When Dreams Don’t Go as Planned: How Resilience and Reinvention Lead to Success

What do we do when our hopes and dreams are turned upside down? Whether we face career setbacks, personal challenges, or unexpected life changes, how we respond with resilience and reinvention is what truly matters. Do we persist, viewing the hurdles ahead as just another challenge to overcome? Or do we pivot, change direction, and seize the opportunity for reinvention and new ambitions?

I've lost count of the number of times I've heard the phrase "follow your passion" in the context of career advice. While well-meaning, it raises several issues when offered as guidance for achieving career success (life success, however, is an entirely different matter).

But what happens when your passion doesn’t put food on the table? What if that passion doesn’t align with the skills needed to make a living? (I speak from experience here – as a child, football was my everything. It was all I wanted to do, all I was going to do, until, at 16, I was told I simply wasn’t good enough to make it in the professional game.)

So, how do we react when, having followed our passion, we fall short? This is where the concept of career pivots comes into play—how we reinvent ourselves after facing obstacles.

Facing Career Setbacks: The Importance of Resilience

This very question came up during a recent recording of Extrology with the remarkable Pedro Couto Lopes. As a teenager, Pedro discovered a talent for art, winning awards in his native Portugal. He was exceptionally gifted, and after honing his craft at Portugal's leading art school – which he left home to attend at the tender age of 15 – he set his sights on a future of global exhibitions, critical acclaim, and international recognition.

You can listen to Pedro’s full story on the Extrology podcast here

At least, that was the dream. Reality, however, had other plans. What followed were some very dark times for Pedro (and I’m not revealing any confidences – Pedro bravely shared his struggles and the toll on his mental health during the podcast).

Pedro’s story is a poignant example of a truly gifted individual pursuing his passion with a clear, compelling vision. He left home at 15 to chase that dream, even moving to London in pursuit of success. Yet, despite his talent, when things didn’t go as planned, the fall was hard.

When Following Your Passion Isn’t Enough: Reinventing Your Path to Success

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. It’s one of resilience – of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps (or, in Pedro’s case, the bicycle clips) and reinventing one’s dreams and goals. Life is full of hurdles for all of us – challenges to overcome every day, no matter what talents we possess. (And I firmly believe that we all possess talents in some form. For some, they may be easier to spot or unlock, but we all have them.)

We often assign varying degrees of difficulty to the challenges we face, subconsciously grading them and assuming some are harder to overcome than others. However, all challenges are relative to the individual and their circumstances. What matters is our ability to respond with grit, determination, and resilience, taking ownership of the situation and rising to meet the challenge. While we may not choose the hurdles in front of us, we can always choose how we respond to them.

Turning Passion into Purpose – Without Sacrificing Stability

Not everyone who follows their passion makes a career out of it. Your passion might be something that takes you away from work entirely. Perhaps you have a different job that pays the bills and enables you to pursue your passion in your free time. There’s no right or wrong answer – only what’s right for you.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t follow your passion. Far from it. Pursue it to the ends of the earth if that’s what drives you. But if it doesn’t pay the bills, don’t let that defeat you. Pivot. Reinvent your career or path and find another way to make it part of your life. Resilience in the face of setbacks and the courage to reinvent yourself often leads to a renewed sense of purpose, and, ultimately, success.