Thus far, we’ve looked at the experience of self-doubt — both personal and systemic — for climate entrepreneurs.

So what does this tell us about resilience?

By ‘resilience’, I don’t mean endlessly bouncing back from obstacles, or ignoring emotions in order to power ahead. Given the propensity towards burnout in the climate (and startup) communities, the expectation of this type of resilience can be unhelpful.

Instead, by ‘resilience’ I mean the confidence and ability to navigate life, regardless of self-doubt. To accept it and act anyway, without needing to vanquish it before moving forward.

In this section, then, we’ll look at three areas:

• 7 strategies that climate entrepreneurs use to manage their eco-anxiety

• The #1 differentiator that helps climate entepreneurs navigate self-doubt

• The types of support that climate entrepreneurs report as most helpful

(1) 7 strategies climate entrepreneurs use to manage their eco-anxiety

We’ve already looked at the four groups of climate entrepreneurs who seem most impacted by systemic self-doubt.

So how about the other end of the spectrum: people who see their action as the very antidote to climate despair?

Before we get there, an important point: it’s not that these people never feel eco-anxiety; they still do (remember the pendulum above). In fact, some have been intimately familiar with climate grief, as we’ll see below.

That means that the people who remain resilient, despite climate despair, aren’t people who are wired to ‘look on the bright side’ (or just stick their fingers in their ears). Instead, they’ve learned ways of navigating their fear and grief so that they are full of meaning; so that they drive them forwards rather than inwards.

I heard seven common themes in these people:

(a) They see climate change as a challenge to rise to

Most of the entrepreneurs I spoke to said they loved a challenge, and thrived when required to rise to something difficult. They framed the climate crisis as a potential focal point for immense creativity, collaboration, and new ways of thinking and doing.

• “If we don’t find much, much better ways of doing things as societies then we won't sustain ourselves with 7, 8, 9 billion, whatever we're up to. And for me, that’s a rallying point. That's what's exciting about that. If we don’t create enough change that actually gets us onto a completely different track, we're stuffed. But that's a challenge. I like a challenge; let's work on that.”

~

(b) They’re disciplined in taking action, even if they’re micro-steps.

Yes, they have bad days where the weight of the world feels especially heavy. On those days, their productivity takes a hit. On the whole, though, they try to always move, even if it feels like two steps forward, one step back.

• “I definitely don't feel like the climate overwhelm stops me. I feel like action – in all aspects of my life – actually makes me feel better in whatever it is. And you know, even if I have a wobble, I'll think okay, I know if I do something, it's gonna make me feel better. What can I do? So I keep going.”

~

(c) They remind themselves that they are one of many

This is often a lesson they’ve learned the hard way. Entrepreneurs are wired to be problem-solvers and to see gaps everywhere. And when it comes to climate change, the gaps are enormous. Over time, though, these entrepreneurs have learned that if they try and solve everything themselves, it’s just a recipe for burnout.

• “I think we can't all solve every problem. But you can look at one problem, and ask: where is your best chance of striking a chord with someone? So how can I make a change in this one area where maybe people aren't talking like me at the moment?”

• “Don’t take yourself so seriously. It helps to just see yourself as part of something bigger and find people around you to work towards the common goal. As a recovering perfectionist, it really helps to just say that that's good enough.”

• “I’ve learned that people are creative, and if you put them on the right track, they themselves can solve things possibly much better than you — as an expert, or the preacher — maybe would have imagined. This helps me detach because I don’t feel responsible for their whole journey. I’m just responsible for scaling up this part of it.”

~

(d) They’re fiercely pragmatic …

These entrepreneurs keep their end goal in mind, and remind themselves that they need to be as effective as possible in order to drive change. This is especially true when it comes to how to influence people.

• “I don’t feel climate despair, because I’ve been working with climate for the last 15 years or so. And you can’t sustain high anxiety for 15 years. Something saved me: I became more pragmatic about it. In other words, I try not to take it as personally as I would have done years ago. I'm not taking it less seriously, though. It’s just that I understand that if people are too anxious, they won’t manage to change something. Then we're seriously doomed.

  Over the last 15 years, I progressed from being very, very emotionally attached to this journey, to where I think I am now — which is more like: alright, let’s do something. It's useless complaining. And I mean, we've been trying this “I'm super heavy, I'm super depressed” tactic, trying to convince people to do something. And it’s never worked. So maybe, let's try it with a different spirit. Maybe that helps.”

~

(e) … because they’ve often had baptisms of fire

As mentioned above, a number of entrepreneurs I interviewed had had crushing periods of darkness, when they’d felt incapacitated by climate despair. Some had become climate activists and got arrested; some had almost drowned in climate grief; some had begun spiritual practices to sustain themselves.

