Principles for Success (10) Have a Positive Attitude and Be Resilient

Whenever I want to do something new and challenging, I may receive some comments that it’s not going to work or hear my own mental chatter worrying that I might fail. But there's also an inner voice that has helped me to keep going, telling me I have nothing to lose, and life is only going to get better. Upward I go!?

Having a positive attitude has helped me to stay motivated and resilient. Being resilient has also helped me to maintain my positive attitude. I decided to combine these two principles together into the tenth principle for success that I want to share, and which concludes this series of newsletters.?

A Bad Thing Could Trigger Something Good to Happen

A few years ago, while on the phone with my parents they told me that all our tomato plants died overnight due to frost. It was springtime, but frost had come unexpectedly. They took out all the dead tomato plants and planted eggplants instead. A few months later, they were harvesting eggplants, and the price of the eggplants was better than the price of tomatoes that year. If these were stocks, I could say that investing in the “eggplant stock” yielded much better return than investing in the “tomato stock”, but of course we had no idea when the tomato plants had frozen that we would actually come out ahead.

I have benefited greatly from observing how my parents handled good and bad farming seasons with a positive attitude and resilience. As farmers, we learned to keep investing in our crops even though there was no way we could predict if our harvest or the price of vegetables would be good that year. We put in hard work consistently to take care of our farms and invest in all the essential farming supplies – seeds, irrigation equipment, fertilizers, and greenhouse supplies. Year after year, we kept working hard and that’s how we were able to make a living in good times and bad times.?

Starting My English Summer School When I Was a College Student

“What? You want to start your own summer school? You are just a little girl. No one is going to listen to you or come to your class. And what if you don’t do a good job?” This was my mom’s reaction when I told her I wanted to start an English class for the farmers’ children in my community after completing my first year in college. I argued with my mom: “People here don’t value education enough. That’s why I need to tell them about the importance of their children's education, so they don't just focus on farmwork.” But I didn’t convince my mom and couldn't get her support.

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One day my mom went to visit my grandparents who lived a few miles away. I was “unleashed.” I seized the opportunity to do what I really wanted to do – to set up my English Summer School. I went to buy a big piece of red paper about three feet long and two feet wide, along with a brush and black ink. Because I had taken calligraphy classes, I knew how to write with a brush. I wrote down the dates of my English class and that it was for elementary school students, especially those who had just completed the elementary school and were about to enroll in middle school. The big red piece of paper with black characters written with a brush was my first ever advertisement.

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My second advertisement was to set up a desk on a major road leading toward my village, so that most farmers returning home at the end of the day would see me and ask what was happening. I would then tell them about my English class. My third advertisement was to use a loudspeaker to make announcements to the village. My fourth advertisement was referrals. My elementary school teacher from years before told some of her students that I was a good English teacher. She even lent me her erasers and chalk!

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Her students were some of the earliest birds to enroll in my class. It turned out that I recruited 40 students in my first year! I taught English, starting from the alphabets and international phonetics, with the goal of building a strong foundation for further learning.

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Some of the students I taught stayed ahead in English and eventually made their way to college, following my footsteps. One of my first cohort of students was my own brother, who also earned a Bachelor’s degree in English.

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Looking back, I think it was my positive attitude that has helped me to not give up when others didn't believe in me. In this case, my mom didn’t see my potential, but I believed in myself that I could teach English well.

Having a Positive Attitude and Resilience Helped Me Become a CEO?

In October 2023, I started working full-time as an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. My dream to start my own company came true. I named my company Worldshakers International, or WSI, after the Mahatma Gandhi quote: "In a gentle way, you can shake the world." This company will be my anchoring point for doing business worldwide. I want to teach people how to communicate effectively. I am passionate about empowering others to speak and write. I also believe I can help businesses market and communicate their products and services with my unique background and skillset.

Before founding WSI, there had been setbacks in life. For example, after I completed my Ph.D. and moved to the US, I had a car accident that slowed down everything in my life for a couple of years. I accepted the setback and took my time to recover. I completed an MBA program while recovering from the accident to prepare for my entrepreneurial endeavors. If counting back another seven years, my journey to get into a graduate school was not smooth either. I failed the entrance exam to a famous university in China because I didn’t score high enough in French. Having a positive attitude kept me going until I accomplished all of my educational goals.

In a nutshell, having a positive attitude and being resilient is a principle for success. Most successful people have experienced tremendous difficulties, roadblocks, setbacks, and obstacles. These difficulties actually train your “resilience muscles” to achieve success. Perhaps they are a blessing in disguise.

If you have a good idea, I encourage you to do something about it, and to test out how “good” the idea really is. Others’ opinions may discourage you, but the brush to paint the picture of your life is in your hands. You just have to find the right piece of paper.

I hope these 10 principles of success may be of some help to anyone who might need a little encouragement to pursue their dreams.

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May your 2024 be a productive and successful new year!

Thank you for reading! The title of my next series of newsletters will be “Entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley.” I will also write individual newsletters from time to time.

P.S. I’m currently designing communication courses and marketing services. Should you need training in speaking, writing and marketing services, let’s talk!