We hear the phrase "The hard times make you stronger," which means we must work harder to make the hard times make us stronger.

Now that’s really thought-provoking.

Epictetus, one of my favorite Greek Stoic philosophers, who lived from approximately 50 AD to 135 AD, stressed that our reactions to circumstances reveal our true character.

A quote of his captures this sentiment: "It is difficulties that show what men are." This means that our true nature is revealed through how we deal with challenges and adversities.

Epictetus was born into slavery in the city of Hierapolis, now part of modern-day Turkey. Yet, his influential teachings and writings on Stoic philosophy, stressed the development of self-control and resilience in the face of suffering. That speaks to me.

While he did not write his teachings down, his thoughts were recorded by his student, Arrian, in works known as the "Discourses" (link here) and the "Enchiridion" or "Manual."

I love the quote from Epictetus when he says difficulties show a person's real character.

As a business owner, your character is tested daily. When things are tough, the real essence of who we are is squeezed out of us.

Epictetus’ principle that we need to let hard times make us stronger is testing us right now!

We are updating our “SAM” Report - i.e. the U.S. Government’s System for Award Management. This allows us to officially document our existence so we can do business with the federal government.

In previous years, this certification process was handled by Dun & Bradstreet, a corporation that provides commercial data, analytics, and insights for businesses.

Founded in 1841 in New York City, it’s one of the oldest and most established companies in the field of commercial data. Dun & Bradstreet collects and aggregates information on businesses and corporations. This includes data on credit history, business-to-business sales and marketing, risk exposure, and much more.

They’re widely recognized for their “DUNS Number,” a unique nine-digit identifier for businesses, which is used to establish a business credit profile. With a database of over 300 million business records globally, its analytics are used to help make credit decisions, determine marketing efforts and much more.

“So what,” you say?

The federal government no longer contracts with Dun & Bradstreet. They have their own extremely flawed system, probably selected as the lowest bidder.

What used to take hours for confirmation/verification now takes days, even weeks.

The system repeatedly asks for the same information in varying formats.

You are trapped in a two to three-day cycle to get the new requested information or you must start the process over again. Often, information requests are contradictory.

This has been going on for 25 days.

No one answers the phone (Customer No Service) plus there are two different systems for email responses. Guess how we found that out?

A quote from Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher, stressed the importance of individuality and self-determination, “That which does not kill me makes me stronger."

So, our next move? We’re getting stronger.

We contacted our Congressional Representative to run interference with Government Services Administration (GSA) that SAM Report falls under. We report their “Customer No Service” on all social media.

And finally, we’ll go to the media.

My Lesson?

When I run into difficulties – which we all – we will use those difficulties to think through, around and over (strategize) ways to get the results we want!

We are determined.

We are stronger.

We will not be denied.

We will win…some way, somehow.

Join me with this mindset!