Resilience is often the x-factor that differentiates between mild and wild success. The stories of most of the wildly successful folks in our community have exhibit an extreme degree of resilience and we’ve come to believe that if our goal is to help our community achieve great outcomes we have to help build resources and knowledge around how one can become more resilient.
Manami Toda
Resilience has always been a strength I aspired to cultivate—a way to remain flexible yet firmly connected to my inner core and strength. It’s only recently that I’ve begun to feel I’ve truly embraced resilience. As I continue to nurture it, I’ve taken the opportunity to reflect on how I’ve developed this ability so far. Read more>>
Kyle Langford
Through life’s curve balls. There have been several ups and downs and I always try to see the positive in every situation. I think a lot of that comes from my father and seeing him raise me on his own. He always told me that things will be different in 6 months. Read more>>
Dr. Holly Wood
Resilience for me comes from the life I’ve lived—the challenges that shaped me and the lessons I’ve learned along the way. Growing up wasn’t easy. Our house was robbed multiple times, and each time, I remember feeling a little less safe in the world. It was like my sense of security kept being chipped away. But in a strange way, it also taught me how to hold onto what truly matters, because no one could take away our love or the strength we had as a family. Read more>>
Sarah Detweiler
I have found that resilience is something that grows exponentially. This explains why those who have been tested the most by life, often seem to be the most resilient. The fact is that I had no idea how resilient I was until I was met with one of my life’s greatest tests at the age of 24. Up until then, my life presented with few challenges. I was an overachiever, had always excelled at school, made friends easily, and even got a job in New York a week before I had planned to move there after college. Read more>>
Vasiliki Gkarmiri
I got it from my parents. Growing up, I saw them pursuing important goals and never giving up—even in unfavorable situations. Now that I am a mom, my mother is the role model I look up to. She always trusted that things would work out for the best, relying on her faith in God while working tirelessly to make things happen. Despite her determination, she never made us feel like family came second. Now that I have my own family, I truly appreciate all her unseen work—the late nights and early mornings and her constant love and presence, which have profoundly shaped who I am today. Read more>>
Umoja Artego
My resiliency comes from fitness and life experiences. Fitness has taught me that consistency and effort lead to progress, even when it’s hard. Life has reinforced that setbacks are just challenges to overcome. I draw strength from my ancestors, my community, and the belief that every struggle builds a stronger, more capable version of myself. Resiliency, for me, is about showing up, pushing through, and never losing sight of the bigger picture. Read more>>
Kam Patrick
My resilience comes from a lifetime of lessons in strength, faith, and purpose. Growing up as the child of two Army veterans, I witnessed firsthand what it meant to serve with dedication and face challenges with courage. Their combined 36 years of service taught me that no battle is too great when you have the determination to rise above it. Read more>>
Haley Sanders
As an actor, having resilience is crucial to survival and to success. There’s no shortage of rejection in the entertainment industry. I remember when I first started out auditioning and pouring myself into being a working actor. I remember feeling like every rejection was personal, and meant that I wasn’t a skilled actor. I took each no as a hit to my self esteem and self confidence. Not getting an response from casting hurt just as much as a rejection. Read more>>
Jenny Shaw
Years ago, I realized that procrastination and inaction do not alleviate problems or discomforts in life. As a result, I committed to take action each day, no matter how small the goal may be. Read more>>
Danni Eickenhorst
I had a childhood full of significant challenges – a parent who was dealing with mental illness and trauma, which led to abuse and poverty. At age 15, I ran away from my mother’s home and started a new life in a new town with my father. I was determined to live a different life, to find my way. I’ve always been a person who has had goals and drive, but until that point I hadn’t been in a stable enough position to do much with that energy. Read more>>
Maiwand Dauod
I think it comes from a combination of how I was raised whether it’s family or people I looked up to and being around resilient people tends to rub off on you. Read more>>
Iskandar Gadirzade
Immigration taught me to adapt. I moved to Canada at 20 from a former Soviet country. I was young, but the journey wasn’t easy. I started as a busboy, became a waiter, studied political science, and worked as a campaign manager. Then I ventured into entrepreneurship, opening my first business in transportation. It failed. Hard. But it also taught me how to rebuild from nothing. Read more>>
Vanessa Weiner
The intervals between doctor visits grew until team by team I was discharged and declared cancer-free. But I wondered why I didn’t feel free from cancer. Curious by nature and a lover of learning, I had a deeply rooted belief that there was a better way to recover from cancer…I just had to find it. Read more>>
Danae Anderson
