighting for a better future for our family, those experiences shaped me in ways I didn’t fully realize until later in life. Read More>>
Sienna Turecamo
I know with distinct clarity that I have a purpose in this life. I have always known that. The specifics around that purpose continue to unfold and in many ways are directly related to the things I have endured in my lifetime. It’s not my job to know the details of the destination, but to take every step I know intuitively needs to be taken. Read More>>
Mor Yelvington
when I was 9 years old, I lost my dad to a fatal car accident. This traumatic experience has shaped the way I viewe the world.
What I learned was that life is too short, and you never know when it will end. This understanding has brought me to the understanding that I have no time to waste, nothing can hurt me or cause me as much pain as this experience has, and every moment counts so my resilience has come from a place of knowing I only have one life and it’s my responsibility to create the life I desire. Read More>>
Traliece
I believe I get my resilience from two sources: one my faith and two my family. Over the years, I have experienced many trials and adversities but, what has helped me get through many tough times has been my relationship with God and also tapping into the gift of strength that I believe I have inherited from my parents. Read More>>
Sherri Anne Austria
Resilience is such a weighted concept, and I don’t take it lightly. It’s not just about enduring hardships—it’s about how you rise from them, how you adapt, and how you keep moving forward. My resilience comes from every aspect of my life that has shaped me—my environment, my upbringing, my experiences. Read More>>
Anissa Matlock
I have to credit my resilience to the long line of strong women in my family before me. My mother, grandmother, great-grandmother. They all faced incredible hardship on top of your everyday highs and lows and pressed on toward better for themselves, and for their families. I feel I have that determined spirit of resilience in me as well, especially in trying times like our current societal circumstances. Read More>>
Bradley Kahabka
During my early teen years, I began getting heavily involved in the Boy Scouts of America. At first you don’t know anyone there, just kind of thrust into a troop of other people your age and suddenly are expected to go camping and build all of these wilderness skills from scratch. I grew up in New York in the Adirondak’s and was lucky that my specific troop was very involved, went on extreme campouts and had a retired marine for a scoutmaster. Read More>>
Haoran Ma
Kobe Bryant and Lana Del Rey are two role models for my life. They are from two different areas and their influences on me are also different. From Kobe, the Mamba mentality is more like a pure persistence. Find something you love and push yourself hard no matter what. If you fail then back up and fight again. For me this is like the Yang power from Taoist Yin/Yang philosophy. From Lana Del Rey I learn being resilient in a totally different way. Read More>>
Bella Mfon
My resilience comes from my life experiences, my passion for art, and my commitment to advocating for mental health. Art has always been my sanctuary—a way to process emotions and transform challenges into something meaningful. As someone who creates art to speak for those experiencing brokenness, loneliness, or abandonment, I’ve learned to see challenges as opportunities for growth. Read More>>
Kayla Johnson
Resilience often stems from life experiences, personal values, and the people who shape us. For me, it’s a blend of faith, being a mother, and the lessons learned from overcoming challenges. Watching my son grow inspires me to push through, and the strength I’ve seen in others fuels my determination. Read More>>
Rickia Coates
My resilience stems from my past experiences, my support system, the way that I think, the life I want to have for myself and my self awareness.
Everything was not bad but everything was not good growing up. I think a lot of my resilience stems from me wanting to make the 5 year old me proud. I had a lot of adult positive figures in my life but the older I became the more it became important for me to be the role model I’ve always wanted. Read More>>
Madeline Coronato
Through the time constraints of tight deadlines and the responsibility of properly showing up for our crew, my business partner and I have forged our resilience as both producers and business owners. While we were fundraising for our film, Sight, last summer and fall, we got over the fear of rejection pretty quickly. Read More>>
Iasia Montana-maye
I’ve always believed I was a resilient person, but my ability to recover from hardship wasn’t truly tested until I lost my father—and then, just months after his passing, decided to start a business. A little resilience and a little delusion, as I like to say! Read More>>
Shondreka Haith
My resilience comes from the many challenges that life has faced me with. Never one to give up easily, to quit or throw in the towel, I developed an attitude of resilience and put my focus on finding a way to overcome the issues that arise. My earliest challenge that laid the foundation for my resilience is the car accident that I was in at the age of 12 years old. I was hit by a utility van which shattered my right arm and leg. Read More>>
Alivyana Solarus
I found my way back to the heart of collaborative resilience I feel intersects all beings inhabiting this planet & the environment that supports & sustains us learning to use the strength of my practices to soften to embodying the harmony between grace & gravity. Read More>>
Paola Marquez-smith
My resilience comes from deep self-knowledge, which I have cultivated through personal work in embracing, accepting, and forgiving myself—including the parts that don’t always meet my own standards. I have learned to forgive situations and people’s actions, recognizing that every challenge carries a lesson. Read More>>
Scott Prisco
I get my resilience from faith, self-confidence, and purpose.
