Business Book Summaries

Business savvy is not something you’re born with, nor is it something you inherit. But as we believe it is the key to business success, we start with the end in mind, defining what it is.

Here’s the thing about adversity: If you can make it your friend, you may find yourself in one of the most powerful and transformative situations that life has to offer. Of course we’d never advocate going out and seeking difficult circumstances in order to develop yourself or further your career, but the fact is setbacks are going to happen – certainly in the business world. An investment can go bad. An important employee or partner could desert you. A counted-on sale may go to your biggest competitor. An important deal with these unexpected misfortunes that separates those who fail from those who attain the top levels of success.

Perhaps it’s a sad fact, but success absolutely does not provide the impetus for improvement that adversity does. Say you just sold a new client, won a promotion or pay raise, or gave a presentation that drew rave reviews. What’s the result – high fives around the office, a pat on the back at home, or a toast over dinner. Sure, you should enjoy the well-deserved accolades, but be wary: In the face of success we can become complacent. It’s far too easy to become too satisfied with our current performance and get a little lax on improving.

In contrast, what happens after a failure or some personal heartache? Ideally we immediately analyze the situation to see what went wrong and we focus on what we could’ve done differently. No one likes to go through adversity, but faced with the right attitude, a difficult setback can be one of our most powerful catalysts for change. Adversity can provide the motivation and the determination to sharpen our skills and regain our focus, and that in turn has a direct positive impact on the creation of business savvy.

You always have a choice. No matter how terrible the setback, you can make the choice to lie back and let adversity consume you, or you can face the situation head-on and work to make adversity your friend. Befriending adversity means not shying from it, but learning from it. It means not letting it defeat you, but laboring to overcome it, and even better, using what you learn from the experience to improve yourself. Those who’ve been tested by the fired of adversity and have passed the test emerge stronger, smarter, and savvier.

But for people with business savvy borne of adversity, there is so much more to the story. The business leaders who’ve benefited from the adversity paradox are the ones who use the diagnostic skill of introspection. They’re the ones with superior work character, who often arrive at the office before everyone else and leave later – and love it. These folks have found a purpose they’re passionate about and have found a way to take the work out of work. They’re the employees who nurture a thirst for knowledge that keeps them constantly abreast of the ever-changing world of business.

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