Mai 2010
EXPLORING THE BIG WORD : LA RESILIANCE
Since the launch of this “unique” site addressing the bicultural community in Paris, I thought long and hard and decided that instead of laboriously shutting my mind to the French words when writing my articles in …English I could, indeed, benefit from both cultures and write in Franglish…so here we go: but to help as this is the first of the new serie , I will highlight in blue when swapping to French…
Resilience is a fantastic concept, clearly dear to my way of progressing in life. I Looked up the “Que sais-je” , this is the definition:
“La capacité de résister à des situations traumatiques et la possibilité de transformer un traumatisme pour en faire un nouveau départ”
In other words what does not kill you makes you stronger!!!
One could articulate the concept in :
- Identifying an opportunity in a difficult situation
- Exploring the opportunity in a structure way
- Thinking positively
- Making Changes to a difficult situation in a positive way
- Making a difference
How would one apply this concept to one’s life I wondered and what consequence does this concept has to lead one’s life?
When recruiting in London for Cisco an American company, on their international campaign, I interviewed an Engineer in Nigeria, Central Africa and Europe. Had to interview a chap who clearly seemed to be standing in the middle of a market place, as I could hear goat’s noise in the background….however in the process I came across an outstanding Engineer from Nigeria…and this is, in short, his story:
Brian came from a poor family and could not afford his further education – bearing in mind his school did not have any computer…let alone books… so he worked for several years in order to save money, took exams to be selected for engineer school in the capital of Nigeria (find the name) and was selected to go to ….Russia to further his education. When asked how he settled in St Petersburg…he replied that it was cold over there and lonely ..so he resorted to launch a club of “African students in Russia” and became president of it!!! Now that was outstanding I thought…a lost student in the depths of Russia making the decision to grab this opportunity and explore it to the full….one of the trait of resilience..
This, I believe, is outstanding: out of a difficult situation, this student was able to identify a brilliant opportunity and translate it into a benefit for himself.
Transposed in a business situation this could sort any difficult situation into a business opportunity. As long as one can think positively and analyze the given situation from several angles in order to identify the best way forward.