Financial Failure: The Dark Before the Dawn?

In the Christian faith, today is Good Friday.

“Good” may seem an odd way to describe a crucifixion, but in this case, “Good” is an Old English expression meaning holy.

Today is also called Holy Friday because the suffering on Friday is tied to Easter Sunday, the day of joy, resurrection and victory over death.

And what does this have to do with financial failure!?? Perhaps, a LOT.

Sometimes, the events we deem “the worst” are tied to the victories that follow. No defeat; no victory.

Sometimes, what we learn—or who we become—during a time of suffering actually redefines us and changes us for the better.

Pain comes before healing.

Winter comes before Spring.

Children fall before they walk.

Death comes before resurrection.

Financial failure can represent a type of death… the death of our previous selves.

Confronted with unemployment, bankruptcy, foreclosure or business failure, we may find ourselves questioning who we are.

This happened to me in 2009 and 2010.

Already struggling to launch a new business in the worst recession in decades, I became my father’s caregiver—a role that stretched me beyond imagination.

At the same time, I was dealing with multiple family health crises (including my own) and trying to obtain a loan modification on the dream home I had purchased in better times.

My real estate assets turned to liabilities in the housing market crash and I was jolted into a new reality. In mere months, all of the trappings of my identity as a “successful six-figure woman” vanished.

I could no longer pay the mortgage on the home I had previously purchased with an $84,000 cash down payment. Now, I was fielding calls from debt collectors and calculating how much of the $17 in my purse I could spend on food and how much I needed for gas to drive my daughter to school.

Living without the things that we have allowed to define us can feel like death. It IS a form of death—requiring the death of our previous self-concepts.

What makes us who we are? Are we are money? Our reputation? The job we work? Sometimes our compasses mislead and it’s time to tear up the map.

Renowned marketer Dan Kennedy surprisingly suggests that the “dirty little secret” behind many wealthy entrepreneurs’ success stories appears to be a past bankruptcy or near-bankruptcy; an experience of failure or “losing it all.”

Of the 200 self-made millionaire and multi-millionaire entrepreneurs Kennedy has worked with, “nearly half of them had gone bankrupt before finally achieving lasting success and wealth.”

The Who’s Who list of those who have struggled or gone broke at least once is impressive:

Walt Disney’s first business, “Laugh-O-Gram” was an initial success, but was then forced into bankruptcy. He went to Hollywood to become an actor, but failed at that. Walt and his brother Roy produced an animated series that became popular, but his producers took his idea and his team of animators. When Disney learned of this in a New York meeting, he left the company and took the train back home to California. On that train ride, Walt created Mickey Mouse.

Walt went on to produce the most successful film of 1938, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. In his lifetime, he received 59 nominations for Academy Awards—more than anyone in history. He opened Disneyland in 1955 (after difficulties raising funds). His brother Roy continued his vision after his death, opening Disneyworld in 1971.

Oprah Winfrey was born to an unmarried teenager in a poor rural Mississippi community and raised by an abusive grandmother. She went on to graduate college on a scholarship, become a news anchor and then the first woman to own and produce her own talk show. She transitioned that show into a global media brand, network and billion-dollar business empire.

The history of successful business people is filled with missteps, challenges and failures.

Henry Ford began the Ford Motor Company after one business failure and a second near failure. Finally, he built America’s largest car company while also raising the standard for worker pay and conditions. Ford famously said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t—you’re right!”

P.T. Barnum went bankrupt right before getting into the Circus business at age 61. His American Museum burned to the ground and the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus rose from the ashes.

James Cash Penney ended up temporarily in a Sanitarium when the Great Depression nearly destroyed his business and his health. He went on to build one of the most successful store franchises of the 20th century.

Jamie Kern Lima, once a Denny’s waitress who suffered from rosacea, encountered years of rejection while building a cosmetic brand to remedy complexion problems. She eventually became the top beauty brand on QVC and sold IT cosmetics to L'Oréal for $1.2 billion.

Conrad Hilton bought his first hotel after a different business transaction failed, then lost several hotels in the Great Depression. He eventually recovered to buy them back!

Abraham Lincoln re-paid all of his debts over 17 years, prior to his presidency and immortalization on the penny.

Jack Canfield and?Mark Victor Hansen,?authors of the mega-selling?Chicken Soup for the Soul?series, were rejected by 144 publishers before one gave the book a chance.

Victory comes after defeat.

As Dan Kennedy?observed,

…more people are controlled and inhibited by their fears about money than by any other kind of fear…. Sometimes the best antidote to your biggest fear is to face it, live through it, and rise victorious over it.

My 2010 challenges ended in the foreclosure of my home.

But that wasn’t the END of my story… it was only a NEW BEGINNING.

My temporary “failure” led to an 12-year career as a financial and marketing writer. It led me to the perfect rental home, where we lived for 8 years (beginning at almost half the monthly payment). It led me to surrender—then later reclaim—my mission of helping people get their own second chance at wealth.

Since 2018, I have owned my own home again. I have learned to invest. I co-authored a best-selling book on generational wealth. I have served hundreds of new students and clients and taken my programs international via Zoom!

If you are going through a challenging time, do not despair. It is not the end... only a beginning in disguise.

Things may look dark and hopeless. It may look like the game is over and you've already lost, but nothing could be further from the truth. If you look towards the horizon, you'll see a glow... the beautiful glow of the sun preparing to rise.

I wish you the rebirth of springtime, financial resurrection, peace that transcends every circumstance and, if you celebrate, a Happy Easter!

Do you believe that failures can actually prepare us for success? Please share!