“Baseline, we are all resilient. But there are certain genetic factors that do play into an individual’s resiliency. And, there are significant learned factors as well. There are many factors that play into resilience but I want people to remember that you can improve your resiliency and feel stronger in your mind and in your body and trust yourself more.”
Entrepreneurship is a world of opportunity, of brilliance, of hard work. It is also a world of loneliness, of sacrifice and of deep challenge and we must include these experiences in our conversations about entrepreneurship. How can entrepreneurs recognize and utilize their resilience?
In October, our Startup Women Podcast host Kayla Isabelle sat down with Komal Minhas, Founder of Karseva and Elaisha Jade, Founder of Your Mindful.
What advice would you give to other who are experience the heavy and hard emotional journey of building a business and who might be navigating the gut-wrenching moments through transformation and chasing their dreams as business owners?
Komal Minhas: I think something that we often do as an injustice to new founders and folks who are early in their startup journey is not being honest about how hard this is. When we look at rates of depression and suicide in the founder community, it is disproportionately higher than in the general public. When we look at the isolation and loneliness that founders experience and those in the startup state space experience, it is immense. And when we don’t talk about it, it makes this journey seem very different than what it actually is, it is a very complicated and complex thing to choose to go into business and I think as middle millennials, especially with the insecurity in the job market, it is something that was so glamorized for so long. But when we look at the main reason that a lot of women pursue entrepreneurship, it’s because the traditional workforce doesn’t work for us, when it comes to paid time off, when it comes to maternity leave, the list goes on. The dark underbelly of entrepreneurship is not something that we talk about enough. And so what’s the upside of that, if we choose this path, and if we choose that this is what’s best for us and right for us, then we need to be able to stomach the highs and the lows, we need to be able to find that through line for ourselves, that is going to make this journey worthwhile, impactful, profitable. so yes, entrepreneurship can be heartbreaking just like any other endeavour. It’s filled with failure. It’s filled with difficulty filled with all these hurdles. But with the right support systems with communities like startup Canada, with government supports through grants and funding through finding product market fit through all of these ups and downs that come and leaning on the people in our lives and not isolating ourselves, it can also be a wildly rewarding journey.
What supports are working for folks, whether they are entrepreneurs or professionals in the workforce?
Elaisha Jade: Leaders need to take change with compassion. This is something I teach in my workshops, and it is that sympathy is understanding or seeing without action. Empathy is absorbing that trauma, but compassion is actually doing something about it.
Komal Minhas: I really like that differentiation between empathy and compassion, and compassionate action. The other side of that is to enable employees to protect themselves because to be a realist, we cannot rely on the compassion of so many of these leaders out here. And so what does protecting yourself as an employee look like or as a co-founder look like? How are you negotiating your severance? How are you negotiating your exit, even before you start your job?
What role does celebration play when it comes to building resilience? What can we learn about recognizing and owning our accomplishments?
Elaisha Jade: a lot of times many people do not associate meditation and mindfulness with celebration, because we think of celebration is hype and exciting and fun. But meditation can be dance. Meditation can be journaling, it can be yoga, it can be walking, it can be doing so many things. And as long as it’s done mindfully. Recently to celebrate, I bought myself my favourite cake. I bought it and said to myself, wow you have done so many amazing things lately. Have your cake, enjoy yourself.
Komal Minhas: We must recognize our accomplishments. Research shows us that this is actually one of the baseline ways to build that self efficacy that I talked about earlier, we have to look at our own experiences and make that inventory list.
Want to continue learning from Komal and Elaisha? Listen to the full episode to learn about self efficacy, celebrating your wins, showering yourself in your accomplishments and flexing your resiliency muscle to continue chasing your dreams.