by
Rachel Doern
9th October 2025
After studying entrepreneurs for over 20 years, my definitive answer to this question is ‘yes’. From them, I have learned that resilience is a process, something we build, like a capability or a muscle, rather than a trait alone, one that we do or don’t possess. And perhaps this is just as well, given that resilience is something we all seem to need now more than ever.
Understanding resilience: Lessons from entrepreneurs in crisis
The last few years have not been shy of crises. In the UK, a recent Home Office survey reported that nearly half of businesses and a third of charities had experienced a cybersecurity breach. We need only look to examples like Marks and Spencer, the large UK retailer forced to suspend its click and collect service in April for 15 weeks due to a cyberattack, to understand the seriousness of such events. At the same time, war continues to rage in Ukraine, natural disasters in the form of flooding devastated China and parts of Asia in July, while wildfires blazed throughout Greece and other European countries in August. Many institutions, businesses and people have been adversely affected by these crisis events. The World Economic Forum has warned that we are on the brink of a ‘polycrisis’, when the collective impact of disparate crises combines to exceed the sum of each part with devastating consequences. A crisis can be big, like those listed above, or small, internal or external to a business, and professional or even personal in nature. A separation, illness or the death of a loved one can also be stressful for the individual and, for the entrepreneur, have implications for the business. The ability of these entrepreneurs to carry on in spite of a crisis is often critical.
How modern crises test businesses and individuals
For the individual, resilience is about recovering relatively quickly and easily from such stressful events and about maintaining mental and physical functioning in the process, among other things. My research shows that the ability of entrepreneurs in crisis to continue is largely dependent on the kinds of adjustments they make to their attention, thinking, situation and resources – what I call ‘resilience work’. Resilience work, in turn, and the strategies involved, can minimise the stresses involved in a crisis or reduce the likelihood of their occurrence.
The ‘resilience work’ of entrepreneurs: Strategies that matter
In the short term, distraction is one such strategy entrepreneurs in crisis use to adjust their attention and strengthen their resilience. Distraction tends to be especially effective at the onset of a crisis or in difficult periods throughout, when negative emotions might be particularly intense. Distraction often works best when we’re doing something cognitively absorbing, like engaging in sport, playing a game or an instrument, or learning a new skill. This allows negative emotions to be temporarily set aside until there is space to process them.
Adjusting one’s thinking is likely to be more effective in the medium or long term and to take the form of managing expectations around a crisis, talking to oneself in a constructive and realistic fashion, and framing a setback or crisis to see the positives as well as the negatives. Like entrepreneurs, we can also adjust our situation by choosing which future events we go to, what tasks we undertake or with whom we meet up, and which ones we avoid. Or it can be about modifying what we do before or after an event, a task or an encounter with another, regulating our emotions in turn. We can further adjust our resources, which may be negatively affected by a crisis, by leaning into support or optimising existing resources, building new resources, or even substituting resources lost with those we also consider valuable.
It’s sometimes the case that building resilience is about protecting ourselves from strategies that can compromise resilience, like denial, rumination and prolonged disengagement. This might necessitate heightening our awareness and reevaluating our approach.
Practical techniques to build resilience every day
When strategies involved in resilience work are applied consciously and actively, they can serve as practices that strengthen our resilience during and following difficult periods. In my own research, I’ve seen how entrepreneurs in crisis put these strategies into action — and they’re just as relevant for the rest of us. Below are some practical ways to start:
- Treat yourself with compassion and remind yourself of what you have achieved.
- Consider what you might be able to learn – to take away – from a setback.
- Look at the setback as a challenge rather than a threat and consider whether there is the possibility of repurposing the setback into an opportunity.
- Seek to optimise your existing resources, like skills and networks, and build new ones.
- Lean into support from others, but also strengthen your social connections; creating goodwill gives you a boost and makes you feel active and purposeful.
- Monitor how you’re approaching the setback, what kinds of strategies are more helpful and when, and replace less effective strategies.
- Strive to develop strategies that not only help you manage stress in the current situation, but that can be applied to other situations as well and create stress resistance.
- Understand that resilience work is a practice, rather than a one-and-done solution.
Rachel Doern is Reader/Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths, University of London. She researches crisis management and resilience in an entrepreneurial context. Her work has appeared in the popular press, including the BBC and Los Angeles Times.
The Resilient Entrepreneur by Rachel Doern is available on Bristol University Press for £19.99 here.
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