Strength Through Adversity
How do we react post getting screwed over?
Hey Everyone!
I woke up last week and opened up my phone to social media posts of a large grand opening event for this new business in Salt Lake.
Although I can’t go into much detail out of courtesy to everyone involved it was a difficult thing to wake up to. This particular project I had been working on in a few different ways. First, I had identified a location, building, and negotiated terms for this business to operate in this space. Facilitating and organizing probably about 65% of the work involved on the real estate side. Second, I was in deep talks to be involved on the ownership side of this business as well as a partner.
After a few months of efforts and work on this project, I learned that I was cut out of the deal on both fronts. It wasn’t as dramatic as when Eduardo realizes his shares have been diluted in David Fincher’s “The Social Network”, but it still hurt.
I'm Coming Back For Everything | The Social Network
I wasn’t entirely sure why the guy I had been collaborating with decided to do something else partnership wise. I didn’t really receive a reason and communication just stopped entirely. I even reached out about 6 months ago to check in with how everything was going and if I could help in anyway. He went on and on about this amazing location and how great the business was going to do. I asked where the location was (as I was under the impression the one I had identified hadn’t worked out which is why I had gotten ghosted) and he told me exactly where it was. THE SAME EXACT LOCATION I had done all the work on. I said “oh the same spot we were working on then.” And he responded “ohh, yeah that’s right..”
That was what the most hurtful thing was. He had no clue that the building was the one I had done all of the work on. That is how irrelevant and unimportant myself and my contributions had been in his eyes. I imagine this is how my wife feels when she works and does all the dishes and I don’t even notice.
From this I had 2 thoughts although one wasn’t my own it was that of a friend. He said “it’s interesting how many incredibly successful people have had to go through really difficult things”. This is absolutely true, but I’d like to tweak that a bit. Everyone has really difficult things arise it is an inevitable thing that’s promised with life. However, I’ve never met or heard of anyone who has achieved self made success that hasn’t had to go through incredibly difficult trials, AND used it as fuel for their next endeavor. A common trait that I’ve recognized is the ability to go from one disaster to another and not let it destroy you. Winston Churchill put it more eloquently when he said “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
Let us take the great Walt Disney as a prime example. Here is a short sample from an article that talks about when Walt worked at a local newspaper in Kansas:
“He was once fired from his job at a newspaper because his editor believed he lacked creativity. However, Disney refused to let this setback define him. Instead, he used it as motivation to prove his creative abilities to the world.”
Another example is that of Steve Jobs. He was ousted as CEO of Apple, the company that he founded! He was away from the company for 14 years before returning again as CEO and innovating amazing technologies such as the iPod, iPhone, and The MacBook. During this time away from Apple he helped make Pixar the company that we all know of today.
Now yes I do think it is ridiculous for me to compare getting cut out of one deal to Walt Disney being fired from his job or Steve Jobs from his own company. I understand that it really isn’t that big of a deal and it's to be expected in my line of work. However, it still hurt. Perhaps this is due to my Pisces emotions, but I think that is okay for it to hurt. Adversity will always hit, nobody is exempt successful or not. I think that how we respond after difficult times has the biggest impact on where we will end up. As we’ve seen with Walt Disney and Steve Jobs. How do we act after receiving bad news or facing adversity? That is what I believe defines us and reflects on what we can accomplish far more than whether or not adversity will come.