How To Turn Adversity Into Opportunity

In 1975 I was a self-made millionaire, running a business empire with 1,265 employees in Lebanon and over 300 employees in Europe. Then, in May of 1976, during the war in Lebanon, as I stepped off the plane returning from a business trip to Paris, I was kidnapped by four men bearing Kalashnikov rifles. After 92 hours of torture, almost miraculously, they agreed to release me provided I sign over everything that I owned in Lebanon. Happily, they released me with the tattered clothes on my back and my American Express card.

What remained were my will and my know how. I chose to move to Iran and rebuild my business. In 1979, I again found myself fleeing Iran, dressed like a woman, when the Shah was disposed. After 14 harrowing days and 17 hours I reached Bahrain with $17 in my pocket. I had had enough of the Middle East and chose to move to Los Angeles to start all over again. Once again, I rebuilt my business only to lose a fortune in the 1994 Northridge earthquake and the real estate downturn during the early l990s. I faced hundreds of other challenges and setbacks, yet each time I chose to move forward and was able to bounce back even stronger.

As a result here is what I learned from my journey through adversities:

1. Change is the only constant in life.

2. Fear paralyzes most people and, for most people, change equals fear.

3. Accepting and adapting to change or adversity is the first step towards benefiting from it and turning it into opportunity.

4. When you begin to view change or adversity as an opportunity rather than a setback, you will experience amazing success in your life and business.

The key is not just to learn to live with or adapt to adversity, but to benefit from adversity and turn it into opportunity.

There are three vital steps for overcoming adversity:

1. Accept

2. Adapt

3. Act

Accept
Accept what happened. Then, make a conscious decision not to let it impact you negatively. Who you are and where you are today is the result of the choices you made up to now. Whom you will be in the future will be the result of the choices you are making today. If you make different choices today, you will be a different person and you will have different results than the ones you have had until now.

The only sensible course to follow as you stand in the midst of change and adversity is to accept where you are and to begin making decisions and taking actions that will form a future you want to live in.

My father died when I was five. As I sat brushing the flies away from his face, he breathed into me a desire to be a businessman like he was. Desire played a big part in my attitude and success. After my kidnapping, when I had lost everything in Lebanon, I had a choice to make. I could sit in a corner and whine. I could do what my friends did and take my own life. Or, I could choose to move forward and rebuild my business. I chose to move forward.

Vince Lombardi said, "It does not matter how many times you get knocked down. What matters is how often you get back up." Back then I didn't know much about football, but I know wisdom when I hear it. Lombardi's statement is true and I have also found that people that keep getting back up in the face of adversity create within themselves a can-do attitude that is at first infectious, then powerful.

Adapt
Adapt to adversity. Be in the moment and focus on finding creative solutions. As you search for ideas, keep an open mind. At the early stage of discovery, there are no bad ideas. It amazes me how often ideas I first reject form a great plan or even the smallest action step. The trick is to look at things from every crazy angle you can think of. Your job is to create a massive list of ideas to draw from. This means to find a different perspective from which to view your circumstances and let your subconscious mind go to work on resolving the situation and shape a new direction.

Use a coach to help you to get and stay focused on looking forward. Finding a coach that can guide and support you is one of the smartest moves you can make. A coach has a vantage point that frees you from doubt or worry about where you are right now and where you are going.

Act
Adversity is a call to action. Allow adversity and change to wake you up, sharpen your instincts and move you forward. Life is very much like sailing in that it is a set of constant adjustments. And remember, if there is no breeze, a sailboat lays still on the water. An extended amount of time resting still on the water without wind is called the doldrums. The consequences are malnutrition, loneliness or death. The same is true for your business or personal life. The difference between you and a sailboat is that you can create a breeze and put some wind in your own sail by taking action.

Turn Adversity into Opportunity
Here are some actions steps you can take to generate amazing results:

1. Know exactly where you are and where you want to be.

2. Ask yourself questions that will force you to think. Ask others to share with you their ideas and assistance. Write down all possible solutions.

3. List the pros and cons of each solution.

4. Don't rush your decision; take time to collect and analyze the information.

5. Set a deadline to make your decision, otherwise you will end up making no decisions. That's the worst.

Always remember that adversity is a call to action. Getting knocked down doesn't count, getting back up does. It is not what happens to you that matters, it is how you react to it and what you do with it that matters. Ask for help, align yourself with a mentor or coach whose focus is your success.

The results will delight you.