Sometimes just seeing resilience can change out mindset and unlock our own resilience. That’s our hope with the Portraits of Resilience series – we hope the stories below will inspire you to tap into your own resilience.
Tiffany Gentry
I believe that resilience is all about mindset and perspective. It’s a choice that we all are capable of making, it’s just not the easy one. I’ll never forget sitting in the ER waiting room at the age of 25, waiting to hear if I was a widow. My (now) ex-husband, was training for a triathlon and was the victim of a hit and run while cycling. This story could go on forever, but ultimately, this life-changing accident left him paralyzed, and turned our world upside down. Read more>>
Haley McMahon
I would say that my resilience came to me at a very young age. I was taught early on that if you wanted some thing you had to do it for yourself. Nobody is going to come along and help you simply because you exist. Life is definitely going to get hard and land on you heavy sometimes, and YOU are the only one that you can absolutely rely on to help YOU. Read more>>
April Hicks
When describing myself, one of the first words that come to mind is resilience. My faith in God has allowed me to overcome many challenges and obstacles as an entrepreneur. Every time I want to give up the inner voice inside tells me not to and to keep going. I have had many opportunities to throw in the towel. I believe we are all born with a purpose, often times our purpose might be what we are naturally gifted at or have a strong sense of purpose while doing it. Read more>>
Melanie Wild
Unwavering belief in my destiny, and studying and practicing techniques that pull me out of ruts, such as EFT, Psych K, Matrix Re-imprinting, meditation, and asking for help. Read more>>
Emani Roberts
I’m the kind of person who is quick to look for ways to resolve or at least improve the situation. I don’t expend my energy in why the problem is difficult or unfair. Pondering on one thing isn’t going to do nothing but make you miss out on the next opportunity. That’s with life or any small situation. One of my favorite sayings is “Control the things you can control and the things you can’t put it in God’s hands it’ll come back around” Read more>>
Devin Roscillo
Personally, I think I get my resilience from my struggles with mental health. I think it comes from my ADHD and Bipolar. They’ve shown me challenges beyond imagination throughout my life, but those challenges allowed me to build my resilience and become better equipped to handle any type of obstacle. Read more>>
Yifat Arbely
I have never believed in Cinderella stories, I always knew that achieving results required hard work. I was always passionate about concrete and the more damaged and worn it was, the more I liked it. I wanted to change people’s perception of concrete and turn it from being seen only as a rough and gray material to something colorful, beautiful, and versatile that everyone could put in their homes in the form of a planter, sink, or bathtub. Read more>>
James Quinn
From learning from every loss along the way. I realized some time ago that you only loose if you choose to stay down. Rejection and loss is a part of business but winning comes from what we learn and how we respond to the losses. Read more>>
Patter Gersuk
I had phenomenal role models in my mother and grandmother. I am one of eight children and my father died when he was 43 of a heart attack when I was 16 and the youngest was 8. My grandmother came to live with us and both she and my mother worked so hard and kept on going– demonstrating that you never know what life will give you, but you just have to pick up the pieces and adjust. Resilience is key. Read more>>
Jamila Small
One thing that is continuously developed is resilience. Resilience, in my opinion, is based on faith. Faith is defined differently by many people. For me, having faith means having confidence in God and his provision. This appears to be relying on him at all times. Maintaining the same posture despite variations in the season and environment. Read more>>
Aaron Anderson
Resilience comes from a lot of places, but I think primarily it is your ability to process issues and hardship. When something goes wrong, when things aren’t working out the way they’re supposed to, how do you respond? Learning to stop and slow down, allowing yourself to process what’s going on and then responding. I also think resilience is a learned skill, it involves placing yourself in circumstances that will allow growth. Read more>>
Callie Bussell
Very early into my 20’s, I received a head injury. Six months after I healed from that I contracted Lyme Disease on a film set which launched a decade long journey of reclaiming my health. This colored every aspect of my life, and the fight and dedication it took (and still takes, to a degree) to maintain my health has made everything in my life pale in comparison. Read more>>
Shachi Mehra
Difficult times and challenges in life often give us the opportunity to foster resilience. When I started to recognize resilience in myself, I started to identify the qualities that helped me be flexible. One of the most important factors in my journey has certainly been relationships and the people around me that have helped me get through dark times. Gratitude and acceptance of change are a couple of others that are vital. Read more>>
Ryan Payne
I’ve been knocked down more than I can count in my 35 years of living. During that time what has helped me get back up was my faith in God and knowing I was being prepared for something greater. It was knowing that every heartbreak, rejection, failure was all just a redirection to my highest good. Read more>>
Jose ‘Chipi’ Estrada
From LA. Living here trying to ‘make it’ requires a lot, is definitely not easy and this city WILL punch you down again and again. But as Rocky says ‘…it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward…’ And there’s a lot of that here, seas of resilient people who just won’t quit, and as tough as it is to watch, it’s inspiring. Read more>>
Meghan Cave
I think vulnerability is key in resilience. Being vulnerable enough to ask for help means setting your ego aside to say something like “I’m struggling with something and I see you’ve mastered it, can you help me?” I’ve done in this when I was getting sober, trying to get better at performing, going through a rough break up and when I had breast cancer. Read more>>
