Building a company is a long and arduous journey. It’s a process of trial and error—and the error parts can be unnerving and outright scary. Entrepreneurs who achieve any level of success have almost certainly lived through moments when the survival of their venture was at stake, and those moments tend to arrive with no warning and no mercy.
Oddly enough, these crises are not just common—they’re often necessary. They act as forcing functions that make the entrepreneur access resources that would otherwise remain untapped. When comfort disappears, you find out what you can really do.
When Survival Forces a Breakthrough
A classic example is Steve Jobs’ return to Apple, when the company was losing a billion dollars a quarter. He had to cut costs, eliminate product lines, launch the iMac, redesign the brand, cut a deal with arch-rival Bill Gates, replace the board, reprice staff options, and hire new management—all within a couple of months to keep the company solvent.
Elon Musk is another case study. According to Walter Isaacson’s biography, Musk appointed himself head of production and slept under his desk in Tesla’s Fremont factory for three months to hit a production target and save the company. He did something similar at SpaceX, when it was one unsuccessful rocket launch away from going under.
My Own “Dig Deep” Moments
I experienced similar moments with my investment banking firm, MB Partners, at least three times. First, we had to pivot overnight to a new business line—M&A—which none of us had any direct experience in. The second time, during the 2008 financial crisis, all six of our pending business sales collapsed, and I had to halve our costs overnight to save the business. A third time, we had a cash crunch that forced us to attempt an extreme process redesign. That redesign not only solved our liquidity issues but also turned into a sustained competitive advantage going forward.
Resilience Shows Up Everywhere
This phenomenon happens in sports too—when Carlos Alcaraz saves three match points and then breaks back and wins a tiebreak in a French Open final. Or when Tom Brady throws three touchdown passes in the final eight minutes of the 2017 Super Bowl to lead the Patriots to victory. The ability to dig deep is also called resilience, and it’s the ticket to extraordinary success in almost any field. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
Surviving critical events makes the survivor feel invincible and often spurs them to attempt ever riskier or bigger challenges. Human potential is immense, and most of us tap only a fraction of our abilities—until circumstances force us to reach deeper.
Resilience Is a Muscle You Can Train
Facing and delivering on a difficult deadline is a universal experience. If you only have three minutes to write a test essay, you’ll produce something you didn’t know was in you. That’s the point: resilience is a muscle, and you can exercise it by putting yourself in uncomfortable situations. The more often—and the more uncomfortable—you’re willing to be, the higher your chances of achieving extraordinary results over time.
Public speaking is a great example. It’s super scary the first time, but it becomes second nature with repetition. The fear doesn’t disappear because you got “braver”—it fades because you trained the muscle.
Get Out of Your Comfort Zone—Without Burning Out
So get out of your comfort zone. Put yourself in harm’s way by taking on tough deadlines and committing to stretch projects. Just be smart about it: take breaks and manage your energy, because constant stress will burn you out and take you out of the game.
If you want more resilience stories like these—along with a practical operating framework—read Strategy OS: Implement an Advanced Business Operating System in Six Simple Steps.
