3 highly successful ceos share their best tips for a setback: ‘somewhere in my mind, I think that I can do anything’

Running a business often has three components: the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good Happens when your company is thriving. The bad tends to occur behind the scenes, like Budgeting for a high cost of advertising or spending long nights going over payroll. The ugly can range from 100-plus-heart workweks to Betting your life savings on your Startup – and Struggling to get it off the ground.

CNBC make it spoke with a group of highly successful entrepreneurs about how they recovered from Major Career Setbacks. Here are some of their top tips for weathering unexpected hardships:

‘Be Comfortable’ Trusting Your Gut

If you’re confident that your business idea will be successful one day, do’T Quickly Throw Your Hands Up when Problems Arise.

This mindset helped Bogg Bag Ceo kim vaccarella after she Lost her kids’ $ 60,000 college fund on bad inventory. Vacrella founded her business as a side hustle in 2008, and after seling out of two limited runs of stock of stock of her waterproof tote bags, She Orreded Over 1,000 more in 2012. Her Factory Shipped Her Defectte Bags – Functional, but covered in black streaks – that she “Bladn’Te Sell,” and She Didn’T Have The Money to Buy More, She Said Last Year.

″ I went for broke and spent my kids’ college money and bough a full container’s work (of bags), and they were all bad, so my heart sank, “said vaccarella.

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Vacrella knew she had a good product, but lacked the funds to recover quickly and worried it was the end for her business. She decides to donate the bags to Victims of Hurricane Sandy. Unexpectedly, some of the recipients came back to her, Asking: Where there are they buy more?

The new demand pushed vaccarella to find a factory and secure a $ 120,000 loan from a family friend to get bogg bag back up and running. The business now brings in roughly $ 100 million a yearAnd the Ordeal Taught Her to “Be Comfortable” Trusting Her Gut, She Said.

Success can require a relatively a relative to confidence, she added: “Somewhere in my mind, I think that I can do anything.”

Don’t be afraid to take a detour

When you have a snag, you can sometimes benefit from thinking creatively and changing your approach. Take it from Karen Robinovitz and Sara Schiller. Who co-founded the sloomoo instituteAn Interactive Slime Experience – Simlar to a Museum or “Play Space” – in October 2019 after realizing just how theraputic playing with the colorful go was.

They put $ 600,000 of Investment Money Towards Launching Their Slime Business, and Sold $ 1 Million Worth of Tickets in their first week. Then came the covid-19 pandemic, five months laater. The business let go of roughly 90 part-time Employees, Keeping Just the Co-CEOS, A BookKeper and Their Resident Slime-Maker.

But Robinovitz and Schiller Didn’t Close their doors. They Sold Slime Online, Hosted Virtual Slime-Making Camps for Kids, and Hosted Corporate Workshops for Companies like Google and Pfizer Until Fully Reopening in 2021.

Last year, the sloomoo institute brough in about $ 4.3 Million a month from in-Person Ticket Sales Across Across Five Us Locations, According to Documents reviewed by CNBC MAKE IT

“We want people to know that you can choose to try, get out there and do something that’s Never Been Done Before,” Schiler said. “After what we’ve both been through, what are we going to be afraid of now?”

Get out of your own way

You probally can’t run a successful business by entryly yourself. Shizu Okusa, Founder and CEO of Wellness Brand, Apothékary, Learned that lesson the hard way,

Her first business, A Cold-Pressed Juice Company Called Jrink, RAN for Seven Years but Ultimately Coldn’T Brought in Enough to Stay Afloat. Fresh Ingredients Were Expensive and Spoiled Quickly, And Okusa – Who Viewed Jrink as Her Baby – Struggled to Trust Her Team, Believing She Knew What was Best, She Said Last ear.

“One of the key Lessons, I Think, was getting out of my own way,” said okusa. “In terms of allowing and hiring people that was much better than I was in certain area of ​​business. Now, I just move aside. I have my strengths and give my we Weaqnesses Away.”

This is a Common Piece of Advice, Both Entrepreneurial and otherwise. “Trust the process or fix what’s broken if you Always have to micromanage,” Billionaire entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban Wrote on social media platform x last year.

Okusa Runs Apothékary by Hiring People who are smarter than she is, and work to enable them to do their jobs without roadblocks, she says. Her Business Burght in Over $ 20 Million in Annual Revenue as of November 2024, According to Documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

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