THE RESILIENCE CYCLES

Entrepreneurship is often described as a journey, but in truth, it behaves more like a living organism — breathing, expanding, contracting, shedding, regenerating.

- Dolly Nina

Every founder eventually discovers that success is not a straight line; it moves in cycles, like seasons, like tides, like the quiet mathematics of the inner world. Resilience is not a trait you develop once and use forever. It is a pattern that invites you to understand the deeper ecology of your own psyche. And unless an entrepreneur recognises these cycles as part of the architecture of creation itself, she often mistakes them as personal failure.

The cycle usually begins with expansion. A spark, an idea, a realisation, a moment where inner clarity meets outer opportunity. This phase feels exhilarating — energy flows freely, the body feels charged, and intuition is sharp. In this stage, entrepreneurs believe they are unstoppable, divinely guided, and aligned with their highest potential. This is not an illusion; it is the truth of alignment. But every expansion demands an equal invitation to stabilise and deepen. And this is where the cycle begins to turn.

Inevitably, there comes a contraction. A pause, a delay, an unexpected setback, a sudden halt in momentum. For many entrepreneurs, this phase feels like betrayal — the universe withdrawing support just when everything seemed to be working. Yet, energetically and psychologically, contraction is not punishment. It is the composting phase, where the roots must grow stronger, where weaknesses reveal themselves not to shame us but to prepare us. No business expands endlessly. No soul grows without friction. No vision manifests without shedding what cannot sustain it. The contraction forces an entrepreneur to look inward — not for blame but for recalibration.