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.
Gina D’Soto
Honestly, I think my resilience comes from being an immigrant and having to start over so many times. I moved countries really young, learned new languages, and spent years in that space of longing and figuring out where I fit. I’ve felt everything, happiness, depression, confusion, hope… all of it. Read more>>
Eliana Benigar
I left my home in Patagonia, Argentina, when I was 17 years old. Coming from a small town and looking back now, more than ten years later, I can see how much life has shaped me. I’ve lived in many cities, and in each place I’ve had to rebuild, adapt, and keep moving forward while building my career. Read more>>
Josef Knauf
My resilience comes from my family. I had the privilege of watching my grandfather and father build their lives. My grandfather grew up poor. My great-grandfather was a World War I veteran and a hard man, and he expected the same toughness from his kids. My grandfather carried that forward. He started with small jobs, learning everything he could. Read more>>
Jasper Soloff
I think this feeling of wanting to be understood has always driven me. I never felt understood growing up — I always felt like an outcast. Now, a lot of my work is about happiness, color, and optimism. For me, resilience isn’t just about enduring hardship; it’s about creating and holding onto what lights me up. Read more>>
Albert Ahlf
I got my resilience from constantly having to try and find myself growing up and not being entirely sure who I was until I started playing piano and learning to play jazz. Once that happened I was totally hooked and nothing could stop me. Read more>>
Charmaine Chanakira
My resilience comes from growing up as a migrant kid who had to adapt constantly. We moved a lot, so I learnt early how to adjust to new places, new people and new rules. I grew up in a low income single parent household, so problem solving was basically a daily sport. Read more>>
Joanna Nisbet
Over the years I have found that my faith and my family can cure all the worries life throws my way. Each person in my life offers their own unique qualities in my heart, that I value dearly. I have also learned the importance of maintaining time for solitude. There’s a rare gift in finding peace in yourself. Read more>>
Stacey Swan
When you have your own business it comes with ups and downs. There are times when you are so busy that you couldn’t possibly handle any more work. Then there are other times when things are a little slower and quieter. Over the last five years in business I’ve realized to embrace the highs and the lows. Read more>>
Miya Brown
Life’s challenges have shaped my resilience. For a long time, I felt like I didn’t fit in or had fallen short in too many areas. But over time, I recognized my own strength — and that realization became my power. Once I tapped into my gifts, I began to rise and accomplish more than I ever imagined. Read more>>
Steve Sherrell
I have been a working artist for 57 years. I began painting seriously at the age of 18 and have seen mind boggling changes in the art world. When I started painting Andy Warhol had only been at painting for 6 years. I was completely taken by Pop Art. I grew up in Indiana but moved to the Chicago area in 1972. Read more>>
Terri Morrison Kaiser
Resilience is a ‘must-have’ for writers. For years, I was a closet writer — writing only for myself, never thinking I could write anything others would find entertaining. Once I dared venture into the scary, confusing, and frustrating world of publication, I received brutal rejections that made it hard to appreciate what little encouragement I received. But I didn’t stop. Read more>>
Robert Radi
For me, resilience starts with faith. That’s the deepest source. My faith in God anchors me in a way that circumstances can’t shake. It gives me stability, perspective, and the conviction that challenges are not endpoints, but part of a larger journey. When you trust in something greater than yourself, you learn to stand firm even when the ground around you is moving. Read more>>
Alexandra Strachan
I believe my resilience comes from the very thing that once held me back—self-doubt. Rather than letting it stop me, I’ve learned to turn it into fuel. I’m always in a quiet race with myself, striving to grow, evolve, and show up with more purpose each day. Read more>>
Stacy Keele
You’re so strong’ is a sentence I have heard more times than I’d like to admit during my journey of building a business with chronic illness. Am I strong? Heck YES! Did I have a choice? No, not really! Resilience is built through trial and error. It is an embodiment of my own Human Design. Read more>>
Matthew DeRubertis
In my early career as an artist, I learned quickly that resilience and consistency are a must. With a career in music, many things will not pan out as planned. There will be a lot of hard work to bring visions to life. Successes may not come where you expect them to. Opportunities pop up, then vanish. Read more>>
Bryan Yancey
Resilience, out of necessity.has been a big part of my life and who I am as a person and an artist. Having been born with no thumbs, missing my radius bone in my left arm which was inverted at birth and having only three fully functional fingers, taught me adaptability and resilience at an early age.. Read more>>
Sarah Walker
At 20, I survived a serious car accident that left me with chronic pain and fatigue. Traditional medicine didn’t fully resolve the issues, so I started exploring alternative therapies. Over time, I discovered wellness practices that gradually reduced the pain and helped me regain energy and balance. That experience completely changed how I see space and design. Read more>>
Yana Anders
My resilience isn’t something I learned from a book; I inherited it directly from my mother. When my parents divorced, I was five, and watching my mom and grandparents raise me gave me a profound example of persistence. My mother always approached her life with the firm conviction that anything could be accomplished if you truly wanted it. Read more>>
Paul Zeidman
I couldn’t say specifically from where I got it, but I can say with absolute certainty that it’s taken me a long time to build it up to what it is today. The expression ‘What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger’ plays a big factor. For me, I’ve been pursuing success in the extremely challenging field of screenwriting. Read more>>
Dr. Reggie Thomas
I grew up in a small town in West Tennessee. We lived in a rural area and had what I called a ‘mini’ farm where we grew crops and raised animals for food. My family had some relational and historical dysfunctions, so that was a disadvantage. Read more>>
Emilie Anne Richardson
