Chad Silverstein reflects on finding silver linings in hard times and how people with strong personalities have a responsibility to stay positive. He credits influential people in his life for shaping this outlook.
Chapters
There are some people who just have an amazing ability to always find the silver lining in any situation. I was blessed when I first started my career to have a partner who was the most optimistic individual I've ever met in my life. And thank God I'm married right now to someone who's like that as well. And I tend to catastrophize things, so I could play devil's advocate and kind of worry about things. And I won't go too dark on it, but I definitely will paint a picture that many times will be an assumption or unrealistic. And I usually have to, you know, talk to someone, my builder. They'll kind of pull me out of it. And over the years, I've been able to shorten that gap where it doesn't take me so long to kind of rebound from it. But when you have people in your life, and hopefully you do, who are always positive, and no matter what happens, they kind of find that spark of, like, something good that can come from this, you realize that in almost every situation, no matter how bleak it is, you can usually, if you try, find something positive that can come out of this. And the way you do that is you figure out what you can learn from the experience so that one, you don't repeat something that you don't want to ever happen ever again or, you know, to, you know, obviously get you out of the current situation that you might be in. And I know I've shared this before, but, you know, when I went through some tough things in my business, and Chet would say, you know, this is a blip, and he would consider a blip maybe a couple years. And I used to laugh at him and think that that's. That's crazy because that's not a bl. But then you look back and you realize that sometimes going through a really tough time in your life, it is a blip. And sometimes the best things ever come out of the darkest times. And I think that's a really important reminder for everybody to remember. And if you're going through something right now, you know, the challenge is, you know, what can you find? What can you learn from the situation? What could you share with someone else if other people are involved? And how can you come out of it stronger? And you may not be able to see it now. Maybe you'll be able to see it later, and maybe you won't. But despite the fact that you have no control over the results of things that are going on, you have control over how you respond to it, and that's important to kind of own that to mindset. You know, I would say being, having a positive mental attitude and being optimistic. Some people are wired more heavily towards that way of being, and a lot of people are not. Depression's a real thing. And people who have not or don't know what it's like to have depression can't really understand or put themselves in your shoes. So obviously, if you need to get help for something like that, you get help. But the people who don't have a problem that needs, you know, health, a professional health care's, you know, attention, you have no excuse, zero excuse. You, you got to stop ruminating in your head and you got to start working really hard at being positive. I always say, remember, you know, you, your face is not your face. Your face is public property. You don't have to look at your face every day. Everybody else does. So don't be walking around Debbie Downer pouting and putting everyone else in a bad mood. Individuals who have a very strong personality, they control a room they can walk in and they can literally, it's like a bomb went off and everybody's just in a bad mood because that one person changed the mode of everything. Or you can have someone come in and they light it up, know, because they're just got that big personality and they have that type of influence. And so if you're one of those individuals, you can't take that lightly. You have to understand that's a responsibility and, you know, it's something that you really, you need to own that. So find the, the silver lining. Figure out what you can learn from those situations, make the best of hard situations, embrace the unchosen suffering that you might be going through, and know that many times the best, best things can come out of those situations. And all you have to do is look back at your life and find those examples to basically cement and bolt down this belief and way of living your life.
