From Adversity to Advantage: Our Hidden Asset

What if you knew the asset you have been wishing and waiting for lies in you right now? What if you knew that acknowledging and using this asset in adversity will shift you to advantage? You may then ask, “What is my asset? How do I discover it?”

Like a diamond in the rough, your asset may become buried beneath a few layers of self-doubt, worry, anxiety, and fear. Like a miner, you must break through these layers. This breakthrough often happens in times of adversity. Once you discover your asset, you can polish it, cherish it, and keep it in a safe place. What if the safest place were actually sharing it, displaying it so others could see the sparkles and light?

I have partnered with adversity in my life, often revealing a hidden or forgotten asset that brings me to advantage.

• I had an adverse, protracted experience with a therapist that gave rise to me discovering my passion, business and life coaching, which I love even more than my earlier work (advantage). I allowed the therapist to steal my soul and a short time after I left I got back in touch with my soul in a way that transcends and supports others in their transformation (asset). After failing to see the light of the therapist’s destructive methods, the only light I could see was the darkness of suicide. Failing suicide, I made the declaration to live to be at least 105.

• A few months after the near suicide, I lost my favorite job (adversity), which gave rise to a commitment to be in business for myself (advantage). I had already done the consulting and freelance bit in 1975 and again in 1985-86 (asset). I grew up in a family of small business owners; had the MBA; had the experience of being manager and leader; and had experience creating departments (twice—at University of Pittsburgh; and then at Administrative Conference of the United States where I experienced my job loss—agency abolished). These assets gave rise to an advantage in adversity.

• Drastically, and what seemed like overnight, I experienced losing the mom I knew to one with early dementia. The asset that emerged was a better sense of my core values. I had put my business first and struggled with that for the first two years after becoming manager of Mom’s 24/7 in-home care. How thankful I am for the adversity. It gave rise to clarity about what is important and the advantage of the best relationship with Mom.

Adversity is often a diamond in the rough. As we go from adversity to advantage, we are polishing the diamond to reveal all the brilliant facets—revealing our own brilliance and moving adversity from debit to asset in our life and in our business.

Ask yourself: What adversities have I turned into an advantage in the past? How will my assets take me from adversity to advantage now?

Make a game of discovering the hidden asset in adversity, in challenging situations.