Facing uncertainties

Restaurants empty, stores closed, shops locked with the usual sign that says: “For everyone’s safety and in support of the government directives to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, we are temporarily closing our store today until further notice.” Events are canceled, projects are stopped, no sales and no income. You lose your job, and you never know when things will go back to normal. Some businesses are resuming operations, but it will take a while to gain the consumer’s confidence. Meanwhile, the rent continues, and what about the salaries of the staff? 

Things are still uncertain, but when you think about it, even when times are “normal,” things have always been uncertain. Let me give you examples: You put your money down and invest in a startup; you are not sure the thing would fly. You accepted the promotion, you are going to lead a team of people. Would you be confident that there will be good chemistry between you and your team? You hire a person to handle your business, but you never know whether the person could run it well or run it to the ground. Much to the dismay of many business owners, I know; they say that the same people they hired ran away with their clients and set up a competing outfit against them. Even life is uncertain.

But it seems that people who can deal with uncertainty and navigate the unknown are more creative and more positive; eventually, they become more successful as they explore and exploit possibilities brought about by uncertainties. The capacity to deal with uncertainty carries the acceptance of the possibility that things may fail and would fail. But the failures they experience are considered part of life’s equation of success and failure. They feel the frustration of failure, they grieve over it for a while but then they pick themselves up, dust off the dirt, roll up their sleeves, study the lessons learned, and ask an essential question. The question is: “So what are the next steps I should do so I can move on?”

Speakers talk about this and writers write about this. But when you look deeper, it is not just the cliche “Learn from the failures,” that is just the first step. The more profound thing is that the person who recovers fast is the person who does not expend too much energy, time, and attention wallowing over the misery of what was lost or disappointed with what would be missed. This person does not have time for it because he or she understands that failure and success belong to the same equation. While there is a loss today, tomorrow may be different.

People who recover fast from failures also understood the power of gratitude. The focus is not always on what was lost but what he or she has. “Sure, this business that I started many years ago is gone, but I have had good years and useful lessons. God may be moving me to a better space and lead me to another project I would never have agreed to when times were normal.” I certainly am saying this out of my own experience.

The person who navigates well through difficult times and uncertainty knows the difference between things he or she can control and things he or she cannot.

To finite mortals like you and me, a lot of life is random. And we do not know what the future holds but we prepare to put ourselves in the stages of:

1. Learning – What lessons can we learn from what is happening. And if we have learned then, failures have a new term. It is called “Tuition.”

2. Gratitude – Not to grieve over the things lost but to remember the good times we had and to appreciate the things we still have and to move on from there.

2. Acceptance – That there are things that are not our fault and that there are things that would be outside our control. We will do our best with what we have and what we can.

Even the most powerful person in the world does not have total control over it. We are merely interpreting the world and not controlling things. So, do not give up, do not quit, have your eyes open to spot opportunities. As I always say in my webinars these days – yes – I have pivoted, and most of my talks and training are now through webinars: “I do not know what the future holds but I certainly know Who holds the future.” And that keeps me going.

(Connect with Francis Kong in www.facebook.com/franciskong2. Or listen to “Business Matters” Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. over 98.7 DZFE-FM ‘The Master’s Touch’, the classical music station.)