Chad Silverstein delivers a short, first-person reflection about handling major life and business setbacks by viewing them as temporary “blips.” He recounts losing a major client (Time Warner), which forced layoffs and eventually led to a stronger, more focused business, and a painful divorce that ultimately healed and led to remarriage and closeness with his children. A recurring coach figure, Chet, repeatedly reframes crises as blips — temporary, instructive, and survivable. The piece’s practical takeaway: build inner resilience and community now so you can withstand and learn from future blips; don’t withdraw when hit, and recognize recovery may take longer than hoped.
Chapters
One of my favorite mantras that I picked up around on my built lead journey was vision over visibility. Every week, Chet would come in on Wednesdays at 3 o' clock and we'd have our one on one practice. And I'd given him an update since the last practice. I'd share my productive actions, what I'm working on. I would share anything that happened in the past week that was really hard. And there were times where, boy, over 14 years, there was some really hard stuff to stand out for me, the biggest, and that was when at work, I lost my biggest client, Time Warner, as a client that I spent a couple years servicing. And I remember the way it went down was just, it was heartbreaking for me because of how I poured myself in and how the decision got made, which was when new management came in and just made a decision and they tried to cut our fees in half and it was impossible for us to still service them, so we dropped it. And I think the impact that that had on my business at the time, knowing that I'm gonna have to lay people off for the first time in 15 years, the impact on our revenue and the feeling of failure. You know, I built another office for this. And I remember Chet looked at me and he said, it's a blip. I said, what's a blip? He said, it's temporary, it's temporary. He's like, you'll learn a lot from it and you're gonna be okay. He's not worried. And I said, you know, it's easier for you to say you're not here. You don't have to deal with this mess, you don't have to rebuild, you don't have to fire everybody. And of course, you know, looking back, it was one of the best things that ever happened. You know, we were able to trim the fat in our company and get rid of people who didn't deserve to be there. We got more focus on the better clients because we had taken so much focus off of them to go service this big 500 pound gorilla. And I didn't have to jump on these Friday scorecard conference calls with nine people who made me feel bad that our numbers were incredible. But it wasn't good enough for them because they had to report to investors. It was the day that I realized I will never have one of these big 500 pound gorilla clients ever again. It gave me that clarity. It took two years to rebuild, to come back and be stronger, and to jump up, break new records. And that's what Chet called the Blip. And now looking back, it's funny, it does seem like a blip, but at the time, it sure didn't. And you have to be able to kind of see beyond today when you've got the really, really hard stuff. I talked to a friend the other day who said he's going through a really hard time in his business. Really hard time. You know, you just. There's nothing to say in that moment. And you don't tell people it's going to get better. I don't want to hear that. But, you know, and believe that, you know, a year or two from now, it probably will be better for that person in one way or another, whatever direction it takes them, it's probably meant to be. And it'll. It'll be something that hopefully they'll have clarity on down the road. And my other one was when I got divorced. So personally, I. I got divorced, and it was a really tough one for me. I was living with my best friend at the time and wasn't my soulmate. And so I made a decision. It was the most painful decision of my life. And again, here's Chet helping me through it and told me, it's a blip. Time will heal. And of course, he was right. Time has healed. Things have gotten better. I got remarried, very happy, very close with my children. And thank God everything happened the way it was supposed to happen. And even though it was really hard, it was hard to see it while I was going through was a blip. It was a hard blip. Where are your blips? What are you going through? Are you in one right now? If you're not, are you ready to get hit with one? This is why we build a strong core, so that when that. When that one comes and that storm comes, it could be a divorce, it could be a bankruptcy. It could be your business closes down. It could be you lose your top person, and then you got to jump back in. It could be a tragedy. Health storms are coming. Build your core now, and when you get hit, when you get hit, remind yourself it's a blip. As hard as it's going to be, hopefully you'll have people in your life that can help you. But things are temporary. Things do pass, and time will heal. Recognize it. And hopefully, if you're going through something right now, you've got some people that you can lean on. Don't go dark. And hopefully you're coming out of the blip soon. But just remember, the blip could be longer than you want it to be.
