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.

Bruce

The Blacksmith’s Boy is my fourth attempt at writing a novel. I gave up the three previous times. I first remember wanting to write a novel when I was 14. I attended a camp for young writers over the summer and I thought, “I’d like to write a novel one day.” It seemed like a natural progression. Read more>>

Michelle Miller

I have been in stand up comedy 17 years. The goal of my show wasn’t just to make people laugh, but to be able to laugh at what you have been through or going through. To be different, not fit in and be ok with that. I was an overweight mom of christian a toddler starting stand up in comedy clubs. I was going to have to be VERY funny to get any stage time. and I did. I made sure my material appealed to men and women. I did classed, open mics, I did the work. My content covers my life experiences from being raised in a southern small town trailer park, raising kids, and being overweight, I am not the typical southern belle clean comic, I don’t wear dresses or love to shop. You wont hear me talk about convincing my husband to buy me anything or how cute I think someone’s shoes are. Read more>>

Tina Alberni

I haven’t had just one particular challenge—challenges have been a constant throughout my career. When I think about everything I’ve had to learn and do, it’s daunting yet rewarding. As artists, we wear many hats—and the real challenge is juggling them all at once, often at full speed. Read more>>

Kailee Shedeed

I had just finished film school at UCLA Extension – a short two year program in directing – when the pandemic hit. I had to move home from LA, and basically for a whole year had to live with people online saying how dead the industry was. How movie theaters were never coming back, how businesses had to close, how films going straight to streaming would be the new norm. I was at my lowest that year, as I watched and read about how everything I worked for was essentially gone. There didn’t seem to be a way to come back from this, and the future was so uncertain, for everyone and every thing. Read more>>