Turn Your Setbacks into Opportunities

In the high-pressure world of business and finance, it can be easy to get overwhelmed when something goes wrong and expectations are not met. There may be so much time, money and planning invested in reaching a predetermined goal that you may not see any way out if you fall short, and you may even be tempted to throw in the towel altogether.

Finding one’s self back at square one can be daunting for anyone, but the main obstacle will be your own mindset and how you deal with adversity. If you can take whatever life throws at you and move forward and up, it will be the difference between a complete disaster and a mere setback.

Take a quick glance back at the stories of history’s greatest successes and there is one commonality they share: many of them suffered, at least, one major setback to their business and/or life that would have crushed someone who didn’t have a resilient mindset. You can also find many instances where something that was initially considered a setback actually set a new course of action into place and brought on success well beyond what was thought to be possible.

Your mindset in business is just like driving a car. If you find yourself on a dead-end street and tell yourself there is nowhere to go and don’t try to find any way out, then you’ll sit there until the wheels rust off.  On the other hand, if you are proactive, creative (and sometimes prayerful too), you will find your way back to the freeway and on to a better destination.

Here are some tips to make sure you are in the right mindset to tackle setbacks and turn them into greenbacks.

Stop commiserating!

It’s great to identify a problem, but you have to move beyond that and do something about it. If your house was on fire, it wouldn’t do much good to sit there watching while you talk about it burning down; you’d need to spring into action. The same thing applies to setbacks in business. You can commiserate about the darkness you find yourself in or you can bring light to the situation and do something about it. The choice is yours.

Don’t let your pride poison your prosperity

Sometimes any job is better than none at all. When you find yourself in a position that you feel is less than ideal, it should be considered a jumping off point. You don’t have to stay there forever, but you will be better off taking work that you don’t like than not working at all.

Some people feel that some work is beneath them, and it would bring a stigma to them if people knew they were doing supposedly “demeaning” work, yet they are struggling to pay their bills. That Armani suit won’t help you much when you’re put out on the street. Stop trying to put up a façade of success and get real.

Any work that is moral and legal is honorable.

Stop waiting for your ship to come in

Opportunities are literally all around you, but they rarely come looking for you. You have to go grab them. Whether you are trying to be the next great entrepreneur or pounding the pavement seeking more traditional employment, don’t let the first (or even first 100) “NO”s stop you.

Your success is out there. Be prepared, be determined and be creative and you will find it. Remember, financial success is a choice that you must make, not a chance that you sit and wait around for.

Network

The path to your success may come from somewhere completely unexpected. Whatever it is that you’re looking for, drop the word with everyone you talk to. The world is getting smaller every day and you never know just how far your words can spread once you’ve spoken them. Maybe your neighbor has an uncle who wants to hire someone with your particular skills. You never know.

Don’t just look for a job. Make a job!

More than any funding, material, or clientele, the most essential beginning for business is a great idea. Instead of asking for a job, the source of your success might just be yourself. Think outside the box. There is a niche that is perfectly suited for you to fill. Find a problem to solve for people and you’ll be in business for years to come.

Think big

Stretch your financial goals further than you think you can take them. This puts you in the right frame of mind to make more money by expanding your horizons and being ready to do bigger and better.

Speak positivity into your finances

Even when things are not going well financially, you must speak positivity into your life because your language has a direct impact on your mindset and on the way life will respond to your situation. For instance, never say, “I am poor.”  Instead, say, “I am wealthy; I do occasionally have some cash flow challenges, but they are always temporary.”  What you speak is what you attract.

You haven’t tried everything

When faced with a challenging financial time, people will say, “I’ve tried everything.” When I ask them if they have tried this or that, typically they will say, “No, I never thought about that.”  Grab a pen and paper and list all the ways you can make more money or get out of debt. After you have exhausted your own thinking, ask other people in your network.

There are a million ways to make a million dollars. Look at other successes and see if there is anything you can pick up from them. Instead of being a competitor, maybe you can start a business that compliments an already successful corporation and fulfills a need they have. The list goes on. Trust me, you haven’t thought of everything.

The takeaway

Adversity hits all of us at some point, but no matter what the circumstances are or how bad things seem, it can get better if you have the right mindset. Never give up. Be proactive, creative, and prayerful. Resilience, innovation and success go hand in hand. Square one is just the first step on a new path.

Dr. Willie Jolley is the author of Turn Setbacks into Greenbacks and is the host of The Willie Jolley Weekend Show on Sirius XM. He is known as “America’s Comeback King.”  http://williejolley.com/