It is not hard times which destroy entrepreneurs so much as the feelings of panic and despair which can take hold during those hard times.

The thought that panic and despair are irrational should itself be a source of strength to the entrepreneur: if he can hold on to that thought in a crisis, panic and despair lose all their power over him.

There are other truths about business life which can be positive assets in adversity. Unlike many of the “happy thoughts” found in self-help manuals, every single of one of them is a proven fact:

1   Read the biographies of great or highly successful people and you will find practically all of them found themselves in situations worse than the one you are now in, and have felt as bad as you are now feeling;

2   Every mistake you make can be turned to your advantage, if only you reflect on it, analyse what you did wrong, and resolve not to do the same in future;

3   You are a lot tougher than you think, but you can only discover that through trials and tests – you are capable of bearing a level of adversity that would shock you if someone told you about it in advance;

4   Nothing worthwhile was ever easy;

5   When something is not working, attempt another approach – you always have options, if only you sit down and think about them;

6   Extraordinary rewards demand extraordinary effort – you have chosen to walk a path most do not walk, so you must expect what most never experience;

7   Your situation is never as bad as you imagine it is in your darkest moments;

8   The best cure for despair is work – while success is never guaranteed, things will probably get a little better, and you will certainly feel a lot better, if, instead of sitting around moping and whining about how bad things are, you take action and actually do something, however insignificant, to try to improve things;

9   Success usually comes slowly, one tiny, imperceptible step at a time, until, one day, you will look back and realise you have come a lot further than you thought;

10  Only adversity makes the strong man stronger and the wise man wiser – it is therefore necessary;

11  There is no situation so bad that someone did not go on to find great success from a similar situation or worse;

12  Everyone faces obstacles, but there is no obstacle that someone, somewhere, sometime has not overcome;

13  While birth, education, connections, looks, physical health, personal skills, high intelligence, etc can all be useful advantages, there are people who have found success without them – if you have an entrepreneurial personality, you can rise from almost any situation to wealth;

14  Few people achieve great success who did not first undergo a prolonged period of preparation by fire; and

15  You will find that there is a definite Providence which protects you when you act courageously.