Last summer when I wrote the blog “No, this is not my boyfriend’s computer”, I embarked on a mission to understand resiliency.  When I think of resiliency, I am not talking about how people overcome everyday challenges but rather how people overcome life altering challenges.  When facing adversity, why is it that some people stand back up and thrive while others don’t?  Why do some people fall victim to circumstances while others push forward, stay positive and figure things out? 

My quest to understand resiliency started because of three reasons.  One, I met Ping Fu, the founder of Geomagic, at a GE Leading & Learning Event in NY.  Her story of persistence in the face of adversity is simply incredible. Two, I judged a First Robotics competition and saw underprivileged kids triumph against kids that were given every luxury to succeed.  Third, I started my own company, McRock Capital, my dream and passion and in order to be successful, I needed to be resilient.      

My first revelation is that the topic of resiliency is a fairly new area of investigation.  Researchers have been trying to figure out why some people are more resilient than others and whether we can learn to be more resilient. 

Here is what I found. Resilient people are flexible, adapt to new circumstances quickly and thrive in constant change.  They are inherently positive, empathetic and have confidence they will bounce back even though they may feel totally overwhelmed at first.  They take responsibility for their actions, think through consequences and have a certain level of self-control and discipline.   They allow themselves to feel grief, anger, loss and confusion but they don’t let it become a permanent state[1]. When we fall, which we all do, resilient people don’t automatically say “here we go again…I am failing” or “that idiot, his actions have ruined my life and made me miserable”.  The resilient person says “what can I learn from this experience so I can do it better next time.” 

Researchers know that resilient people are less likely to become ill during difficult times.  They heal and bounce back stronger than before. They give their families a better chance of bouncing back from tough situations and even help their communities get through hard times.  But one of the most interesting findings I read was that researchers believe that experience trumps genetics.  The key is to find your passion and purpose in life[2].

When I think of the entrepreneurs I have known that have demonstrated incredible resiliency and achieved outstanding success, they had, without a shadow of a doubt, an incredible passion and purpose in life.  Many of them also stared adversity in the face at a young age and bulldozed through it.  They did not give up because they couldn’t out of necessity.  They didn’t have a safety net.  They didn’t have their parents running to their side to rescue them.  They had to figure things out for themselves.  Self-managed learning is one of the cornerstones required to being resilient.   

As I was doing this research I realized that I loved the underdog.  The person who defies all odds and wins (like Ping Fu) or the robotics team from Runnymede Collegiate, the inner city school that kicked the butts of the private schools.  Perhaps it’s not surprising that I prefer to work with resilient underdogs and, on the other end of the spectrum, I want to tornado kick the parents who call in a favours to get their kids jobs.          

I do know one thing for sure.  Resilient people don’t give up.  They are unstoppable, relentless and possess all the great attributes characterized by researchers.  The resilient underdog is the royal flush.         

Author: Whitney Rockley

[1] Dr. Al Siebert, The Resiliency Advantage
[2] Dr. Robert Brooks, The Power of Resiliency

Have you ever had one of those days that you can’t shake out of your head?  A day where you hear someone tell a story and it moves you in a really big way?  I had one of those days.  And the woman that moved me was Ping Fu.  

She came on stage with hot pink wedged shoes that she had made on her 3D printer.  Her demeanor was soft yet focused.  Her story remarkable.  She was taken away from her family at the age of 8 to live in a labour campus during the Cultural Revolution in China while caring for her younger sister.  She started to work in a factory at the age of 9, was raped at 10 and labelled a broken shoe.  She persevered for ten long years.  In 1983 the police asked Ping to leave the country and in 1984 she scraped enough money to buy a one-way ticket to the US and eventually studied computer science.  She worked day and night as a programmer for Resource Systems Group and Bell Labs.  Later she founded a 3D software company, Geomagic, secured venture funding and sold the company to 3D Systems.  She is the definition of iconic.    

Listening to her, I wondered why some of us go on and do great things while others don’t. Why is it that some people can persevere against adversity while others completely crack?  And even if we break, why is it that some of us can dust ourselves off and stand back up while others stay down?

I think people who persevere against adversity have a “whatever the F**k it takes” attitude.  They are beyond stubborn and have a relentless level of curiosity.  They are passionate – they love what they do and follow their instincts because not following it is not an option.   Ping Fu said, “When I first saw a 3D printer, I felt like I fell in love for the first time”.  Passion makes people unstoppable even when life tries to break them.  

That day I also met Brenda Barnes, Kegan Schouwenburg, Angela Ahrendts and Sheryl Sandberg  – all of which have amazing stories and unstoppable passion.  These women, and many others, have supernatural resiliency and courage.  And I realized in many cases there is a common theme.  People who are incredibly successful have faced adversity, usually at a young age, and have somehow figured out how to overcome it.  They dig deep inside of themselves.  They then apply this perseverance to other parts of their lives, whether it be their careers, themselves or their family. 

So then I started to think about this question in the context of women in business.  Why don’t we see more C-level and board level women in business and, specifically, in tech?  Why are there not more Ping Fu’s?  

Women hold more degrees than men and make-up 58% of the professional workforce yet only 15% hold C-level and board positions in the corporate sector.   So is it really a numbers game?  There are many women in the work place but the odds are against them as they rise in the ranks.  

How do I introduce tech to her in an exciting way? When Ping Fu was asked this question, she said that every school needs a 3D printer for children to play with.  I believe girls, including my daughter, could find it fun creating mobile apps and designing jewellery and other fashion accessories on 3D printers.  

There are now clubs and resources emerging to entice girls and women that want exposure to coding:  Girl Geeks Toronto, Stemettes, Femgineer, Women & Tech, Ladies Learning to Code, Entrepreneur First: Code First Girls, Lady Geek and more.  The only thing is that my daughter doesn’t like the word “Geek” and she would raise an eyebrow if I said I signed her up to go to a Geek Club, even though I know these groups are amazingly cool.  She’d probably consider going to a Cool-Girl Coding Club instead.  

I end with a story that Ping Fu’s father shared with her.  Ping Fu’s Shanghai Papa taught her about how their garden had plants for each season and there was a story behind each plant.  He walked over to the bamboo and explained that it was flexible, capable of bending but never breaking.  It symbolizes resilience.  Her father grabbed a stalk of bamboo, bent it towards her and tickled her nose.  Let’s do that to our girls.  Let’s tickle them with tech.  

Author: Whitney Rockley