As hard as it seems in the moment, adversity and constraints build businesses and, I’d argue, character.
After years of drought and months of bushfire, many regional business owners were well through the gamut of emotions when 
COVID hit our shores, our lives and our livelihoods. As a business coach, it is normal that I might have a client who is experiencing this level of drama and challenge in their business at any given time – supply chain interruption, severe competition, sudden death, illness or accident in the family, for example. The only difference, this time, was the shared experience.
There are three types of courage. The first I call physical courage, the one most people are familiar with from movies: charging a machine-gun nest, running into a burning building. The second I call moral courage: where someone stands up and speaks their truth or calls out injustice, abuse, fraud or inequality.
The third type I call everyday courage, when to just walk into your business, to face more of the unending sameness, takes a phenomenal amount of strength and courage. There are also members in our local communities with physical, mental, or emotional pain who quietly wrestle with finding the courage and strength to just go about their daily lives.
This is the courage to put aside that fleeting moment of bitterness and resentment, when it seems like your metro friends don’t understand that your businesses aren't suddenly down 30% due to COVID-19; regional businesses owners (not just farmers) had been down over 40% year on year - and yet the drought (which hasn’t broken yet), is all but forgotten.
And yet you show up every day, somehow finding the optimism to re-open, rebuild, rehire and move on.
It is an honour to work with regional founders and business owners. Thank you for teaching me the meaning of courage.
Mandy Walker is an expert-in-residence at the University of New England's SMART Region Incubator. She delivers founders the Entrepreneurs Leverage Program - a 12-month, high-impact, experiential program designed to help regional business owners grow and master their business, whether startup or multi-million-dollar enterprise.
