It was turning out to be a great year. As a filmmaker and a company owner, opportunities and resources were coordinating in unison. In April 2006, I just finished working on a feature film that was headed for major distribution. A week after the production of the film, I was in DC networking with investors. The following week, back to New York to meet with an investor and talk IPO. The next week I was training at a lighting company to expand my directorial vision. I was all set to begin pre-production of a feature film I would be directing. No scrounging for money. A business owner’s dreams come true.

By the middle of the week I was in the emergency room at a hospital in lower Manhattan. When I left the hospital I knew my left leg was injured but the hospital couldn’t provide details. I needed to see a specialist. I was still calm. By the following week, I was in an orthopaedic surgeon’s office listening to what was to come. I needed two surgeries with a 12 to 18 month rehabilitation period for the second surgery. Walking would be regulated to the distant future. My calmness exchanged itself for sheer shock. It’s not what I wanted to hear. I had plans. I’m directing a film, I own a company, my work requires me to stand 14 hours a day, I have investors…I just stared because I couldn’t make any of this go away.

This was definitely as unforeseen as events come. The impact it was going to have on the growth of the company was totally up to me. As a business owner one of the key things you will begin to ask yourself is “how do I find a way to keep going?”

1) Give yourself some space.

This will allow you to do a self- assessment of the business and of you the individual. After finding out I was going to be non-ambulatory for a period, my priority was to figure out what my needs were going to be. This way, I could assess the needs of the company.

2) Don’t beat up on yourself.

Life happens to all of us. One of the best preparations for a business owner and entrepreneur is to have your insurance in place. This includes health, disability and life insurance.

3) Who/What is your support system?

Having a business support system is just as important as a personal support system. Can you call on a mentor? A colleague? Another business?

4) Create around all the things you can do?

In my case, my injury caused a physical limitation so the type of work I focused on changed. I could not be on the film set or even walk down the block. I transferred my focus to creating content. This was something I could do with a pen and piece of paper.

5) What are the areas in the business that need strengthening?

Take a look at your marketing, sales, development and production. Is there any area that you need to gain more knowledge in? Reading can give you an edge. This is also a perfect time to do a SWOT analysis based on the current situation.

6) What type of business do you have? What can you delegate?

Look at the size of your company, your staff and how it functions. What tasks can be handed over to someone else? In the first few weeks of my injury, I brought an assistant on board to handle phone calls, meetings and coordinate the space I needed. If you’re a one person business, can you recruit an intern?

7) Take stock of your business and your resources.

What do you have access to? Whether its books, a laptop or a home office, these are all resources which can keep you motivated. One of the things I did was build a digital production system with donated computer parts.

Write, Write, Write!

The ideas you have, your feelings, your views, they all need expression. Journaling brings clarity. Once we transfer our thoughts down on paper, a cathartic process happens.

Understand where you are at and what you can do now. When an unforeseen event happens, there are no losses, it’s all about learning. Learning how to handle the new circumstances and growing with them. My focus on content began with writing. I outlined screenplays and wrote them. Now I have product that I can sell, market or produce. I took my company from being production oriented to research and development oriented.