With all the focus on success it’s easy to overlook the valuable lessons we can learn from the more difficult parts of our journey. Below, you’ll find some very interesting insights from some of the most fascinating members of the community.

Jaclyn Albergoni

Suffering, as difficult as it is, will often teach you more than success ever could. It’s an unfortunate truth, but also a profound one. When you’re able to overcome and truly heal from the challenges you face, you discover who you really are. For me, suffering has been one of my greatest teachers. Read More>>

Juda LaCount

Suffering taught me how to appreciate the small things in life. Waking up, breathing, every meal, every car ride, just the act of existing above ground and beyond confinement. A lot of people don’t like to discuss the struggle, but for me, it shaped my ethos and my mindset on how I approach many things in life. Read More>>

Christine Solomon

Suffering taught me the value of persistence in a way success never could. Success can be motivating, but it is often comfortable. Struggle forces you to make a choice to give up or to keep going even when there is no guarantee of a reward. Read More>>

Luis Telles-Cornejo

Suffering taught me the value of authenticity in a way that success never could. When you’ve experienced rejection, invisibility, or the weight of not being accepted for who you are, you learn to recognize what truly matters. Growing up, much of my pain came from hiding parts of myself to survive. I hid my queerness, my femininity, my voice, my creativity. Read More>>

MUSUBI

Resilience and gratitude. The hardest parts of my life are what shaped me the most. I don’t share my past for sympathy, I share it because it’s real. It’s human. I’ve been through things that forced me to grow up fast, but they taught me how to hold myself through it. How to stay soft without breaking. Read More>>

Mark Cross

That life goes on regardless of whether or not I want to go on with it. I can isolate and feel sorry for myself as much as I want. But, I realized that doesn’t get me anywhere. I am in control of my life and emotions, not the other way around. Bad things happen to everyone. I am not unique in that regard. Read More>>

Jen Pourvasei

The past few years have brought a lot of personal challenges, and that suffering cracked my heart open in ways I never expected. Grief and setbacks gave me the chance to truly practice letting go of attachment to specific outcomes, and to take life one day—sometimes one moment—at a time, while still working toward the life I want. Read More>>

Evan Kilgore

I mean, the entertainment industry can be a brutal one – but I think woven into that is something so deeply satisfying that it’s intoxicating. The rounds upon rounds of notes on a script or a pilot that grind, that clash with each other, that confound and frustrate – all in service of a project that might ultimately go nowhere. Read More>>

Kevin Bouknight II

Suffering allows you to appreciate success – a process that one goes through when success is earned. When you experience success without working for what you attained, you devalue the purpose of what succeeding truly means. The root word of testimony is test. It is the act of sharing one’s personal experiences, encounters, and reflections of God’s work in our lives. Read More>>

Don Faro

Growing up in the projects in Fort Valley, Georgia, I learned that survival breeds gratitude. I’m a millionaire now, but I still shop like that little project kid because I know money is a tool, not a trophy. Success never taught me hunger. Read More>>

Dave Hondel

When I was growing up, my mom remarried and my stepfather did not see eye to eye with my brother and I, so there was always tension in the house. My mom was a housekeeper for many years and did everything she could to make ends meet. We barely made it. Read More>>

Sydney Staehle

Ah, suffering. Something we all experience in this lifetime. You can’t escape it, I have tried. I think the more I tried to run from it the more it came to haunt me. Pleasure and pain must exist together. Without either, we wouldn’t understand the meaning of them. Success walks hand and hand with suffering. That dream job? Read More>>

Evan James Henderson

When I turned 25, I hit the worst wall I’ve ever hit in my life. I was in a constant existential crisis, afraid I’d have a rare disease, and completely lost my joy in life. This was easily one of the (if not most) difficult parts of my life. And I know many young people are going through that right now. Read More>>

Lihi Orbach

Suffering is a hard word to use but I would say that I learn a lot from things that don’t go my way or that I’m disappointed by the outcome. I find that when happens the first thing that I ask myself is : what is the meaning behind this? What is this supposed to teach me? Read More>>

Brett Cassort

It’s taught me appreciation and gratitude. Every step of the way, every failure, rejection or disappointment that knocked me down built more and more resilience as I got back up to keep moving forward. So whenever I’ve achieved anything I would define as a success I think about how I got there. Read More>>