Last weekend, I went to a gorgeous wedding up in Santa Barbara, my first time ever being up in the area and because I was a good guest, I stayed late enough to bid a bubble-blowing goodbye to the bride and groom, which rewarded me with the opportunity to snag some of the gorgeous leftover bouquets.

This morning, I noticed two flowers responding very differently to the same environment, despite having the same water and access to light but one is wilted and the other is thriving. Flowers can’t chose to respond differently – they’re reactive and aside from their ability to bend themselves toward light, they have little other recourse. I couldn’t help but smile because that’s exactly how we are in this very polarizing environment. And even at bare minimum, are you bending yourself toward light or succumbing to your situations?

For me, I’ve chosen not to use the R-word or read things about it. Frankly, the same opportunity to set goals, work hard and thrive is still available to us. The companies who have thrived most were oftentimes started in rugged economies and so, if that’s true, how can we be sad? Our competition could be wilting right now and we have the opportunity to thrive.

That’s not to be said that the current realities of this journey aren’t hard. I met with a client this past week that spoke of how he would break out in hives when he was doing his business full-time and they immediately went away when he was given an opportunity to make a full-time income and keep his business going on the side. That’s still entrepreneurship, folks. The only thing that isn’t is stopping all together. The rollercoaster is real but the rewards are going to be great. The foundations that we’re building now when things require us to work harder are only going to be rewarded when business booms once again.

The Einsteins, Franklins and Edisons had the same number of hours in a day, same days in a week and even bigger pitfalls than we could imagine, but they persevered. Given that we can press in or wilt is our choice.

For me and my business, we choose to thrive.