The Quiet Truth Behind Resilience
This week I attended a resilience and wellbeing session at Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) with Jane Marie Chen, co-founder of Embrace Global. I expected an inspiring impact story. I didn’t expect how honest it would feel.
For more than a decade, Embrace helped save over one million premature babies in underserved regions. Global recognition followed — meeting with US president, support from iconic figures like Beyoncé , moments most founders quietly dream about.
And then came the part we rarely hear:
- The near acquisition that collapsed.
- The financial unraveling.
- The decision to shut the company down.
Jane didn’t frame it as a heroic comeback.She described exhaustion, confusion, powerlessness. She tried the things we associate with healing — retreats, meditation, even diving with sharks. But none of it touched the real work. The real work was sitting with what she had been running from.
One sentence stayed with me: "you can’t build meaningful impact while secretly trying to heal your own pain through achievement." That felt uncomfortably familiar.
She spoke about presence — entrepreneurship like surfing.You don’t control the wave. You stay with it. You respond with awareness and love. And then self-compassion- The hardest part. The mission was beautiful. But underneath it was a younger version of herself that never felt good enough.
I felt that too.
Many of us — especially those shaped by high-expectation environments — learned early that being second meant invisibility. So we keep pushing, even when nobody is chasing us anymore. We call it purpose. Sometimes it’s fear wearing the mask of purpose.
What stayed with me after the session wasn’t a resilience framework. It was something quieter: Impact that lasts rarely comes from urgency. It comes from people who learn how to stay whole while building. Entrepreneurship isn’t a short race where we sacrifice ourselves to win. It’s a long unfolding where our inner life quietly determines how far our work can go. Taking care of ourselves isn’t stepping away from the mission. It’s protecting the instrument through which the mission happens.
If you’re curious about the work behind Embrace, this short video tells the story beautifully: https://lnkd.in/gpjurFQP
If this tension feels familiar in your own journey, you’re not alone — and I’m always open to quiet conversations with fellow builders navigating the same questions.