Adversity builds your EQ

EQ is your Emotional Quotient; it’s how well you handle your emotions in times of distress. Research says that EQ is 24 times more powerful than IQ. Wow! No wonder people are so illogical. How many times have you heard the line…I Love You…only to see the relationship end. Statistics say that this happens to 50% of married couples. Sad.

Going back to our failed business adventure, with all the problems brewing, the worst is when I have to talk to seven investors who lost all their money. Around P300, 000 to P800, 000 each. This is probably the most difficult thing I have ever done in my professional life. I can still recall the agony of it all. The sleepless nights! The fear of receiving a text message from them…or worse a call. My experience made me so much tougher mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Good thing I didn’t need to be tougher physically as there were no glasses or fists thrown at me.

(I’ll share some tips about this in a future blog entitled How to talk with angry people. Can you think of a better title in a situation like this? Guess not.)

John Maxwell sums up the importance of our emotions in his book Failing Forward. He mentions that “There is one major difference between average people and successful people … it’s their reaction to failure.”