“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” – Ecclesiastes 1:9

When you’re facing failure, defeat or flat-out disaster, you can safely ignore anything that’s been written on the subject for the last hundred years. Seriously.

I talk about careers resembling roller coaster rides all the time but knowing that life is full of ups and downs doesn’t make those horrifying drop-offs any easier to stomach. And bouncing back from a big fall is not like falling off a log. It takes character and tenacity.

That said, I’m not sure how important it is for you to know that in advance of or even after the fall, for that matter.

The media’s obsession with entrepreneurial failure, comeback stories, and the hacks of the rich and famous may very well do us more harm than good. Surviving adversity has nothing to do with how anyone else did it and everything to do with finding the strength within you to overcome obstacles and persevere.

After suffering gut-wrenching defeat you’re probably better off drowning your sorrows, doing some soul searching, then getting right back up on the horse rather than wasting time trying to gain some sort of insight or inspiration from articles or books. As for support, that will always come from those close to you, not bloggers or authors.  

I realize there is a certain irony in my writing about this, but the point is that you don’t need to read this or anything else to survive the rollercoaster of life. It’s more about tapping into whatever it is that’s special about you, whether that’s your relentless drive, incomparable smarts, tough tenacity, neurotic need to fix things or that annoying voice in your head that won’t stop reminding you that nothing you do is ever good enough.

Truth is, what does it for me or anyone else is not the same as what does it for you. And indulging in that sort of folly will only slow down your recovery and lead to lost opportunity from making the wrong choices when you could have made the right ones.

When things go wrong, don’t bother searching for answers; you won’t find any. King Solomon was right. There is nothing new under the sun.

Image credit A. Duarte / Flickr