My resilience comes from knowing I can try something, and if it doesn’t work, try again! Whatever you are dreaming about building, listen to positive feedback, and put your talents to work for you! Don’t give up even when it seems hard or maybe you feel misunderstood. If you want to meet a goal or finish a degree or create a business, keep going! Read more>>
Sahara Medina
My resilience comes from my upbringing. I grew up in an environment where hardship and abuse were part of daily life, and where dreams felt out of reach. That changed the day my mother said, ‘Enough.’ From that moment on, I learned what it meant to work hard and help my family move forward. Read more>>
Laura Musselman
Resilience, for me, isn’t something I was born with; it’s something I’ve built over time. I was an only child, which could be lonely, and I lost both of my parents within a few years of each other when I was in my twenties. That grief rearranged me. Read more>>
Ogochukwu Ossai
I think my resilience comes from growing up Nigerian and being raised in a culture where perseverance is not just valued but expected. My parents taught me that every obstacle is a test of endurance and imagination. That lesson stayed with me when I moved to the U.S. Read more>>
Isabella Santoro
I get my resilience from my mother and from the life experiences that have shaped me. My mom, Lorraine, opened Café Dodici 21 years ago, and it was her tenacity—and especially her resilience—that kept the restaurant thriving through the 2009 financial crisis, the pandemic, and the many obstacles that come with running a small, family-owned business. Read more>>
Coach Miller
I get my resilience from life and just working through challenges. I’ve lived my entire life in close proximity to all of the pitfalls and setbacks that can befall someone like myself, but through the grace and mercy of GOD, I am still here. My resilience and grit comes from having no choice and making a way regardless. Read more>>
Tanisha Henry
My resilience come from my faith. I believe we are no different then the most successful humans in the world. Most of us have the ability to work hard and persevere through any test that may be thrown in our path and manage to continue to move forward. Read more>>
Mary Uncustomary England
I remember when I first decided that I wasn’t going to let the trio of my mental illnesses currently calling all the shots in my life on the field (out of the other dozen in the dugout) rule my life anymore. Read more>>
Karla Ortega
I believe my resilience comes from a combination of family, purpose, and experience. Growing up and later working with multilingual families and students taught me that strength often comes from navigating challenges with compassion and creativity. As a teacher for nearly 20 years, I saw firsthand how empathy and perseverance can transform lives, especially when language or circumstances create barriers. Read more>>
Jillian Katz
For (more often) better or worse, I’ve been an initiator of difficult conversations for as long as I can remember. While challenging, getting curious about my discomfort is how I’ve moved through some of my stickiest and/or darkest challenges — even having breakthroughs as a result. The example I love to share is the story of my plastic canvases. Read more>>
Suyun Kim
I think my resilience comes from having to start over, again and again. Since I was young, I’ve always been someone who could do many things fairly well — but I was never exceptionally gifted in one thing. So I kept searching for what I could truly be great at, and that search led me, eventually, to photography. Read more>>
Karl Yost
It came from a series of changes where I had to start over from scratch. I moved from thinking I’d end up in the restaurant world to working in our family business, and when that chapter closed, I took a major leap into tech. I was tech savvy but didn’t have a degree like my peers. I was just trying to keep up. Read more>>
Mark Mackay
The first job I ever had – I was 20 years old and had a sales territory of a couple million dollars in the ski and snowboard industry. Read more>>
seangarrison
I will try and keep this brief. My resilience comes from experiences in life. Very difficult experiences in life. If I were to attempt to navigate how to talk about all of the experiences, this would be a 100,000 plus word essay. Read more>>
Beto Vargas
My resilience comes from two parts. The inner child that always pushed me to keep moving forward and the artists that inspire me through their journey, their challenges and their own resilience. Read more>>
Bläk Walters
I think my resilience comes from the people who have shaped me most, especially my mom, dad, sister, and granny. They’ve always shown me what it means to stay grounded, work hard, and keep going even when things get tough. Over time, I’ve realized that every challenge I’ve faced has made me stronger and more confident in who I am and what I’m capable of. Read more>>
Brianna Young
I sat down with this question and thought, “Wow, where do I start?!” Resilience, for me, was built over time through many moments—starting in childhood. I grew up in a chaotic but fun and creative family of six. As the oldest of three younger brothers, I took on a motherly role early on, especially after my family lost our business and home. Read more>>
Kiera Atkins
My resilience comes from my parents and from my life. My mom owned her own company, so I grew up watching a Black woman building something out of nothing with discipline, routine, and grace. My dad taught me early that if you want something, you work for it, no shortcuts, no handouts. That foundation gave me my drive. Read more>>
Marie Torossian
My resilience comes from a combination of my upbringing, my mindset, my purpose—and above all, my faith. I’ve been through enough seasons in life and in business to know that I’m not doing any of this alone. God has carried me through situations that I couldn’t have navigated with my own strength. Read more>>
Frederic De Jesus
My resilience comes from learning to rebuild without resentment. When I was let go, it shook everything I thought I knew about stability, identity, and purpose. But that experience taught me how to start over, not from scratch, but from experience. I had to relearn patience, discipline, and self-belief, and to stop measuring progress by external validation. Read more>>
T.M Jefferson
My resilience was born in a place most people never want to talk about. I didn’t get it from motivational quotes or morning routines. Mine came from sitting in a cell, realizing nobody was coming to save me, and understanding that if I didn’t rebuild myself from the inside out, I’d get swallowed whole by a system designed to keep me in rotation. Read more>>
