As almost any entrepreneur or creative will tell you, unexpected problems are to be expected. Below, you’ll hear some incredible stories that highlight and illustrate the kinds of issues and problems entrepreneurs and creatives are dealing with everyday. It’s not easy, but the silver lining is that dealing with unexpected problems is one of the best ways to develop antifragility.

Ineka Bell

It was a rainy day and on this rainy day I had an order of 3 dozen of individually wrapped Amaze Berries to create for one of my clients birthday event. I’m located in Oak Park, MI and for some reason my power seems to always go out. However, my lights flickered on and off during the whole time of me dipping berries. So, what normally takes me two hours caused me to take three in a half hours to finish. As soon as I was done my power decided to go all the way out. I called my client and advised her that my power went out and that her berries has to be stored properly. My client was scheduled to pick up that night and did not have a way to pick her order up early. I instantly asked her if I can deliver to her or the venue. My client agreed for me to deliver to the venue. I packaged the order and delivered as soon as possible. Moral of the story, I had to make a way for my client creation to be stored and delivered and I did just that. I don’t play about my clients or my work … lol Read more>>

Shelley Mouber

At 27 years old and 30 weeks pregnant with my second child, I broke my back. I was a domestic violence advocate at the time; but I tripped. fell and crushed my sacrum and broke two vertebrae. This was the moment that altered the plans I had for my life. Interestingly enough, it also set me on the path to art- a path I was meant to travel and my journey has been depressing, joyful, scary and amazing. Read more>>

Lauren Anthony

January 2022 saw my brand, LAVINGT, be in a store for the first time. Thought this was going to be the start of a wave of new store accounts, but that’s not what happened. It has still been such a process after having such a great 2022, and towards the end of the year. Since then, even though we had a store account, we are still experiencing issues with buyers not answering emails. The doors still haven’t been opening as quickly as I would like. Even the store we were in, it still has been difficult to do another buy with that store – as the buyer seemingly ghosted us. As one door was opened, other doors were still closed. Read more>>

Daniela Hoyos

First, I wasn’t the most disciplined artist. Most of the things I’ve created have come to be through intense rushes of inspiration that usually hit after midnight and once it’s gone, the project was left as is, abandoned for months and even years sometimes, hanging on the illusion that one day I’d get it together and sit down and work on them for hours until I finished (lol). Read more>>

Josh Sells

Running a business by yourself can be stressful from time to time. You have no one to rely on but you…and sometimes you can be unreliable! This leads me to my biggest unexpected challenge of running my business and taking it to the next level… ME. Seven years ago I catapulted myself into the big city from a small town in Tennessee. I was shooting a lot of family and senior photos, but I was dreaming of working with bigger brands and collaborating with other creatives to make unforgettable content. I moved to a place that has a lot of opportunities at your fingertips — I just had to be the one to grasp them. So here I am in this perfect place to grow my business and I’m just wasting time sitting there thinking of all the things I have to do instead of actually getting out there and doing them! While my business has grown substantially since moving here, I still crave more for it and myself. Being aware of the fact that I am the biggest problem in expanding my business has definitely helped me grow. I keep myself more accountable for my procrastination and self-doubt. I wake up with the excitement of knowing I’m the one that can accomplish my goals and dreams. You can have anything you want, you just have to be the one to get out there and reach for it. Read more>>

Tyler Larsen

I think we can all agree that the pandemic hit us all out of nowhere. Being a gym owner and trying to stay open and not lose everything during the pandemic was an extremely hard time. We had to adapt with online classes and small group discussions but we made it work and we’re extremely blessed to have amazing students that stuck with us through that hard time. However I like to look at the positives and I feel like if the business can survive through those times we will become unstoppable in the future. Read more>>

Jenni Lough Watson

As a professional Dog Trainer, I opened a brick and mortar – offered a large array of services – and grew the concept from 1 employee to 15 in the first 3 years. The break-even operating expense was $35,000 per month, and before I knew it, I found myself working in a completely different business. Instead of spending my time, passion, and purpose, training dogs, engaging clients, and serving my community through my talent- I landed myself in the entrepreneurial trap that took the wind from my sail and gnarled it beyond recognition. After meeting with investors, whose aim was to help me rebrand, and redesign the model to better scale, I completed some homework assignments they had during a tedious, year-long “courtship” experience. Through industry-specific experience sharing from the mentor investor, I hired a sub subcontractor who pulled information from our database, and compiled it into a presentation. The results from this behind-the-scenes project were eye-opening, and I discerned that I was blindly driving my company to an almost certain death! The first gut-checking aspect I took away from the data project was our location would not sustainably serve the company’s needs into the next 6 months, much less beyond the 5-year class “A” Real Estate lease, which increased by 4% year-over-year. I was definitely on the hook to deliver profit with this concept, and I needed to do it now! Read more>>

Lisa Sheets

There are quite a few unexpected problems that can divert an artist’s attention and energy, for example, illness of the artist or a family member, economic downturns, and larger community traumas like a pandemic that turns everything on its head. I had a whole bunch of great exhibits planned for the year 2020 and at the start of that year I was feeling great about everything. Then, when everything went into shutdown mode due to the pandemic, the exhibits canceled and postponed, or changed to online viewing only. And I had to rethink how I was going to stay in the conversation with others and keep my work being seen in the world. What I discovered during my investigations at that time was a whole other world: publishing my work in magazines and books. It was something I had not tried before, and I realized it was a way to reach lots of people and at the same time I would still have the original art here to exhibit on a wall in a gallery! So that obstacle of the pandemic actually did help launch me into a different direction, an additional pathway of the many ways that an artist promotes their work Read more>>