I enjoy sailing when permitted by circumstances to do so. The one thing you learn, especially skippering a relatively small sailing yacht with a young family or an inexperienced crew, is that you are very dependent on the weather and can get really caught out by unexpected strong wind or even storms. Two years ago I was sailing with family and in Croatia on a 45 foot boat from one island to another in the Adriatic sea out from Split when the wind and waves suddenly increased dramatically. The weather forecast was for relatively calm and stable conditions! The locals at the island we eventually arrived at – securing the last berth – said the storm had not been predicted and was caused by global warming. But the thing was we weathered the storm and reached a safe haven.
The same is I think true in our personal and our professional lives. I have been going through a very difficult time in my personal life, but one thought that encouraged me is that like a storm it will pass. In professional life when we are faced with a very difficult and challenging matter, or are simply overwhelmed by the volume of work asked of us, it can seem that there is no end in sight and everything is hopeless. But the thing is to recognise that it is “a storm” and find ways to weather it – better days will come. And we can learn and grow from the experience however difficult – there is an old English proverb “A Smooth Sea never made a Skilled Sailor.”
I found a book published on Amazon called Weathering the Storm (Lessons Learned) which “offers 12-14 insightful essays by top leaders in industry, the public sector, and academia on the most pressing issues they've faced.” I also like this blog How to Weather the Storm: 7 Keys to Surviving Unexpected Business Interruption which comments “Having led an organization of diverse entrepreneurs through unprecedented natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, tornado devastation and now COVID-19, there is a clear distinction between businesses that fail or flounder and those that emerge stronger and more sustainable.” It then recommends a roadmap to navigating your business through any crisis including acting quickly, using technology, communicating, asking for help and always be ready.
Similar advice is set out in this Forbes blog Four Tips To Prepare Your Business To Weather The Storm which asks in the face of the COVID pandemic and global recession “Why is it that some businesses are far better at navigating this storm than others? How are some managing to thrive, despite all the obstacles, while others are flailing?”
The other thing to take on board is that ups and downs and storms are a part of professional (and personal) life and are to some extent inevitable. You cannot just stay in harbour – you have to sail somewhere. As Franklin D. Roosevelt commented “To reach a port we must set sail – Sail, not tie at anchor. Sail, not drift.”
This blog also from Forbes How To Weather Any Business Storm consists of a short interview with Dave Hopson a retired marine and business consultant who wrote the book Surviving the Business Storm Cycle: How to Weather Your Business's Ups and Downs. He comments “From a real high view, we often look at businesses in a linear fashion, over time or over revenue. But the point is that you go through fits of growth and fits of consolidation throughout a company's life, and you have to respond differently both with people, with process and sometimes technology to weather both the huge growth cycle as well as the consolidation phase. If you do the three right, you can make them scalable so that you quickly can adapt to that change in the cycle such that the hurt on revenue and margins is minimized.”
Here are some great quotes on riding out the storm until it has passed.
“What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.” – Charles Bukowski a German–American poet, novelist, and short story writer.
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” – Buddha
“You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.” – Bob Marley
“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” – Lao Tzu
And perhaps my favourite from an unexpected source
“Storms make trees take deeper roots.” – Dolly Parton
The same is I think true in our personal and our professional lives. I have been going through a very difficult time in my personal life, but one thought that encouraged me is that like a storm it will pass. In professional life when we are faced with a very difficult and challenging matter, or are simply overwhelmed by the volume of work asked of us, it can seem that there is no end in sight and everything is hopeless. But the thing is to recognise that it is “a storm” and find ways to weather it – better days will come. And we can learn and grow from the experience however difficult – there is an old English proverb “A Smooth Sea never made a Skilled Sailor.”
I found a book published on Amazon called Weathering the Storm (Lessons Learned) which “offers 12-14 insightful essays by top leaders in industry, the public sector, and academia on the most pressing issues they've faced.” I also like this blog How to Weather the Storm: 7 Keys to Surviving Unexpected Business Interruption which comments “Having led an organization of diverse entrepreneurs through unprecedented natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, tornado devastation and now COVID-19, there is a clear distinction between businesses that fail or flounder and those that emerge stronger and more sustainable.” It then recommends a roadmap to navigating your business through any crisis including acting quickly, using technology, communicating, asking for help and always be ready.
Similar advice is set out in this Forbes blog Four Tips To Prepare Your Business To Weather The Storm which asks in the face of the COVID pandemic and global recession “Why is it that some businesses are far better at navigating this storm than others? How are some managing to thrive, despite all the obstacles, while others are flailing?”
The other thing to take on board is that ups and downs and storms are a part of professional (and personal) life and are to some extent inevitable. You cannot just stay in harbour – you have to sail somewhere. As Franklin D. Roosevelt commented “To reach a port we must set sail – Sail, not tie at anchor. Sail, not drift.”
This blog also from Forbes How To Weather Any Business Storm consists of a short interview with Dave Hopson a retired marine and business consultant who wrote the book Surviving the Business Storm Cycle: How to Weather Your Business's Ups and Downs. He comments “From a real high view, we often look at businesses in a linear fashion, over time or over revenue. But the point is that you go through fits of growth and fits of consolidation throughout a company's life, and you have to respond differently both with people, with process and sometimes technology to weather both the huge growth cycle as well as the consolidation phase. If you do the three right, you can make them scalable so that you quickly can adapt to that change in the cycle such that the hurt on revenue and margins is minimized.”
Here are some great quotes on riding out the storm until it has passed.
“What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.” – Charles Bukowski a German–American poet, novelist, and short story writer.
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” – Buddha
“You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.” – Bob Marley
“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” – Lao Tzu
And perhaps my favourite from an unexpected source
“Storms make trees take deeper roots.” – Dolly Parton
RSS Feed
