The pandemic caused some entrepreneurs and small business owners to go out of business. The downtown of Columbus, Georgia is checkered with stores and restaurants that have closed permanently. Yet, other entrepreneurs and small business owners thrived over the last 12 months. Why?

James Bond Stockdale survived seven years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. The Stockdale Paradox (Post #67) is an idea he developed during his seven years of captivity. The Paradox says that when confronted with a tough situation a person must have the faith that they will persevere while having the discipline to confront the brutal facts of the current reality. It is tough to balance and keep both those ideas in perspective.

Laurence Gonzales, an award-winning journalist, used Stockdale’s and others’ experience to write the book Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why in 2003. He examined dozens of life threatening events and developed a list of skills of those who survived and those who didn’t. You may have read last week the story of the pilot who crashed his plane in the Amazon rain forest and walked to safety over 36 days (if you didn’t read it here is the article). People like him are who Laurence examined.

Thanks to my friend, retired CIA officer Brett Davis (check out his two endeavors on LinkedIn here) I recently re-read the book and was struck by the intersection of successful entrepreneurs/small business owners and the skills that Gonzales’ feels are critical for deep survival. So I coined the term “survivepreneur.” As you will see, there are also many intersections with the writing and talking I’ve done on grit. Grow Your Grit: Overcome Obstacles, Thrive, and Accomplish Your Goals is available for pre-order here and available everywhere on July 12th.

Survivepreneur Skills

Gonzales believes that there 12 key components to people that survive:

• Perceive and Believe — Survivepreneuers are able to look, see, and believe even in the chaos of a start-up.

• Stay Calm — Survivepreneuers use their fear to focus and stay calm no matter what the situation. They even use humor to lighten the situation.

• Think, Analyze, and Plan — Survivepreneurs quickly organize, set up routines and habits, build processes, and institute discipline.

• Take Correct, Decisive Action — Survivepreneurs transform thoughts into action. They break down big goals into small, manageable tasks just like Astronaut Mark Watney in the movie and book The Martian (see post #85 for more ideas). Work the problem.

• Celebrate Your Successes — Survivepreneurs take joy in the smallest successes. They celebrate their successes with the team.

• Count Your Blessings — Survivepreneurs are grateful every day the business is still operating.

• Play, Which Leads to Invention — Survivepreneurs use play to lead to invention. Invention leads to a new product or service that could make or break the business.

• See the Beauty Around You — Survivepreneurs appreciate the world around them, not just in the business. The world around them may bring in new ideas to help the business, too.

• Believe That You Will Succeed — Survivepreneurs develop a deep conviction that their business is going to thrive. This is internal drive like I talked about in Post #99.

• Put Away the Fear — Survivepreneurs develop courage to manage their fear of failure. They use one or all of the three techniques described in post #98 – listing their fears, reframing their definition of success and failure, and focusing on learning to build their courage and manage their fear of failure.

• Do Whatever is Necessary — Survivepreneurs develop the perseverance to succeed. Perseverance is persisting in doing something difficult. They use one of the three ideas described in post #94 to build perseverance – small grit wins, remembering past persistence, and building momentum.

• Never Give Up — Resilience is the capacity to recover from difficulties or setbacks. It is like the boxer who gets knocked down but gets back on his feet to fight another round. More importantly, it is a mindset. Survivepreneurs develop the resilience mindset from living their personal purpose, as well as making sure they are getting the proper sleep, nutrition, physical fitness, social interaction, and practice mindfulness. See more in Post #97.

Conclusion

Standing up a small business isn’t easy in any environment. The pandemic has increased the challenge. I have used many of these 12 skills to survive and thrive as I have built TFCG over the past 13 months.

I have written previously on standing up a small business (#68), differentiation (#75), and the consultant business model (#90). This article adds to those thoughts. If you are an entrepreneur or a small business owner in 2021, go on the offense and embrace the survivepreneur mindset that will enable your business to thrive in the face of adversity.