My sister and I were raised by my father, a UC Berkeley Professor of physics and my mother, a WWll refugee.My mother’s traumatic and dangerous escape during the Nazi invasion of Greece caused her a lifetime of mental instability. When I was 7 years old, she experienced a profound nervous breakdown, receiving therapy of electric shock and islolation during her lengthy hospital stay. This childhood experience caused me to rapidly grow up, becoming my mother’s primary caretaker once she returned home. My child brain could only understand that I caused her trauma and so I struggled with self love for decades. In truth, my mother’s mental illness and the harsh bullying I received in elementary school gave me the gift of resilience. I had to find ways to preservere on my own. Read more>>
Susan Davis
From an early age, I learned the value of resilience in the face of adversity. Growing up between the structured, bustling life in Oak Park, Illinois, and the rugged, off-the-grid camp in the woods taught me how to adapt to two very different worlds. In the city, I navigated life with three brothers, one of whom seemed determined to make me tougher. But it was the camp, surrounded by nature’s raw beauty and challenges, that truly built my resilience. Without electricity or running water, I learned how to hunt, fish, start a fire, and find my way under the North Star. I experienced firsthand what it meant to survive and thrive, regardless of my surroundings. Read more>>
Taylor Leal
Resilience is a trait that I think that just has always been apart of me. I had many struggles as a kid, from growing up in a rough area in Philly to an abusive household that I ended up being removed from at 12 years old. To me, I knew how much the odds were stacked against me coming out. The juvenile system in Pennsylvania can be very unforgiving, especially for a kid from Philly. To not escape the system, to not achieve my dreams, was failure. Read more>>
Ifrah Akram
My resilience shines through my personal journey and my unshakable belief in the magic of joy. When my son was diagnosed with Autism, it changed my perspective on life, inspiring me to face challenges with creativity and determination. During the pandemic, in the midst of uncertainty and hardship, I discovered a way to channel my strength and purpose into Wowlloons. The dream of spreading happiness through balloons became my guiding light, turning life’s obstacles into opportunities to create smiles and unforgettable memories. Read more>>
Carlos Evans
I’ve been in the music business for 30 plus years. Thats a dedicated way of life. With everything in life, there are lessons, rewards and defeats. From all of those experiences, good or bad, the hunger to continue never leaves because of the passion I’ve developed. The knowing that there’s still yet more to give and accomplish, along with the everyday challenges of life which we all maneuver through, creates balance which is a key factor in fostering an attribute such as resilience. Sometimes swift and sometimes difficult, I’ve balanced. Keeping a sharp eye and integrity on the burning desire to be that music exec/producer, to be that father, to be that son, to be that brother, to be that partner gives birth to resilience. Adversity is a part of life. One of my favorite quotes, ” The greatest glory in living, lies not in never falling, but in rising everytime we fall” Nelson Mandela. Read more>>
Joe Wilson
If I’m being absolutely transparent, I have no idea where my resilience comes from. I’ve been through a lot in my adult years, having a child survive cancer, battling ptsd and mental illness and going back into magic later in life, I don’t know how I got here. Ive had strong role models who were all good at one thing or another who have taught me along the may to live they way I want to live, and to keep pushing and trying. Read more>>
Meg Gluth
My resilience comes from the teachers I never asked for and the lessons I would have chosen to skip. There’s a spiritual principle I hold close: every experience is a teacher. It’s easy to thank the gentle ones—the moments that lift us, inspire us and make us feel unstoppable. But we don’t have to stop at leaving an apple on the nice teacher’s desk with a smile. Life’s calling us to be bold—to dig in, get curious, and learn from the unexpected. The real growth happens when we take on those tough lessons from unlikely sources. Life is ready and waiting to test us, toughen us up, and make us sharper than we ever thought possible. Read more>>
Marta Brankovich
I believe I have inherited my resilience from my mother. I was raised in a conservative Eastern European household with strong family values and great education. However, early in my life, I have realized that being a classical concert pianist will take a lot of resilience. I had to make some Bold moves, moving to different countries, traveling a lot as a teenager alone, knocking on an unknown doors, and constantly proving myself until I make it. In our world, we believe you made it Once you became a recording label artist and that happened to me in 2016 in United States. I have become labeled artist for three Sister production companies and very shortly after I have received numerous reviews for my first album Black Swan Of Piano. Read more>>
Beth Henshaw
I have gained a lot of resilience from spending time outside in the backcountry. After walking through cold rain, mud, and snow for two weeks, small comforts feel grand and little annoyances feel manageable. The wilderness pushes me to accept whatever reality is front of me and carry on or find a creative solution. I’m grateful for the confidence I’ve gained from spending years working and living in the backcountry. Read more>>
Kapital Stone
As a youngster growing up in Portmore, Jamaica with a single mother you tend to go through certain things that teach you a lot from an early age. Resilience is definitely something I picked up from watching my mother take care of me and my siblings on her own. I give thanks for those days because they definitely gave me the thick skin I need to navigate this realm. Read more>>
Laura Benocci
A few years ago, I don’t think I would have described myself as a resilient person.