• “I think I woke up early, much earlier in my life, and the hardest part for me was looking around and seeing other people asleep. As a way to deal with the climate stuff, I joined a religious mystical order…I learned practices in meditation and mindfulness… very, very deep work. It probably took me off the brink.”

• “I've been through the full cycle; I've grieved already. I was a climate change activist, that’s how I got into it. I got a record with Extinction Rebellion 3-4 years ago and then sort of gave up. Getting arrested was empowering, and so is working on climate. So it’s all net positive from where I was at then — from ‘the planet’s gonna die’. It’s actually cause for optimism, being able to feel like you're doing something that might help.”

~

(f) They’re intentional about what they let into their minds

Lastly, these interviewees shared that they’ve learned ways of sustaining themselves through content, communities, and practices that keep them actively hopeful.

• “I continue to read things and immerse myself in the things that help me see, really see, that this new world is possible. I think the collective voice is getting louder and stronger and more impactful. And I want to bring other people into that. Because I feel like when I'm really there, it's exciting.”

~

(g) They get help. They get help. They get help.

One of the clearest findings from my whole study was that the climate entrepreneurs who felt most equipped to navigate self-doubt were those who felt most supported.

This was true for both those feeling personal self-doubt and systemic self-doubt. In fact, this piece is so important that I zoom into it below.

~

(2) The #1 differentiator to navigate self-doubt

I asked my interviewees this question: 

“Imagine that I have a magic wand and can cast a spell on your life. Tomorrow morning, you wake up and – even though the climate crisis is still here – your self-doubt is gone. What are you doing differently?” 

Almost without exception, people replied with some variant of:

“I’d be talking to other people.”

For example:

• I'd be talking to government

• I'd go straight to the biggest climate influencers

• I’d find a mentor or coach to support me in this challenge

• I’d ask for help with things that I don’t know how to do yet

• I'd be reaching out to potential customers more than I am

• I’d be showing my work to people, and asking them for feedback

• I’d be finding peer groups to get involved with

• I’d sign up for programmes I know would help me

• I’d be finding my tribe

By implication, then, when climate entrepreneurs are in the grip of self-doubt — both personal and systemic — they're not doing the above.

What makes this so excruciating is that they know that these things are exactly what will move their business forwards. It seems that the most intimidating actions are those in which the entrepreneur takes a risk that's often relational. And yet being connected is exactly what’s needed.

In fact, as I kept interviewing I learned a key differentiator: the people who felt most equipped to act in spite of their self-doubt – to do all the above – were the most connected to others.

(Importantly: these aren’t the people who experienced the least self-doubt. They're the people who reported that their self-doubt had the least influence on their results. In other words, they'd learned ways to take action anyway.)

This is critical.

• Loneliness exacerbates self-doubt.

• Connection dilutes self-doubt.

So, what support did climate entrepreneurs access? And what was most helpful in giving them this sense of connection?

~

(3) The support most valued by climate entrepreneurs

By and large, people reported that they'd had to be proactive in going out and creating the support they wanted. Rarely did the perfect opportunity land on their laps. They'd chosen to find it.

And once they’d found it, they had to keep choosing — again and again — to re-engage, even on the ‘no’ days.

• “I am technically very, very well supported because I am part of this coaching group, which isn't cheap. So that compels me to get involved. But whenever I find myself switching off and saying ‘everything's fucked’, and I don't show up to the coaching sessions, I do feel isolated. I don't do the things I need to do, I don't outreach with my clients, I don't do follow up calls. I lose work. So yeah: leaning into the support we have, or asking for help, is a huge step. Even that mental switch where it's like: okay, I need help with this. And that can either come from the inside, or from somebody that you know and respect, who says: I know this coach who sounds really good, I think you should have a chat with them. Just to kind of tip people into action. Because you get out as much, if not more, than what you put in.”

Interviewees also differentiated between active and passive support.

• Passive support was consuming content: books, newsletters, podcasts, etc. This helped, especially with mindset, inspiration, or new ideas, but only in the short-term. By itself, it didn’t get people into sustainable long-term action.

• Active support, on the other hand, was the kind that tipped people into action, and kept them there.

These types of active support were identified as especially helpful:

• Friends and family

  • While a big support to some, others said it was hard for their loved ones to truly understand what it was like for them.

• Formal programmes

  • Official groups were key in reducing loneliness, building community, and crowdsourcing ideas.

  • Some programmes mentioned were climate-focused, but many weren’t (see below).

• Coaches, mentors, and therapists

  • Because people almost always paid for these services, they took them more seriously. That meant that even on the days they didn't want to show up, they did.

  • Interviewees highly valued how coaching taught them new ways of thinking, and approaching questions in their lives. However, they didn’t always feel like this support took into account their climate context. (More on that in below.)

What does this teach us, then, about how climate entrepreneurs identify themselves within the broader field of entrepreneurship? And how do they define success?

This is the focus of the final part of our article.