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.
Joanna Olsen

Owning a business has many challenges & staying resilient and never giving up is Key. We have dealt with natural disasters to closing for 6 months due to COVID. Uniting the coyote team & rebuilding during these times was key to keep employee spirits high and get through these tough roadblocks. Read more>>
Schakara Arrazola-Tiscareno

Southern Colorado Fashion is the first Art and Fashion Collective that fosters Creatives, Talents and Artist on a large scale. This is our first year as a small business agency serving the Southern Region of Colorado. Any business, has it challenges especially when we are the first of our kind focusing on small cities. Pueblo has never experienced showcases like ours, most Fashion Shows are being cultivated in big cities such as Denver. There is a lot of elements that need to be continuously tended too in order to create cultivation, opportunities and community engagement. Our first showcase was in January of this year, we started with 15 models and a handful of designers who have never experienced participating in a Fashion Show. Read more>>
Kimberly Howard

An unexpected problem that I faced as a business owner was being shot in a driveby. This was very traumatic to my life and my business. During this time, I had to learn to walk again and had to depend on others to take care of me and my business. During this time, my business was very lucrative and I was at the top of my game. I had to take a huge step back so get healthy again. Read more>>
Angelica Neri

When I first started my business, I was deeply afraid of burning out as I had done with my previous jobs. I wanted to create a successful business that brought me joy and financial security, but not at the cost of exhaustion and old chronic conditions rising to the surface. I started to look into programs that could guide me in setting up my business to thrive and what I found was that majority of businesses were operating under a rigid system of 1000% output 24/7. Sure enough, as I followed this lead, my body paid the cost, which eventually led to my business. This is when I made the profound connection that my body’s messages were reflected in my business challenges. The same way that when my body was in alignment, so was my business. Read more>>
Ashleigh Clark

Beginning in 2018, my family moved to Strongsville, Ohio. This was a brand new city for us and I quickly realized that there was a lot of potential here. I left my job in 2019 to begin my interior design firm. That’s right, one year before 2020! What a ride it has been. 2020 was nothing any of us imagined. Interior Design is considered an essential field. Imagine if we had a kitchen in the middle of construction, we had to finish to keep that homeowner in their home. Just like the rest of the world, I had no idea how this was going to pan out. Read more>>
Tammy Gibson

After more than 15 years as an online entrepreneur in a variety of roles, my biggest unexpected problem was becoming very sick in October 2021. I certainly never expected to become so sick that my business literally stopped the day I went into the hospital. Thankfully, I had amazing clients who scrambled to make adjustments to their own businesses, while supporting my family and I during our darkest hours. Read more>>
Jahlon Johnson

We’ve all experienced hardships in the journey to success. I’m here to share my story and hardships with the world with one of them being poverty. Growing up it was just me my brother and my mom and she had health complications which prevented her from doing certain types of work. although she made sure it was food and a roof over our heads growing up it was not easy watching her struggle to figure out how we were going to eat or which bill was getting paid while another wasn’t. When I chose to pursue my dream of an artist I realized I needed money to invest in myself so I figured iut ways to get it wether it was a 9-5 job or engineering and selling beats. Everytime I get ahead life knocked me back 2 feet with Unexpected bills or a pile up of traffic tickets etc.. I just couldnt get a break but I do realize every Loss is a lesson to be learned if you allow it. Read more>>
Rachel Newhouse

In March of 2018, I quit writing. I don’t mean I went on hiatus and took a break from writing. I mean I QUIT. I unpublished all my titles, closed down my Patreon, and deleted my author website and socials. “Aubrey Hansen,” the penname I was writing under at the time, ceased to exist. Why? I was going through a divorce. Everything in my life ground to a halt. My dog and I moved into a friend’s basement. I stepped down from teaching Sunday school. I changed jobs. The only thing I had in my bank account was my last paycheck; I had to buy a trash can for my new apartment on a credit card. Read more>>