People get discouraged.

Bad situations turn worse, you miss a deadline, you forget to pay a bill.

Being able to take a situation that isn’t going according to plan and make it something worthwhile is a skill I want to master.

To begin this journey, I’ve studied people in the past who were resilient. Steve Jobs had a lot of experience in this area. After getting kicked out of his own company in 2011 he made the most of his position. Which eventually led him to buy Pixar. At the time Pixar was owned by Disney, although Disney was interested in computer animation, they did not have the same vision as the director of Pixar Ed Catmull.

As negotiations began between Disney and Steve Jobs, a process that would ultimately take two years, some important moves were made by Steve. The very first day of negotiations, the meeting was scheduled to start at 10 am, perceived as a power move the head of Disney planned to arrive 10 minutes late.

Exactly at 10 am everyone was present, everyone but the head of Disney of course. Instead of waiting Steve started the meeting and began negotiations. He took a situation that wasn’t going his way and made it worthwhile.  And of course, the head of Disney’s plan to assert his power and control had completely backfired.

The moral of this story, bad situations don’t have to stay bad.

I’m going to continue to study this skill.