Alexis Collins
I believe that a lot of my resilience comes from my faith in God and my parents. When there are difficult chapters or transitional moments happening in my life, I’ve learned that God will never leave me nor forsake me. I also give credit to my parents. From a young age, my dad always instilled in me the importance of hard work and never giving up on my goals. Read more>>
Jon Steinmeier
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of my resilience is how stubborn I am about the work I want to do. I’ve had some other jobs along the way and I always had a low threshold for things I’m not into. I am particular about the work I want to do and I also have had amazing support along the way. I’ve been a freelance musician for 23 years at this point, split pretty equally between Chicago and Los Angeles. Read more>>
Nhung Nguyen
My resilience comes from a childhood in which we did not always have enough for me and my younger sister. Or, once our family’s economic situation improved, my military father put on an exciting but stringent reward system where almost everything had to be earned and proved rather than assumed that they were there to grab. Read more>>
Joseph Valadez
About my own experience with resilience and how I use that term in every area of my life, it goes like this. For 43 years, I was a drug user. 38 as an addict to heroin. I used to get quite high on heroin sometimes, and I would wake up in the morning feeling awful or dope sick. Even though I knew it would take at least two hours for my body to start having withdrawal symptoms,. At that point, I would get frantic and, sometimes, desperate to end the pain. Read more>>
Sandra Velasquez
I was a professional musician for 20 years. Being a working artist requires you to deal with a lot of rejection. It was hard at the time but in retrospect it was the best training for entrepreneurship. Read more>>
Kerri Naslund Monday
The power of resilience is a force that shaped my journey from a childhood marked by financial struggle to achieving my dream of homeownership. Growing up in the late 1970s-early 1980s, my family faced economic challenges, making video games a luxury beyond our reach. Undeterred, I turned to board games, and Monopoly became my refuge. Read more>>
Erica Soto
Resilience is the most crucial skill to have when pursuing anything in life. It was not easily formed in my case. A lot of times when I was met with a setback or difficulty, my instincts wanted to run away from the problem or distract myself, or I would turn to food and eat my feelings. These were all solutions that left me worse than where I began. Repeating the same mistakes allowed me a pearl of wisdom. Read more>>
Yumna Jamal
Life’s a rollercoaster, filled with unexpected ups and downs, but if there’s anything it has taught me, it’s resilience. Looking back at this past year, there were certainly some very challenging periods, from numerous setbacks to moments of grief. However, I believe that it was these struggles that pushed me to work even harder. Despite the hardships I experienced and the desire to just give up, I kept on going and would remind myself that with the difficulty, there is ease. Read more>>
Fedana Toussaint
God. I have been thinking about this a lot. I get told often that I am resilient, that someone who has been through as much as me shouldn’t be standing, shouldn’t be kind, shouldn’t be functioning. People are often surprised to find out how young I am because I’ve lived so much life and the truth is, there is no way that this strength is my own. It’s supernatural. It has to be. Experience could have destroyed me if I did not have some sort of supernatural support or intervention. It has to be God. Read more>>
Kelsey Bigelow
My resilience comes from survival mode. I spent most of my life experiencing things no one should ever have to experience. If I was going to survive it all, I had no choice but to be resilient. There were many times I didn’t think I would make it to the next day. Most often, I didn’t want to. But I knew in my gut that I was capable of a better life, so I had to figure out how to bounce back and keep moving forward. Read more>>
Brendalee Medina
My resilience is derived from my grandmothers, one of whom has passed away. She was an entrepreneur, a businesswoman at a time when it wasn’t widely accepted, and the matriarch of my maternal family. My other grandmother, who is still alive at the remarkable age of 107, leads an entire village in Puerto Rico. Both women instructed our family on strength, positivity, and resilience, instilling values of honor and respect while remaining steadfast in our beliefs. Read more>>
David Ayotunde
Drawing inspiration from my background where I was taught to be focused and persistent in everything I do, the people I have ahead of me in this field the raw and malleable nature of metal itself, my resilience as a metal sculpture artist originates from the challenges I faced growing up, doggedness and persistence kept me going. Read more>>
CarmenRose Fiallo
My resilience comes from the desire to make things better for the next generation. It comes from trauma, and not wanting others to have to experience what I have experienced. Even what generations before me experienced. I am a disabled queer Latina living with Chronic Migraine. I currently get a migraine attack every single day. Read more>
Jaclyn Bradley
Resilience comes from the fall… and the getting back up again. To successfully pursue a career in the arts, you have to get used to hearing “no”… A LOT!!! Especially in the beginning. Success comes from moving forward and trying again, on repeat, until the universe lands you in the perfect spot at the perfect time. It isn’t particularly easy…but I think it’s a marvelous journey with many gifts along the way. Read more>>
Vanessa Plaza Lazo
Resilience is part of everyones growth process. When people acknowledge the meaning of it, it becomes easier to find a way to embrace it as well. In my personal experience, I’ve have had encountered different situations where things turned very difficult and thought I wasn’t going to be able to make it through. It is easy to forget sometimes our personal power and how valuable we are. Read more>>
Mack Delfino
