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The SWEETNESS OF ADVERSITY
Reprint of article from February 22, 2008 issue of Columbus Business First
The Sweetness of Adversity
By Jennifer Hodroge
Merry Korn was at a crossroads.
After a number of years with a national medical management company, Korn felt the inner winds of change blowing, guiding her toward somewhere where she believed her work would make a difference. She wanted out and faced many questions from friends and family about the logic behind abdicating her cushy marketing job, where she was a senior vice president.
“It was so scary and terrifying,” she says. “When I left there, I was making a good income, but nobody understood it. There were so may people who weren’t in my corner, but I realized I had to take another job.”
That she did, and two months later, the health-care facility that hired her as head of marketing her.
Armed with severance pay from the facility and unemployment compensation, Korn spent the next five months looking for work, and starting to learn how tough she could be.
“I always knew I was resilient, but I never knew I could be tested as much as I have been,” says the 51-year-old Korn, who is now owner of Pearl Interactive Network, a Columbus-based company that provides work experience and permanent job placement to people with physical challenges.”
Little did she know that the study of resiliency – defined by Webster’s dictionary as “the ability to recover strength, spirits, good humor quickly; buoyancy” – is a growing research field and something in which more people are taking a keen interest.
Al Siebert, director of the Portland, Ore.-based Resiliency Center, said of the speaking engagements he has scheduled for this year, 10 involve senior managers of U.S. government agencies whose budgets and staffing levels are so strained that they’re looking for ways to help those left become more resilient in delivering services.
FIX IT
An author who has researched and spoken on the subject for nearly two decades, Siebert says there are common traits people have that make them more resilient than others.
“One of the key elements of resiliency is problem solving,” he says, “and dealing with it in an outward way.”
The comment is echoed by Sharon Alvarez, who says resiliency and problem solving aren’t qualities relegated to entrepreneurs solely.
“It’s particular to all people who are successful,” she says. “We view CEOs very positively; we view athletes very well…but if you don’t train, you’re not going to win a medal at the Olympics,’ says the assistant professor of management and human resources and entrepreneurship at Ohio State University’s Center for Entrepreneurship.
ADAPTATION
Following her termination from the health-care company, Korn spent five months looking for work. She had offers, but wanted to stay in Columbus where her daughters were enrolled in school.
A career coach recommended she schedule informational interviews to look for her next position. She interviewed with the Columbus Medical Association in an effort to figure out how to use her sales and marketing skills.
Two months later, she got a call from the association and was asked to help raise money.
“I couldn’t live on what they paid me, but I was able to hire a person to work from home to do te work,” she says, and Pearl Interactive was born.
The Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission, a state agency that provides services to help people with disabilities find employment, found out what Korn was doing. They let her know about an available Ohio grant, which required her to hire 10 people. Later, she did just that, and today the company has several ongoing contracts with companies to do outbound calling – such as political surveys, lead generation and marketing. All her employees work from home.
“I hire the people who are the least employable,” she says, “and it’s not been an easy road.”
Korn, 51, found success and satisfaction in her business, but that did not prevent more obstacles from popping up, forcing her to re-examine her choice.
She once hired an independent contractor who was going through a very difficult personal situation, and eventually Korn stopped using her. Korn says she never expected the woman to call the Internal Revenue Service and claim Korn had wrongly classified her as a contractor when she should have been an employee.
For a time, Korn worried she might lose everything for which she had worked, and decided to settle the dispute, paying $10,000 in wages and legal fees.
“I was very young in the business and vulnerable,” says Korn, who says she’s learned that when similar events occur to hire a lawyer who specializes in the field in question.
Learning from adversity and one’s mistakes are also signs of a resilient person, says the Resiliency Center’s Siebert, “It’s an inner voice that says, ‘Somehow I am going to win; I am going to bounce back’”.
A BY-PRODUCT OF NECESSITY
Siebert and Alvarez said resiliency is mostly learned, with Alarez adding there’s a tenaciousness about successful people. She uses Henry Ford as an example, saying the founder of the Ford Motor Co. failed twice at businesses before launching the company that revolutionized manufacturing assembly.
“This is particular to al people who are successful,” Alvarez says.
Celia Crossley, owner of Celia D. Crossley & Associates, Ltd., a career coaching and leadership development firm based in Columbus, says people need to find their passion. “My vision is everyone in the world in the right job,” she says.
“In our business, we put people through a detailed career assessment, where they usually have a big ‘aha’ moment. Once they see it, they can go after it. If you don’t determine what you want to achieve personally, you’ll never get it,” she says.
“For most people, they have to define what ‘more’ is and go after that, whether it’s more time with family or the freedom to make decisions. People who are happiest in their work have control over work or time,” Crossley says.
That means people like Lucy Grosz, founder of Alta Vista Benefits, based in Columbus.
“I was in a job with a toxic boss. I was suffering from health problems, so I took a short-term leave,” Grosz says. “When I came back, I was let go.”
Grosz then had to find what she was passionate about. She did some small-business consulting for an insurance agency and found she really enjoyed that business. She got her insurance license and in January 2007, she started her business.
She came up with a niche, helping people find affordable health insurance coverage, and started talking to people. Facing barriers to her success, such as overcoming financing issues and the fear of not having the right experience, forced her to work hard.
“At first I was worried, because I didn’t have any direct sales experience. But, I care about people and I’ve found that’s more important than how much experience I have,” she says.
SEEING IT THROUGH
Merry Korn said the tribulations she’s encountered have been tough but rewarding.
One of the rewards came in the form of a letter from the wife of one of her employees, Tom Heska, who has been confined to a wheelchair for 29 years and can’t use his hands after falling off a ladder.
The day after Christmas 2006, Korn received an eight-page handwritten letter from his wife saying Korn had given the family the best Christmas gift they could have asked for.
“Tom has a great mind. When his wife came home every day, he finally got to talk about his day,” Korn says.
For Korn, the letter validated her struggles and reaffirmed the direction she has chosen. “It’s not all about money. The more successful I am, the more people I help. When I help people with employment, I help them with their livelihood.”
