Last week I had the tremendous honor of attending the Black Enterprise Magazine Women of Power Summit in Orlando; it was FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!
The workshops were perfect in that they addressed current issues affecting African American women today: economic issues, finances, career, and most important redefining yourself in these difficult financial times.
I had the honor of participating in many ways, I did a panel discussion, a few radio interviews and filmed an episode of The Black Enterprise Business Report on redefining ones-self in difficult times. My panel was very cathartic because it gave me a chance to talk about my experiences of the last 18 months. It was called surviving the "F" bomb, recovering from a failure. We were able to talk about achieving success and then having a set back. How do you deal and cope and bounce back. Some of the key points was to view failure as an event in your life not a definition of your person; to not internalize it but view it and learn from it; see it as an opportunity in your life to learn, grow and change direction; ask the honest question of what was your role and responsibility in the crisis and how could you avoid those pitfalls later.
In closing I spoke about the fact that the Chinese character for crisis and opportunity is the same. They mean the same thing and and are mirror images of each other. Crisis presents an opportunity and opportunity can create crisis of some form or the other which is usually that scary word called change.
I think that this Chinese character is truly empowering in every sense of the word. There are many discussions of the real interpretation but the notion is empowering or it can give you a little hope that when you experience a crisis in your life it can sometimes also be an opportunity for you to grow, learn and move forward in ways you never imagined. And when you have an opportunity presented in your life be prepared for the crisis that change brings with it. Embrace it, be prepared for it and be grateful for unexpected blessings in your life but remember that nothing worth having comes with out a little hard work.
Remember, however, some bad events and crisis are just bad events and it may only be our faith, hope and resilience that can help us to survive. The opportunity maybe our ability to "stand up" in the face of adversity. I hope your faith and hope carries you through.
Here are is an actual intrepretation of the Chinese character.
They are pronounced wei1 ji1.
And ji means "opportunity; crucial point"
So literally wei plus ji equals "danger" plus "oportunity".
However in reality, a crisis is still a dangerous state of affairs - regardless of the language.
Crisis wei ji still means "a situation that has reached an extremely difficult or dangerous point". However, a dangerous situation can become an opportunity if wei ji becomes zhuan3 ji1.
Zhuan ji means "turn for the better". Zhuan means "turn into". So zhuan ji means "turn into opportunity".
In this sense, the Chinese symbol crisis can mean "opportunity" in a time of "danger".
wei1 ji1 si4 fu2 meaning "beset with danger; danger lurking in every direction".