Know yourself and being self aware of your weaknesses and strengths. You need to understand yourself in all aspects being totally vulnerable so you can see the masks that you create for yourself when fear confronts you and it makes uncomfortable and more.
Resilience has been described as the ability to withstand adversity and bounce back from difficult life events. Times are not easy now. How do we develop greater resilience to withstand the challenges that keep being thrown at us? In this interview series, we are talking to mental health experts, authors, resilience experts, coaches, and business leaders who can talk about how we can develop greater resilience to improve our lives.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Krisztian Riez.
Krisztian Riez is a PR Consultant for Condo Control along with being a mental health advocate speaking on topics such as depression and anxiety along with helping his community to connect to like minded resources.
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory?
Imoved to Australia when in my early twenties in which on the first day I got scammed on a rental unit loosing a big chunk of my savings in the process. Since day one even before Australia I had to become resilient and adopt strategies in resilience due to the many life challenges that were put on me in childhood to my professional career.
Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?
I was trying to obtain a partnership deal with a highly prolific brand. I tried a different approach each time and failed six times in a row in meetings with the brand, value proposition to the brand or inadequate brand strategy. But I didn’t stop adapting and trying again in which the General Manager of the brand was impressed by my tenacity and ability to adapt to what was being said by the brand in what they wanted and needed. I learned never give up and if one approach doesn’t work try another and another and another until that approach or strategy connects with what you are trying to do.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Condo Control stands out for me by its very successful and adaptable and transparent style in management along with a strong positive company culture. An example of this is every two weeks we nominate staff members of our team that helped out us when we needed it along with exemplifying Condo Controls main pillars.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
I am grateful for a gentleman by the name of Carlos Wolfe he was a mentor to me in ways indirectly and directly. I remember I was struggling with what direction to take in life as family was pushing me in one direction and I felt compelled for something else. Carlos told me when people think what you are doing is crazy it means you are on the right track and keep doing that.
Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. We would like to explore and flesh out the trait of resilience. How would you define resilience? What do you believe are the characteristics or traits of resilient people?
I define resilience as the ability to keep moving forward no matter what challenge is put in front of you. The traits of resilient people I would say are: strong minded, adaptable ie can change their perspective to a problem they are having and adopt another perspective if that means they will solve the issue they are having as well they need to be confident in themselves in what they are doing.
Courage is often likened to resilience. In your opinion how is courage both similar and different to resilience?
Courage is the ability to do something when your fear sets in and tells you not to do that thing. Resilience is seeing that fear in front of you and pushing through it no matter what, no matter the time it takes or the strategy you need to figure out the problem you are having .
When you think of resilience, which person comes to mind? Can you explain why you chose that person?
To me it wouldn’t be a person it would be a group of people: I think for me when I think of resilience I think of people who are undergoing chemo therapy fighting cancer each day of their life to survive to be healthy. They are epitome of resilience: they don’t give up and keep fighting for their right to live and be free from cancer.
Has there ever been a time that someone told you something was impossible, but you did it anyway? Can you share the story with us?
I have many people tell me what I am doing is impossible, but I still did it anyway. An example was when I was living in New Zealand and a work collogue of mine was bragging how she ran a marathon. I looked at her and said how much training do you need to run a marathon: of course she said over six months of training the minimum. I looked back at her and being it was Friday I told her I am running 50 km this Sunday no training. Of course she told me it was crazy and impossible and I couldn’t do it which made me tell myself I could and can. When the Sunday came I ran 48 km in $25.00 shoes before I had to stop running due to pain.
Did you have a time in your life where you had one of your greatest setbacks, but you bounced back from it stronger than ever? Can you share that story with us?
One of my biggest setbacks was when I first arrived to Australia; I paid 6 months rent for apartment unit thinking this will be so easy and fun to just relax and enjoy. However when I arrived on my birthday I found out that I scammed and had no place to live. I booked into a five star hotel for the night and celebrated my birthday. Then the next day I got to work and got a job and then another job and then after some time got into a marketing role which then built into the career that I have now.
How have you cultivated resilience throughout your life? Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency? Can you share a story?
My whole childhood till I left home gave me multiple skills in harnessing and developing my resilience that I have today. When I was child I dealt with severe traumatic events to being bullied severely in school to loosing in multiple sports competitions learning about business at the age of 6. An example I would say was when I was 10 my uncle owned a ice cream truck. He gave me some ice-cream and told me it was my job to get to people to attract people to the ice cream truck. At first I approached people and they ignored me then I tried different tactics until one grabbed peoples attention which then would flock over to my uncles ice cream truck.
Resilience is like a muscle that can be strengthened. In your opinion, what are 5 steps that someone can take to become more resilient? Please share a story or an example for each.
1) Know yourself and being self aware of your weaknesses and strengths
You need to understand yourself in all aspects being totally vulnerable so you can see the masks that you create for yourself when fear confronts you and it makes uncomfortable and more.
2) Being confident in whatever you put mind into
Confidence is key and when you approach challenging situation with lack of confidence you can be assured that situation will be able to control you and put you on your knees. If your confident when you go into a situation your perspective is clear and objective and that confidence momentum will allow you to get through that challenge.
3) If you don’t ask the answer is always no
If you are wanting to do something , go somewhere and don’t know how you are going to get there ask and keep asking until the is yes. If you don’t ask your fear will control you and the answer will always be no.
4) Change your approach
If one approach in dealing with a challenge doesn’t work keep trying different variations and different approaches until one approach sticks and works.
5) It is not always what you know but who you know
Your skill set can always be improved and their will always be someone with a stronger skill set than yourself. However if you build your professional network and add value to those in it you can be assured when you come across a challenge all you will need to do is ask your network for some ideas or solutions and you will be able to find a solution from their replies or contacts.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
For me currently I want to inspire a mental health movement; if we can help everyone with their mental health through resources and services communities would most certainly be impacted positively by the movement.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can follow me and contact me on our company website www.condocontrolcentral.com
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!