Embrace Challenges

There are many things we wish to do—from changing a tire to changing

our lives—that we avoid because we are afraid of failure. We fear
the direct evidence of our weakness, so we don’t even bother to try. But
you are stronger and more capable than you can possibly know.
STARTING WHEN HE was a boy, Sydney Besthoff worked in almost every
job in his family’s drugstore business until he was eventually promoted
to run it. Under his leadership, he helped create one of the largest drugstore
chains in the United States.
But after more than fi fteen years of running the company, everything
Sydney had ever done came under attack. Family members sued
him, claiming he had cheated them out of their share of the company’s
profi ts.
“It was a cataclysmic blow to him,” his wife, Walda, says. “It was
heartbreaking for him. He felt betrayed. He was betrayed.”
But Sydney did not crumble under the strain of legal action and the
animosity of his loved ones. He explained that his strategy of focusing
on growth ahead of profi ts was necessary until the company was big
enough to compete with the major chains. “I told them to wait, that they
would be very pleased in the end,” he says.
Instead, Sydney paid his relatives for their shares of the business.
“Anyone else might have folded, lost everything. Sydney found the
strength to keep on going. Always rational, even in the face of daunting
challenges,” Walda says. And in the end, the company continued
expanding and succeeding until it was sold to a larger rival chain.
Studies of people who were victims of traumatic events—such as natural
disasters that destroyed their homes—found that those people who suffered
the most loss of comfort were actually calmer and more resolute than
the people who had suffered inconvenience but minimal loss. (Ikeuchi and
Fujihara 2000)