Written by: Dr. Hynd Bouhia, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
At the inception of the Bretton Wood financial institutions following the Second World War, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund saw their role as leading institutions to restore postwar countries. They paved the way for the missions of several other international development institutions launched after them. In fact, these institutions have seen their mission change from infrastructure development to the fight against poverty and now to the realization of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and all the financial support that comes with it.
Nevertheless, their mission's driving force has always been to strengthen population resilience against environmental and infrastructure degradation, economic, financial, and political challenges. Resilience helps world populations stave off persisting poverty, economic precariousness, lack of infrastructure. It also makes them embrace capacity building towards local inclusive and sustainable development.
Initially, the concept of resilience was borrowed from physics. The scientific meaning of resilience is indeed connected to materials and bodies’ strength against the surrounding chocks and their capacity to restore their shape and initial characteristics. This notion was integrated into psychological theory, where it described a person's capacity to overcome the most complicated events in their lives. In any given community, resilience represents the capacity to restore their sense of living following challenging experiences. In addition, resilience could be applied to a whole region, a group of individuals, or simply to an isolated person. The ability to stand back up after failure is referred to as “resilience” by the specialists.
People react differently by displaying various stages of resilience. Despite a complicated life and difficult events, some people find a way to restore their happiness and get a normal life after a failure or a terrible event. Other people, on the opposite, fall into depression and melancholy. Thus, the capacity to bounce back and to stand back up after falling is equivalent to their degree of resilience. Some need professional help from psychologist and psychoanalyst, and other need family and friends moral support. Their resilience will shape their mental strength and their capacity to cope with problems within their social group and work environment.
In the business world, there are different ways of being resilient and different mechanisms to grow resilient. Often, in the complicated and cruel business environment, where we navigate, resilience seems essential and stands in the priority line, along with technical credentials and management skills. To reach success in any discipline, there are several hurdles to overcome, in addition to episodes of failures that need to be accepted—it can be a long road. Thus, the type of resilience can dictate the level of success and responsibility any person could reach. Therefore, it is fundamental to reinforce it when it is lacking. The good news is that there are several tools available to help strengthen a person’s resilience despite her background or her history, allowing her to overcome the hurdles and come out of the problems stronger and grown-up.
Five steps to unleash inner resilience
Having gone through several business challenges myself, I learned from experience how five simple steps could strengthen oneself and unleash our inner resilience. By following these five simple steps, it becomes possible not only to reinforce oneself but also to feel completely reborn. Thus, the five main steps to resilience can become a roadmap for each one of us: (1) an internal anger against the struggle and the misfortune; (2) a self-inflicted challenge for self-empowerment and inner strength; (3) a desire to show strength and endurance to family and friends; (4) a sense of humor instead of feeling sorry; (5) and finding an activity to channel all those emotions through art, spirituality, sports or any other interest.
It is important to master these five steps and follow them diligently to keep your sanity, build self-confidence, and replenish your motivation and enthusiasm. This is the moment where you realize that failure is actually helping you grow stronger and more focused. On the opposite, falling into the victim role will only stave off the reality and deepen the sorrow.
For a women entrepreneur, this is when you envelop yourself with that crocodile skin and navigate through a men-dominated business world while nurturing your own resilience to have it ready whenever necessary. Thus, the best lesson for future generations is to be mentally prepared for life's most challenging events, to resist the many destroying chocks on the way.
Life surprises us when we least expect it. Besides movies, no one would have ever thought that the world could stop for a whole year due to an unknown virus. The scientific and digital developments have bluffed us into believing the invincibility of humanity and nations. The pandemic proves them wrong. The world economy was paralyzed. Human relationships were redefined. Borders were closed to contain the virus contagion and set up the necessary infrastructure for COVID-19 patients. This was the unexpected occasion to check the resilience of countrywide health infrastructures and security. Fortunately, the vaccine being produced at a record time was most comforting about humanity’s giant advances in the science of life and genetics.
In conclusion, in different stages in the business cycle and our personal lives, resilience is at the center of perseverance, success, development, happiness, and simply life.
Dr. Hynd Bouhia, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Dr. Hynd Bouhia has cumulated more than 20 years of professional experience in high-level and leadership positions, covering investments, financial structuring, entrepreneurship and sustainable development strategies. Hynd Bouhia was nominated by Forbes among the 100 most influential women in the world in 2008 and among the most influential women in Business in the Arab World in 2015, and honored as a member of the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 2018.
With a PhD from Harvard University (GSAS 1998), an Engineering degree from Ecole Centrale Paris (1995) and a Master from Johns Hopkins SAIS (2000), Hynd Bouhia started her career at the World Bank in Washington before joining Morocco’s Prime Minister as an economic advisor. She was appointed in 2008 as the Managing Director of Casablanca Stock Exchange. After that she structured and managed several investment and venture capital funds.
As the CEO of Strategica, she advises entrepreneurs, companies and institutions on economic intelligence, sustainable finance and growth strategies. Dr. Hynd Bouhia is the author of the motivational book for women entitled "Africa Girl, African Woman": How agile, empowered and tech-savvy females will transform the continent... for good".
