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.

Blyke_Love

One unexpected issue we ran into was back in 2016. We were performing with a live band named 7th High, as Special Guest Performers for a open mic contest, at a venue called “Iconz” in our hometown (Albany, Ga), and for some reason the sound decides to go out in the middle of our performance. We kept performing, & even freestyled during the time that they were working on the sound! What would normally put a hold on a show or cause a cricket moment actually amped our show up even more than what we were already doing because it was unexpected & we kept giving them a show. So that was a happy unexpected problem that worked itself out for us. Read more>>

M.C. Ray

Marketing is the most unexpected problem I encountered. When I put out my first book I hired a literary agency to help with marketing. They brought in ZERO sales and I paid them 2250 dollars over the course of 12 months. I realized after some time that most of the work I was going to have to do on my own but also, you have to build something for people to come to. That means creating a base, collecting contacts, and communicating to those contacts regularly across different streams. Read more>>

Paul Blain

The most unexpected problem I’ve ever faced as an actor was one that effected not only myself, but the entire world. I’m referring to the COVID-19 pandemic. I still remember seeing the headline “Final Film Production in the World Shut Down Today” and wondering how I was going to survive, let alone continue my young career as an actor. However, this was not my first time staring an unknown future in the face. My journey actually originated much sooner. Read more>>

Carter head

I am an Author, Entrepreneur, Custom Home Builder & Life Coach. I have published 5 books to date under Heads Up Publications: 1. Questions With No Answers 2. Am I Trump? 3. Lying Mirrors 4. From Believing to Knowing
5. If Thoughts Could Kill My objective in writing books is for them to be personalized to reach a person’s heart in secret. To encourage a person to be at liberty to let their guards down and awaken dormant areas derived from their heart and/or mind to promote self-awareness. Read more>>

Mary-Elizabeth Pacio

At the beginning of a season, I unexpectedly felt burnt out. I was answering emails, phone calls, and messages from the moment I woke up to the moment before I closed my eyes to sleep. I didn’t experience this in the past seasons and was flattered in the amount of interest and questions my players and their families had. After a few days of continuously doing this, I began feeling a bit fatigued. I moved forward thinking that “it just had to be done.” After a week of this, I began feeling extremely tired. Read more>>

Kellie Delaney

I find it very difficult to be a creative on social media. It’s not enough just to make the art; you have to market yourself as well. Things are always changing, too. You have to figure out the algorithm, make reels, and make sure to constantly post. I’m a pretty introverted and awkward person. Being outgoing online is hard for me. I overthink every single post and story I make. I’m very fortunate to have the connections I made at previous jobs; they’ve really helped me get my name out there. Read more>>

Elisa de la Torre

I think sometimes one of the biggest problem as an artist is letting go. And the biggest lesson is embracing the uncertain. Art is so much bigger than an artist’s original idea, it’s also about the uncertain taking action and changing your plans and turning into something greater, it’s about intuition deying the laws of “how it’s supposed to be”. My biggest risk as an artist was letting go of the confort zone and how I used to do things and exploring the unknown, learning to take the uncertain natural process of life and its randomness as a part of my painting process, and learning the ways of live matter and turning it into paint. Read more>>

Sharde Hawkins

As a creative, and as someone who likes to create their own events/opportunities, the biggest unexpected problem is not getting the hype/reaction you expected. It is so easy to get discouraged when trying to do your own thing because you want to be supported but sometimes that’s not always the case. I have had packed/sold out classes but I’ve also had classes where no one showed up and that’s okay. Events I planned and hosted that didn’t sell like I thought it would. We as creatives don’t see how courageous it is to even put yourself out there. Read more>>

Stephanie Love

Music has been everything to me ever since I can remember. When I was younger I had plans to move to another city and let my career thrive. Back in 2019 I was getting ready for my first live performance in the city of Los Angeles California. All at the same time, planning a small intimate tour with my team along with a brand new album. Unfortunately the pandemic hit and it felt as if my life completely changed form that point. My mentor an extremely talented audio engineer and one of the producers for the Lust EP passed away. Read more>>

Deuce Malone

An unexpected issue that I think every creative runs into is themself. At times I get in my own head wondering am I going about a project in the right way. Is what I’m creating going to resonate with anyone. Will the project touch someones heart. I want to my art and message to touch the masses, but ultimately it is also my release. And whether or not the world understands I need to do it for me. Once I get those feelings out, nothing can get in my way. Read more>>

Jennifer de Guzman

Wanting to do more, but not having the time, or the support to make time… This has been of the most unexpected problems I have faced in my business. When I had my first child in 2013, I became a stay-at-home mom. It was always the plan, the dream, the thing I wanted most. But a few years in, and after my second child was born, I kept feeling this longing to have something else in my life to feel passionate about as well. Read more>>

Sandra Wilson

The most unexpected problem I had was the blocking and shadow banning that FB and IG put on my account in September 2019. I started being shadow-banned every time I used any hashtag that had the word black in it. Then I shared a live video about Minister Farrakhan and a block was put on my account. I reached out to FB multiple times to find out when it would be lifted. They told me that it comes off when the block time period is up. Well, it’s August 2022 and the block is still there. Read more>>

Whitney White

The most unexpected problem for real estate agents is not knowing that daily lead generation is a required activity in order to have a consistent book of business. Effective relationship building and communication with prospects are the highest money generating activities for a real estate agent to do on a regular schedule. Another issue agents face is not knowing when and how to do effective lead follow up. Read more>>

Jennifer Tatro

Jenn Tatro here, I’m in a band called Card Catalog with three other members. Rob Spears on lead guitar, Kevin Kirkpatrick on drums and Brooke Holman on the bass. We have been trucking along playing shows around Denver, Fort Collins and the foothills area. We recently went on tour through the Midwest and had our rental van break down on us. It was abrupt, scary and a bit devastating in moments. It happened 30 min just outside of second gig we were headed to in Missouri. Rob was driving when all of the sudden our van started shaking uncontrollably and almost sent us off the road. Read more>>

Diane Crespo

Getting into organizing I thought what a great way to share my skill. As time went on and I gained more and more chronically disorganized clients, I found myself screaming internally wanting to get them up to my speed. I felt like I wasn’t doing the best I could be doing for these individuals. I decided to do some research and learned this is common with organizers. Read more>>