Where do you get your resilience from?

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.

Kangan Sacheti

I get my resilience from the strong willed and minded women in my family and their husbands who always stood by them, come what may, and helped each other achieve all that they want or wanted in their lives. My grandmother was one of the strongest people in my life, I never saw her give up on anything easily, never saw her tired or burnout of emotions or the weight that was having a career and raising a family, which as we all know is the most demanding kind of lifestyle. She was truly a fearless woman, and my reason and inspiration to crochet.
The other woman in my life who inspires me everyday is my mother, the woman who studied for competitive financial exams and many more during her forties and developed her career through all of her own efforts and dedication. Exactly how many people can say that “I saw my parent(s) passionately following their dreams and desires, for their career, in front of my eyes. She went from being a housewife to a full-time finance bro, while handling a child and a house. Read more>>

Jennifer M. Lane

Resilience, for me, is the equal and opposite reaction to rejection. You can’t have one without the other. Authors face a great deal of rejection, so resiliency is the natural result, but it rarely arrives smoothly. It’s a tsunami of emotions that can be hard to pin down. One of the early antidotes that helped me develop a thick skin was the realization that rejection wasn’t the pain point. It was the feeling of shame that came with it. Read more>>

Amy Parker

In 2019 I nearly died after a paragliding accident. I fell about 60 feet and broke many bones. I was in the hospital for 5 months and had to relearn how to walk and use my body again. At the time of my accident was daughter was only three months old, so I was also fighting to recover to be able to care for her independently again. Over the next year I was able to walk again, take care of my daughter and get back to work. Read more>>

Amy Parker

In 2019 I nearly died after a paragliding accident. I fell about 60 feet and broke many bones. I was in the hospital for 5 months and had to relearn how to walk and use my body again. At the time of my accident was daughter was only three months old, so I was also fighting to recover to be able to care for her independently again. Over the next year I was able to walk again, take care of my daughter and get back to work. Read more>>

Marketta Moore

My resilience comes from a lifetime of experiences, but my time in the military shaped it in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Serving for 22 years taught me how to navigate the unpredictable and adapt when control was out of reach. Resilience wasn’t a choice—it was a way of life.

As a military nurse, I had to juggle the demands of patient care with the responsibilities of managing my career, all while showing up as a wife and mom. It was never easy. The uncertainty and constant change that came with the military lifestyle pushed me to my limits, but it also made me stronger. I learned how to persevere, stay calm in the storm, and lead with clarity and compassion. Every challenge strengthened my resolve and helped me develop a deep sense of purpose, adaptability, and grit. Those lessons are the foundation of the resilience I carry with me today. Read more>>

Gaia Speaks

Resilience comes from doing the hard things everyday. It’s a daily mindset.

Once I decided to put my all into my passions and dreams, I feel like I have no choice but to execute all of my ideas and plans. It’s an itch that I get for every single project. Showing up everyday gets rid of the quiet anxieties and doubts that arise in me throughout the day. I don’t think about building a house, rather, I wake up and just complete the structure for the flooring.

Resilience requires to push through overthinking and being small. Once I made the decision that I didn’t want to be in the way of my own dreams, that’s when I was tested the most in how much I really wanted it. Everyday, the tests will be different, and it will feel like there’s a force so strong that wants nothing but to see you fail. Even in that moment, that’s when you grow stronger in your character to finally overcome the mental force that’s been keeping you from this next stage of your life. Breaking new levels became addictive to me, and now I challenge myself even greater to build even more resilience. Read more>>

Enoel Harrington

I get my resilience from all of my life experiences, including being a survivor of domestic violence, a teenage mother, a high school, dropout, latchkey kid, and a person struggling with obesity.. Quitting is not an option and I watched my mother work hard and never give up. I always look at the overall picture of whatever situation I am in and I go to God to seek answers. It hasn’t always been that way, but that is where I am with it today. Read more>>

Kimberly Salinas Silva

I got my resilience from growing up with a schizophrenic mother and a depressed father. Encountering their divorce when I was 7 or 8. Neither of them were able to foster any kind of intentional resilience in me. On the contrary, I would say the novels, films and self help books I read as a teenager enabled me to discover other worlds. Through empathic means I was able to see myself differently, someone of sensitivity and understanding and strength. The women’s liberation movement was going strong in the late 70’s, though living in small town Louisiana did not offer many opportunities to express who I was becoming. I became frustrated and depressed over others’ seeming inability to mirror my thoughts, feelings, and actions. But I knew I was an artist, I felt I was somehow special, someone who would persevere and continue making my art no matter what. Read more>>

Jennifer Demling Cebe

I define resilience as the ability to adapt and thrive after challenging life experiences. As a person who has experienced not only professional challenges as a doctoral level psychologist, but also profound personal loss in the form of a close friend who committed suicide, the death of my only sibling from a terminal illness, and ultimately the death of both my parents from cancer, I can safely say that my resilience comes from meaningful social connections, spirituality, mental flexibility , and optimism. I could never have made it through some of those challenges without the love of support of others who allowed me to grieve and struggle, but also reminded me that love still lived in the world and I could be the best version of myself even though my emotional landscape had significantly changed. Our brains are wired for deep human connection and if we can open ourselves to the power of those connections, especially when we are vulnerable, those relationships can provide the strength and mental flexibiltiy we need to adapt and grow. Read more>>

