Christine Perakis - The Resilient Leader: Life Changing Strategies to Overcome Todays Turmoil and Tomorrows Uncertainty

How Did I Get Here?

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.

Mark Twain

Many of us have encountered a Category 5 stormwhether the storm is launching and growing a business, drowning in debt, having the roof blow off a relationship, or actual flooding in the streets. Even prior to the calamitous events that inspired The Resilient Leader , I was no stranger to extreme Category 5level events. Starting, growing, and expanding ten businesses of my own; helping hundreds of others do the same on five continents; navigating boats across oceans; and enduring heartbreak, extreme financial distress, and several other natural disasterslike devastating earthquakes and firesare the kinds of storms I have grown adept at weathering.

Despite my experiences with natural and other disasters, I never gave much thought to hurricanes before moving to the Caribbean. Im from California, where people move for the weather. I have had a lot of experience and training in navigating the elements. I was a professional rescuer on the mountains and at sea; a one-hundred-ton-boat captain responsible for steering people through all kinds of weather and potential actual disaster. I also spent my career guiding others through their own business challenges as a lawyer, strategic business advisor, entrepreneur, and C-suite executive. I was confident I could handle anything Then I found myself all alone in the middle of the most powerful storm to ever strike the Atlantic Basin; it was tearing relentlessly through the British Virgin Islands, my adopted island-nation. In those first terrifying moments, I had to wonder, What in the world am I doing here, alone in this storm? I should have had a better plan for my own lifes catastrophes. Everything I thought I could rely on was blown away with my roof: I had to reinvent who I was to survive .

In the darkest hours of the first hurricane experience, I grasped that my tendency to isolate myself when things were tough or uncomfortable kept me behind an impervious wall that jeopardized my life in the storm. I am certain that there are others who find themselves disempowered, isolated, mindlessly going it alone in their own Category 5 storms. I want to share with you the tools I uncovered to thrive no matter what challenges you face. No one should ever be buried alive by circumstances beyond their control. Our salvation, competence, confidence, and empowerment to get throughas I discovered the hard waydepend on the ability to become our own rescuer, a Storm Warrior .

Anyone who has experienced the storms of life business, money, career, family, or natural disastersis a Cat 5 survivor. Becoming a Storm Warrior is the difference between being a victim and using these forces to flourish. My habitual behavior put my life in danger in that first hurricane; I was defenseless against its power. With the storms grip on me in the darkness, trapped in my shelter, I could either give up or learn from my mistakes, so I and others would never find themselves alone in a Category 5 storm.

Once the winds died down, leaving me to fend for myself in a post-apocalyptic landscape, I discovered what it would take to get me through the experience to thrive. I learned how being of service could turn strangers into community as well as how critical communication was to my survival. Most of all, I came to accept that I could not handle a Category 5 situation alone. I had to learn how to ask for help fast, because a second Cat 5 hurricane hit exactly two weeks later. In the aftermath, I turned the most terrifying and traumatic experience of my life into one that allowed me to flourish on my island for those months and beyondmy world changed forever.

Ive often been asked, Why did you stay? On some level, I knew that being on island was purposeful. Although my first answer was always I felt fully prepared, I couldnt explain it beyond that. Being there, I could protect my property prior to, during, and in the aftermath of the storms. I thought, How bad could it get? I had the gold standard of hurricane protectiongalvanized metal panels screwed into the walls of the building with concrete screws to cover my windows and doors. Id been offshore in gale force winds before. I wasnt afraid of weather, especially considering my preparedness. I am, after all, a lifelong mariner. The storm was only at Category 3 at the time the ports were closing, a far less dangerous scenario than its arrival. Id been in other life-threatening situations. It was my role in life to navigate others to safety in their lives and their businesses. I had no idea that all the predicting, planning, and preparation in the world wouldnt be enough. I had to become my own rescuer.

While you may never have endured a Category 5 hurricane, undoubtedly you have or you will face an extreme Cat 5 event, from other natural disasters to the many storms of lifedeath, business, relationships, career, money, and anything in between that can render you feeling helpless and uncertain of your survival. Master the Seven Barometers of Resilience introduced in the following chapters to become your own Storm Warrior and prosper in the aftermath of any storm.