This week’s Quay Appointments Breakfast Seminar was around the topic of ‘Resilience’ and its importance in modern business. We heard from two inspirational guest speakers, Annabelle Chauncy & Janepher Nansubuga, from the School for Life Foundation.

Annabelle founded School for Life at the age of 21. Along the way she has dealt with a multitude of obstacles thrown at her, including running two high-performing businesses in different continents, tight budgets, gender and cultural bias, shifting mindsets, and raising capital. It is through her tenacious attitude and resilience that she has managed to build School for Life into the successful charity that it is today.

Janepher grew up in rural Uganda where education was extremely harsh and family life was difficult. Janepher decided she herself had to change things for her family, eventually completing studies to become a teacher. She’s been involved with School for Life since the beginning; her diligent approach to education and belief in making a change, have seen her develop to be the Director of Schools.

Both have demonstrated true resilience and persistence in the journey to achieving their dreams for the foundation. Today the foundation has raised over $3.5 million; building 3 schools, educating over 400 students, employing 65 adults, providing meals for staff and students and clean water and healthcare facilities for the Katuuso community.

The key takeaway lessons from Annabelle and Janepher’s story are:

1. When you’re purpose driven, you’ll attract purpose driven people​

The power of a clear vision is fundamental in being successful. By being purpose driven in what you are trying to achieve, you will attract other purpose driven people to join your journey.

2. Invest in continued professional development

If the business that you work for isn’t investing in your development, this is something you must do yourself. Make the most of all of the resources and people that you have available to you.

3. Refine. Improve. Enhance. Adjust.

You should be continually building upon your existing skill-set, learning from roadblocks and making changes where necessary to improve for the future. Measuring your impact can help you to pivot and innovate to be more successful.

4. Surround yourself with people who lift you higher

The power of having a mentor is hugely instrumental in your self-development. Utilise the people around you for greater success and never be afraid of asking someone that you would like to learn from. People are much more willing to share their knowledge and experience than you would think.

5. Every challenge that you face is a golden opportunity for growth.

There is a real importance in making mistakes and learning from them moving forward. It’s vital that you have the ability to evolve your mindset to view challenges and setbacks as opportunities to grow and not let them get in the way of your progress.

Keeping these lessons in mind will give you what you need to build upon your existing skill-set and exercise more resilience in both your professional and personal life.