“Fall seven times, stand up eight” - Japanese Proverb.

It sounds like a simple resilience poster until your brain does the math (that's where mine instantly goes).

If you fall seven times, you only get seven chances to stand back up. So, where does the eighth stand come from?

*queue me Googling the answer and falling down and deep, deep rabbit hole

It turns out this proverb is deeply philosophical (duh...) The less obvious part is that we don’t START standing. We start on the ground, both literally and figuratively. The first stand happens before any fall. That initial rise is part of the count, and it matters because it reframes what “getting back up” actually means.

Quite literally, we start our lives as babies on the ground. We need loved ones to prop us up until we can stand on our own. In doing so, we fall over and over until we get it.

Professional life is the same. We often start a new role "on the ground." We learn, we adapt, and we rely on the people around us to help us find our footing.

We fall. We get back up. And we shouldn't forget that just standing up in the first place is an achievement.

Rather than a few simple words on resilience, I think this is more about indomitability.