By Younas Chaudhary
On a bone chilling December evening in 1973, I stood on the corner of 109th Street and Jasper Avenue in Edmonton, Canada, wishing I could hitch a ride home. Commuters were suffering through the city’s first winter bus strike. I had just arrived from Pakistan and the bus strike in this alien land made my life miserable.
I could hardly feel my fingers each time the chilling wind came across the railway tracks, close to that busy intersection. That chilling cold evening made me scream in pain and I felt returning to Pakistan was a better option! Finally, someone gave me a ride but for two days my knuckles were partially numb. But, deep inside me there was this resilience, a willpower, not to give up.
Resilience is inside all of us. It is that grit that prompts us to get back on our feet after a failure, an inner power that makes us rebound, each time and every time. Unfortunately, a lot of us haven’t developed resilience and give up easily either due to fear or laziness.
We become resilient as we learn to adapt and face life’s adversities with boldness. A lot of my resilience came from my younger days, having grown up around simple villagers. If I told you that roosters taught me resilience, you would think I am joking. In our remote village in Pakistan, resilient roosters woke me up at around 5 am every morning, a habit that I have to this day. I woke up with roosters who never failed, never gave excuses, and nurtured consistency and resilience in me every single day.
My heroes growing up were ordinary villagers like Fazli, an older shepherd from Greek background, who landed in our village in the early fifties. He was a resilient person because he had so much inner strength, was meticulous and knew everything a shepherd could know. Fazli was positive, upbeat, happy, and contented no matter what was going on in the village or in his life.
Nurturing resilience is a grueling task and there were so many times in life I have felt disappointed and wanted to give up. As a teenager, I was discharged from the Pakistan Military Academy and that crushed me. I was depressed, but I soon got on my feet and left for Canada, withstood the extremely harsh weather, worked hard, and persevered to build my life.
I started my oil business in Kansas. Within a few years oil prices plunged to $8 a barrel and my investors took me to court. I wanted to give up and return to Edmonton where I had a comfortable government job with a peaceful existence. But I remained calm and did my best to be resilient throughout this challenging time.
As luck would have it, one of the investors helped me strike a deal with the lender to buy out all the investors by taking over that loan. Six months later my luck suddenly changed for the better, oil prices spiked, and I was laughing all the way to the bank!
Throughout my life, my resilience has often got tested. Being in the oil industry, I have often been on the edge since oil prices are controlled by world affairs and various other global factors. However, I have stayed resilient without bowing to external pressure and fortunately stayed above water over the last four decades. When oil prices fell in the mid-1980’s, I started investing in real estate. This safer hedge proved to be profitable and less risky compared to owning oil and gas wells.
Resilience is natural and it’s inside all of us. Though it depends much on when and how we use it. We all have the fighting power within us that God has given, and it is our choice to stay the course or give up.
In a fast-paced and complex world I find a lot of youngsters less resilient these days. Ask them to do a task and they look for an intermediary to accomplish that task, often suggesting an easy solution. Unfortunately, such people lose opportunities to learn and pursue their passions and interests.
I believe that with a growth mindset, supportive networks, the consistent timely practice of self-compassion, with hard work, we can all be more resilient than ever before. Stay Blessed!
Disclaimer
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article are my own and do not represent the opinions of any entity with which I have been, am now, or will be affiliated. Further, I make no warranty regarding the accuracy or effectiveness of my recommendations, and readers are advised to consult other advisors as well as their own judgments in making business decisions.
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