Faith – Believing that everything happens for a reason and that challenges are part of a bigger plan gives me the strength to keep going. My faith reminds me that setbacks are temporary and that there’s always a way forward. Read More>>
Neo Ernest Seekoei
As an emerging artist, my resilience comes from my passion for music and my unwavering belief in my vision. Every challenge I face fuels my creativity and determination. The struggles and setbacks are just part of the journey, and they only make me stronger. I draw inspiration from my experiences, the people around me, and the desire to connect with others through my art. Read More>>
Emily Stahl
I have learned to never give up from chasing your dreams, especially when life gets hard. I lost my dad to cancer when I was only 15 years old. It taught me to appreciate the little things in life. Then when I was in my early twenties, I was diagnosed with a neuromuscular disorder, Late Onset Tay Sachs. Life keeps giving me challenges, but I try to see the good side of it. Read More>>
Christopher Mariano
Resilience isn’t something I was born with—it’s something I earned through the constant push and pull of life. The challenging ups and downs have shaped me in ways I didn’t fully appreciate until I stood on the other side of them. Every setback, every disappointment, every moment where it felt like the world might cave in has taught me something crucial: that no matter how difficult the path gets, I can find my way through. Read More>>
John Newhouse
I have always been resilient, “No I can’t” is mostly substituted with, “So how can we…”I am colorblind. Yes a colorblind artist. One of my professors at Syracuse was also colorblind, when in his class he specifically said to me; “I don’t care, how are you going to complete the assignment?” Funny enough, he worked almost completely in black and white…So it was a “Find your niche” and run with it test. Read More>>
Nancy Torres
My resilience comes from my unwavering faith in Jesus Christ and the purpose He has placed on my heart. Running BWG Jewelry is not just a business venture for me—it’s a calling. My faith reminds me that every challenge, setback, or moment of doubt is an opportunity for growth and a testament to God’s plan for my life. Knowing that I’m doing this for His glory keeps me grounded and determined, even in the face of obstacles. Read More>>
London Pinkney
I have to be resilient because if I wasn’t I’d be dead. What are you gonna do as a disabled, Black girl? What are you gonna do as a lil weird punk girl? You survive. That’s the only option. Being a daughter of Los Angeles gave me resilience. Everything I do is for the little girl I was and my community. Memories of her and my loved ones fill my cup. Read More>>
Elizabeth Schmehl
My passion and love of my artwork and the difference variety of art and design and my background in working in Business Administration just what I get out of it gives me drive and confidence to keep going. I think you have to love what you are doing to make you resilient, you get knocked down and you get back up and keep going and working on your craft and making it happen. Read More>>
Terrence Nix
Everything I know about strength and resilience comes from my mother she was a single parent and she grew up in harshest of times so from early age, I knew what it took to be successful. And it takes strength and resilience to do so., I thank my mother for that attribute. Read More>>
Princess Banks
I get my resilience from my faith, my upbringing, and my determination to succeed no matter what.
Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, I learned early on how to navigate challenges, adapt, and push through adversity. My parents and family instilled in me the values of hard work, perseverance, and believing in myself even when others doubted me. Read More>>
Sep Alwin
My roots are planted on a small horse farm in rural Wisconsin where my lifetime of resilience was born. From a young age, I watched my parents return everyday to their social work jobs without complaint, careers riddled with stress and burnout. Yet with often little energy, time, or money, they always showed up. Read More>>