Jesse Messer

My life hasn’t been easy. I’ve spent 17 years incarcerated, between jail and prison. I began using drugs at 14, and they almost destroyed my life. For a long time, I felt like my life was over, convinced I would be a drug addict forever and never amount to anything. Growing up, I was the kind of person who never finished what I started. I had ideas and plans, but I never followed through. I came from a loving family and a good home, but somewhere along the way, I lost myself. They say gemstones are made under intense pressure, and I feel that’s what happened to me. The way I lived, through drugs and crime, and the painful consequences that followed, pushed me to my limits. Losing everything over and over again only made me stronger, and with each loss, I learned more. The experiences I’ve gone through can’t be taught—they have to be lived to be truly understood. That’s where I believe my resilience comes from. Read more>>

Dennis Hunter

Resilience has been a constant thread in my life, deeply ingrained by the role models I was fortunate to have. Growing up, my single mother faced numerous health challenges while we battled extreme poverty. Despite these hardships, she never gave up or gave in. She had an unyielding determination to achieve whatever she set her sights on. Even when doors closed, she pushed forward until she found a way to open them. Her strength and tenacity were a daily lesson in perseverance, teaching me that setbacks are merely stepping stones to success. Read more>>

Valkyrie Yao

When I was young, I left home and had to navigate life on my own. There were moments where bullying and unfairness threatened to break me, but they also taught me the importance of self-reliance. In those moments, I realized that I could either allow these experiences to define me or use them as fuel to rise above. Read more>>

Shantel Yaghoobian

As a first-generation Iranian American and the first lawyer in my family, my journey has been fueled by a determination to show that anything is possible. I entered law school at just 20 years old, driven by the belief that the law is a vital tool for helping those who can’t advocate for themselves. The mental challenges of law school excited me, and I eagerly embraced every opportunity to grow.

However, I quickly realized that many of my classmates had significant life experience and prior work at law firms, which made me feel at a disadvantage. This sense of imposter syndrome often crept in, leading me to question whether my voice would be taken seriously as one of the youngest in my class. Yet, these challenges became pivotal moments of growth. I learned to view them as opportunities to prove to myself that I could overcome obstacles and break through any perceived ceilings and self-imposed limitations. Read more>>

Andrew Collins

Well im from Galveston Texas I always had a passion for music and to be on tv I’m focused on creating generational wealth for my family. it hasn’t always been as easy as it seems I had to take 4 years off to take care of my mother after two back surgeries and I feel like that right there gave me more motivation to keep going right now at the moment I’m in viral 20vs2s pop the balloon shows on YouTube and I’m streaming on all digital platforms while working on my merchandise also. Read more>>

Brittany Glover

I believe my resilience stems from the strong, supportive women who raised me—my mother and my grandmother. Growing up in a single-parent household, I watched my mom work tirelessly to provide for me while always encouraging my artistic journey from the very beginning. She saw something in me and made sure I had the freedom and confidence to explore it. Her unwavering belief in my talent taught me that hard work and passion can coexist, even in the face of challenges. Read more>>

Brice Gatewood

I truly believe that my resilience came solely from my upbringing. I grew up in Memphis it’s a tough blue collar city for sure it reflects my ability to bounce back. Being raised there it taught me to always work as hard as you can and everything else will fall in place. Even if you’re down, consistently will always take you wherever you wish to go. Read more>>

Jeana Magallón

My resilience comes not just from my own life experience but from that of my ancestors. Resilience is coded into my DNA from a long line of survivors, innovators, and optimists. My great grandmother came to this country from Mexico with no money, having had multiple children before the age of sixteen, and with no education other than her own survival methods, and yet she held her head proud. She became a vital healer in her community upon her arrival in Houston. A respected curandera, my great grandmother Beatrice Rodriguez used the one thing that never harmed her, the earth itself, to make a life for herself and her family. She passed this skill down to my grandmother, Frances, who raised twelve children despite her chronic pain, and to my father, Joe, who worked day and night at thankless jobs to provide his daughter the opportunity to pursue a life in the Theater. Beatrice also passed this resilience down to me, though it took me a long time to find it. I always felt disconnected from my roots.  Read more>>

As far as resiliency goes, I would say that I learned it from ignoring those who told me I couldn’t be an artist and be successful at it. Also, being a single mom, working full time, and building my business from the ground up definitely reinforces resiliency. Read more>>

Kevin Hamilton

My resilience in opening and operating businesses comes from a place that may seem odd but I would have to say skateboarding. It’s a sport where there is no coach, no structure and no rules. To progress, you have to learn to be self-sufficient. You may try a trick 1,000 times and it often hurts when you don’t make it. You have to rely on your own will and desire to learn the trick and each failure just brings you that much closer to learning the right way.

When you start a business there are similarities to learning a new trick. Certainly there are laws and regulations but a lot of it is the willingness to try, to learn and sometimes, to fail. There’s really no guidebook and you often find yourself on an “island” with no one directing you towards the right decision. As a kid, skateboarding taught me this simple rule that if you want to learn something, you just need to absorb all of the relevant information you can and ultimately, just try to do it and don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t work the first time (or even the 10th time). Read more>>