Adversity and Optimism

Thinking back on the things that we have done this week, I’m struck by a couple key things; number one is the ability to come out of and learn important lessons from adversity; number two is the ability to be optimistic. I think these two principles correlate very well and so let’s explore them a little bit.

This week I wrote a report on Steve Jobs and the difficulty that he faced in his career. Many people don’t know much about his professional trials since he started an incredibly successful company at the age of 21. But in 1985 after spending over a decade of building Apple, he was asked to leave. I honestly don’t know how I would deal with being fired by the CEO that I personally courted and hired as well as the board of directors that was full of my personal mentors. What a hit that must have been. But he learned from it and later identified it as one of the most necessary and important points in his life. He became more creative and more entrepreneurial. The things that he learned would prove invaluable when he returned to Apple in 1997. He would go on to build apple into a tech juggernaut that is currently the most valuable company in the world by market cap. I hope that I can always remember to keep a proper perspective and learn as much as possible from my adversity.

Along those same lines, our Acton hero this week was Tom Nall and one of his key points in the video was being able to be optimistic. He said, “I’m a lot like the guy that jumped off the Empire State Building. About half-way down he said, ‘so far so good!’” I was excited to hear him talk like that about optimism because I often think I may be too optimistic and am not thinking rationally. But I now see that the ability to be optimistic might just be the key to learning from adversity. If you are wallowing in sorrow over some happening in your life, you likely aren’t open to learning from the situation. I think that fostering my optimism will only bring the ability to better handle trials as opposed to creating weakness.

And…drum roll please…the $100 challenge is over.  Boy was it a learning experience. In the end, literally on last Saturday night, I met with a guy who owns some driving schools who was looking for email help. We chatted for quite a while and I gave him some initial pointers, for which he paid me. He implemented these now we are waiting to see how things go. With the changes we made, I’m confident that he will be very pleased with the results. So, all told, I made my $100 profit and had one very scary, very educational, entrepreneurial experience.