Whether you are heading a Fortune 100 company or leading an enterprise of one, sometime in the course of this year, you will be called upon to be resilient.  Whether pushed by pain or pulled by possibilities, resiliency is now an on-going life skill. This raises the question: why wait to develop resiliency skills?I believe in PREsilience™ - preemptive resilience. These are skills and actions that can be cultivated, developed and taken BEFORE necessity strikes. 

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A wise person once said, “If you don’t have a sense of humor—you have no sense!” Judging from the dour faces in Congress, I think the pundit is right. But we don’t have to mirror the snarls and growls that haunt Washington, D.C. That’s probably why so many people have been drawn to the parodies found on late night talk shows. 

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The genteel voice over the phone asked, "Will you volunteer to speak at Los Padrinos?" "Is this a society group and a special fund-raiser?" I asked.
 

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Here's a riddle to start you thinking: What can curve at the corners, droop in lopsided fashion, stretch to great extremes, crunch noses into cherries, crinkle eyes into almonds and turn rain into sunshine? What responds when your heart is breaking, when Irish eyes are doing it, when you want the whole world to join you? It can even become an umbrella! 

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In 2014 the Rustic Crust was on track for record sales of its all-natural pizza crust. Investors were excited about soon-to-launch products that were gluten-free, thin crusts, and basil pesto. Founder and CEO Brad Sterl was thrilled. Then-disaster! Fire burned the rural New Hampshire factory to the ground on March 6. 

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I live in Southern California. Earthquake territory. When I encountered my first trembler, I don’t know which moved faster—the floor or my racing heart. On a scale of 1-10 given a Richter Scale, my stress level was 45. Yes, terrified!!  

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The school that will be the most resilient is the one that stands out. Ah, but Seattle University did something that warmed the cockles of ALL of our hearts. With her acceptance letter came a handwritten note from an admissions officer. The officer wrote to Alicia about what was particularly compelling in the essay she had to write with the submission. Talk about personalized attention.

And it did not stop there. Last week, Alicia received a poster from the university with one of her sentences printed ON THE POSTER!!!!! Does Alicia feel wanted? Cared about? Listened to? You bet. In the age of twitter characters and emoticons, this human touch is a wonderful differentiator.

Yes, it will finally comedown to the financial packages offered by the six schools, but for now--Seattle has risen to the top of Alicia's short list. How can we apply this in our businesses... with our potential and current customers or client. Something to think about.  

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