But just exactly four years ago, I visited New York and had this incredibly clear and inexplicable feeling that I had to move here. To make that happen, I needed a plan and the determination to stick to it because it was going to be a lot of work. Over the following months, I made countless changes in my life—personally, in my career, and in all my life choices. I didn’t want to have a Plan B. This also meant overcoming my imposter syndrome and embracing myself as an independent creative director. Read more>>
Stephen Ho
I believe myself to be a resilient person and that comes from life experiences, particularly during my time in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme, or JET Programme. I was living in Japan when the March 11, 2001 Great East Japan Earthquake happened and it was an incredibly chaotic time: trains were shut down, gasoline and kerosene were being sent to the hardest hit areas, there was a food shortage, rolling blackouts because the power grid was being overtaxed from losing Fukushima Daiichi and other power plants, etc. Read more>>
Leilani Garcia
Such a good question. My whole life I have persevered and only in the last three years after a difficult divorce did I ask myself that question. What feeds my resilience? What’s the driving force behind my lust for truth, self-love, self-discovery and empowerment? Read more>>
Zahrah Sita
I have had a very strong drive to overcome all the challenges in my life. I have a lot of willpower and determination to accomplish my goals and to find the solutions necessary to succeed. I was in training for dance most of my childhood. Later I became involved with yoga. I do feel that these practices helped me develop a lot of personal discipline and the ability to stay committed to my goals. Read more>>
Veronica Jarboe
That’s a great question! Personally, I’ve never given myself a choice not to be resilient. The alternative means stagnation and I’ve always felt that I owe it to myself to push through anything that comes my way. It would feel like a personal disservice if I allowed myself to break down in rough situations. I started dancing ballet at three years old and grew up training and dancing with the Sacramento Ballet, so that established a kind of resilience from an early age. Read more>>
Chase Corbin
My resilience came from having a verbally and physically abusive mother while living in a poverty stricken neighborhood. I wanted more out of life at a very young age and I was determined to do something different other than the things that I seen everyday while growing up. Read more>>
Maricel Hecimovich
I have jumped many timelines just in this lifetime alone, and from a very young age, I learned to become self-sufficient in a dysfunctional family dynamic that God assigned for me. Since then, my life has not followed a linear path with its many twists and turns, especially when it came to love. Love is the source of my resilience. I have searched this mystery ever since I was a little girl. I involved myself in all the wrong relationships for a deep desire to be seen and wanted. After so many heartbreaks and breakdowns, I found that love has always been within me, and those pains were self-inflicted. Read more>>
Isaac Odeniran
I learnt over the years that there is always a way out of every problem. Whether they be financial, health, legal, business or whatever the problem may be I have always seen issues come and go. One minute there is a problem the next the issue is resolved and another problem crops up, That leads me to believe that this too shall pass. I learnt that for our own sakes we need to do the right thing. Failing to do the right thing will catch up with you in the future. Do the right thing and do the best you can do. I learnt also that even when you do your best and do the right thing, things still go wrong but at least this will not be due to your failure or lack of action. Read more>>
Kristy Katalina Gomez
I think my resiliency comes from having faith in me! I have faith in God’s plan. I battle myself more than ever, but I learn to let go of the ego as I get older. I just want to follow my dream more. Yes I struggle with ptsd from my childhood and from recent bad relationships, however I choose to give myself another chance after fighting my own demons. I learned to give it to the King himself. The Big Dawg. God. I am not religious. I am spiritual. I am who he is. I am connected and he speaks to you in energy and frequency. He shows you and teaches you. I feel it’s all about your heart. Love is the biggest frequency. Love for all of us. Read more>>
Marcia Raybuck
I think my resilience came from my parents. My dad was determined to become an entrepreneur at a young age and turned down repeated well paying jobs and even a business being handed to him from my grandfather so he could make it on his own. He had some ups and downs, but he made it with a lot of help and support from my hard working mom! Read more>>
Celena Rubin
My grandmother used to mention that we come from a family of survivors. I wonder if part of our survival instincts come from inherited generational survival instincts. My grandfather immigrated from a hard life of poverty in Eastern Europe and traveled through many countries to make his way to America and finally to Hollywood where he went from having nothing to a large factory of fashionable faux fur coats that celebrities in Hollywood wore. He was the first to use this fabric for clothing. My grandmother also grew up in absolute poverty. Her grandmother was killed in the Holocaust in Poland and her mother was sold for a cow. Read more>>
Jen Dayton
My resilience stems from a lifetime of facing challenges head-on, beginning with one significant struggle early in my life: I had difficulty in school due to a learning disability that went unidentified for many years. I often felt inadequate academically, and this took a toll on my confidence. During my adolescence and early adulthood, I thought success was meant for others, not realizing that my struggles were fostering a different kind of strength within me. Read more>>
