Having to overcome unexpected problems is a hallmark of entrepreneurship. Almost every business owner, artist, maker, and creative we know has had to deal with countless unexpected problems that arise in the journey and so we asked some brilliant folks from the community to share their stories of the unexpected problems they’ve faced along the way.

Rajiv Nema

I have been working in hi-tech industry for 30+ years and in parallel, I have been a theater and film actor over the weekends. In my mind I should have been a full time actor in bollywood rather than suffer the drudgery of Silicon Valley high pressure job. I survived this internal conflict as the weekend theater shows kept me going. I have been laid off twice – first at the age of 40 (2009) and the other at the age of 55 (2024) and at both times I was doing very well professionally hence both the layoffs were VERY UNEXPECTED. Read more>>

Jacob Brown

Some of the most unexpected problems in my career were health related. Ive had heart surgery, and a severe case of staph infection that set me back for 6 months.these skin irritations are common in grappling sports. I was about 17 years old when I was going through it .I dealt with it and got back to training, my parents were there the entire time , taking care of me and speaking to the Dr’s with me. Read more>>

Yue Meng

During the production of a student short film, we encountered an unexpected issue related to contracts. One of the crew members we had initially scheduled suddenly requested a formal paid contract with a rate far beyond our original budget. This came up at the last minute and almost disrupted our entire shooting schedule. Read more>>

Russell Fellows

Marketing. I never realized that marketing would be the enormous monster that it is for authors. I knew it was part of the whole package – something that must be done in one aspect or another – but I suppose that while I saw that it would be difficult, I didn’t realize that it is, in fact, the dark void that steals the souls of every author who ever wrote a story. Read more>>

Richard Ferguson

I was classically trained as a fine artist in a time before personal computers. The only electronics available were radio and television. All of my training was manual, hands-on with analog equipment and tools. Since I was fully committed to Art, the thought of a digital world never crossed my mind. Read more>>

Michelle (Jessica) Taylor (Christopher)

By far, the most unexpected issue to arise for Altadena Cookie Co. has been the devastation of the Eaton Fire. We had been working for nearly two years on opening an actual brick & mortar store front and were so lucky that it survived. However, the sheer magnitude of destruction to our town has been intense and so widespread that we are in uncharted territory. My home was completely lost. Jessica’s is still standing but uninhabitable. Equipment, ingredients, packaging, supplies, and financial records stored at our homes were all destroyed and damaged. Read more>>

Zander Torres

I’ve been a young struggling Actor in Los Angeles now for about 3 years. Ive taken risk after risk to get to where I am today, some might say it isn’t even that far down the road. To me it’s like I’ve been driving down that road for a few minutes
Like I blinked and 3 years went by right before me and I Barley figured out what happened. We all have had to overcome adversity being in this town, especially if you wanna stay here. Holding Multiple jobs you don’t want or putting yourself further into the hole only to that smile glimmer of light at the end of it. My message to any who reads this is to keep going. Never quit, don’t let them or anyone or anything break you. Stay true to yourself. Read more>>