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.
Donishia George
I’d attribute my resilience to my unwavering faith in God. Throughout my life, I’ve faced numerous hardships, including rejection from friends, family, relationships, and even strangers. I’ve been met with “no” on multiple occasions. Yet, it’s precisely in those moments of adversity that I’ve learned to lean on my faith.
Trusting in God’s guidance and provision has been my constant source of strength. Whenever I’ve felt defeated or denied, I’ve chosen to put my trust in God, and that’s when I’ve experienced a renewed sense of purpose and victory and magical things will start to happen . It’s as if God surprises me with an even greater blessing or opportunity, one that surpasses what I initially desired. Read more>>
Whitney Bennett
I would say my resilience comes from a combination of a strong support system and a lifetime of overcoming chronic pain. When I was 16 and playing sports, I discovered that several of my discs in my lower back were in pretty bad shape. This is where my chronic pain journey began; my back pain seemed to always play a roll in everything I did. In my adult life, when I found weightlifting, I was able to keep my pain minimal for a decade, that is until I suffered a debilitating injury while training for a competition. This injury ended competitive weightlifting and almost every other physical activity for me. I became depressed and my health was on a steady decline. After a few years passed, when I decided to open my shop, I began doing some physical activity and sought out medical interventions I hadn’t pursued before – I was determined to stop living a life of pain. That is when, a week after opening my storefront, I suffered nerve damage from an epidural in my spine, ultimately sending me to the emergency room where I then had to undergo emergency back surgery. Read more>>
JEDA VOICE
All my resilience comes from past failures and rejections. I had to find out how to recover from rejection. Pain is something that for me has made me overcome tough aspirations. It gave me the edge I needed to be resilient towards any cause. Read more>>
Raul Touzon
The three “Ps” Patience, Passion and Perseverance. I always wanted to be a National Geographic Photographer and I never gave up. The same concept applies when you are out in the field shooting, you MUST be extremely resilient and never walk away from the opportunity evolving in front of you. For me it has always been the philosophy to shoot and live by. Read more>>
Jonathan Harris
My resilience? It’s pure Wanda Wilkinson energy—my grandmother’s legacy. She taught me early: never let the world dictate your limits. “Set your goals, put your energy behind them, and watch what’s possible,” she’d say. Her belief in a limitless world shaped how I’ve run my business for the past 20 years.
Then there’s Lucille Harris, my other powerhouse grandmother, who showed me the beauty of self-employment and the freedom it brings. She instilled in me a truth I live by: hard work will always outshine talent—especially when the talented don’t hustle. As a proud grandma’s boy, I learned to master both. Their wisdom? That’s my foundation, my fire, my edge. Read more>>