When you take that leap of faith and start your own business there is a shadow that lurks on your journey. That shadow comes from self-doubt, haters and competition. In order for true success to emerge, you have to be willing to sacrifice to dispel the darkness. Enduring the challenges and opposition that comes with trying to be the best you that you can be. I get my resilience from God. Through him I am able to tolerate any negativity. Read more>>
Julien Wagner
My resilience is deeply rooted in a challenging past that has shaped who I am today. At a pivotal moment in my life, when faced with immense difficulties, I discovered that film wasn’t merely a choice for me; it was a calling. It became the medium through which I found my voice, a way to navigate and make sense of the hardships I encountered. Film provided more than an escape; it gave purpose to the adversity I experienced. Read more>>
Julius Wade
I think resilience is a characteristic I’ve spent my whole life being developed within whether I intended to or not, which just transformed into it being something I’ve embraced. I’ve been through a lot of things throughout my life time; from childhood trauma to career rejection, or being misunderstood by people around me. Read more>>
Cavaughn Edwards
The resilience I now have comes from these two areas; an innate drive and desire to take on any obstacle, and secondly, from the examples I see from where I grew up. My innate drive iis connected to the energy and passion I bring to wanting whatever I set out to achieve, which pushes me to go for it. I have noticed that for as long as I can remember, whether it was playing sports, studying till I got it, starting and restarting my architectural projects and now photography. It is like I have a never-quitting mentality until I reach the end goal of what I am doing. Read more>>
Shardae Carter
I would have to say my resilience comes from my late maternal grandmother. My grandmother raised me and my brother to understand the value of hard work and determination. I can recall several times when she would consistently endure several different types of disappointments, heartaches and setbacks but always consistently pushed through to complete whatever tasks she set for herself. Read more>>
Jazmine Davis
I draw my resilience from the profound journey through my parents’ grief. Losing my mother at the tender age of 11, and then my father at 17, plunged me into years of deep depression. In the midst of my struggle, I reflected on pivotal conversations with my parents, where they expressed their fervent wish for me to embrace life to its fullest. Their words became a guiding light for me. Read more>>
Kimberly Behzadi
I believe that resilience is both inherited and developed over time. I am proudly the child of an immigrant. My father came to America, from Iran, to earn a college education. My father not only finished school, he earned a Masters, met my mother, and raised three great kids (myself included). But I think of that first step, that very real decision, to leave the family and friends you knew, for an entirely new life. The decision was impressive, but then to build an entire new life from it, is something that awes me beyond words. Read more>>
Lorraine Campos
Growing up, I watched my parents example of sacrifice, hard work and humility. My parents didn’t come from wealthy families and they grew up in poverty, so together they worked hard and tried to provide the best life possible for us. I always saw them hustle and work tirelessly so that really has given me a constant reminder even in the rough seasons of my life that I come from a family that overcame hardships and that adversity builds character. Read more>>
Tessa Arnold
I believe understanding from a very early age the fragility of life I soon realized I was and will always be strong enough. I believe life and presents its own challenges for everyone; these challenges present you with the opportunity to grow and expand. This is how we are all connected. When presented with these moments throughout our lives we are given a choice and that choose is a pivotal part of our journey. Read more>>
Bleu Pablo
My resilience comes from a mindset forged by the lessons of life. I was taught by my mother to pursue what I want relentlessly, never accepting “no” as an answer. In this world, you don’t wait for things to be given; you go out and earn them. It’s about creating your own reality. Read more>>
Monica Rue
I feel like I’ve been blessed with resilience. Because as many times as I’ve wanted to give up and do something else I never have! I keep working ! I keep doing my thing! Creating what I believe in and dancing to the beat of my own drum. My sister says that I have great determination. My husband encourages me to take breaks and come back with fresh eyes; when I’m fighting with a particular design! Read more>>
Anna Collins
I’m one of twelve kids from a family that moved around constantly as my parents were part of a charitable organization that deployed them all over the world. I learned from a young age that change and disruption were part of life, and how to adapt to everything from hard financial times to seeing my parents divorce before I was ten, and then later essentially being left to raise two of my youngest brothers. I learned hoe to be an adult far before I became one, and that gave me the inner strength to apply to challenges faced later in life. Read more>>
Nikki O’Neill
Among the people I’ve met in my life, I think I’m hands down one of the most resilient! I get my resilience from following my vision and inner guidance one action at a time. And almost always, I get an affirmation from the universe that I’m doing the right thing, which gives me the strength to continue taking the next step, and the another one. It isn’t by being delusional, but by realistically assessing my abilities and doing the work needed to become who I know I am… and believing in that vision. Read more>>
Erick Mota
Resilience is the process of moving through difficult or traumatic situations and being able to adapt and grow from the situation. As an artist, I feel resilience is an essential trait that can be cultivated and strengthened as a skill. When making the choice to create, it is artists who have the ability to propel themselves beyond a situation and imagine how it can be different. Read more>>
