Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures, Tables and Boxes
- About the Author
- Acknowledgements
- An Introduction to Entrepreneurs in Crisis
- 1 Understanding Resilience
- PART I Strategies Entrepreneurs Use That Strengthen Resilience
- PART II Strategies That Can Compromise Resilience and How to Manage Them
- PART III Conclusions
- Appendix A Additional Commentary for Studying Entrepreneurs in Crisis and Resilience
- Appendix B Additional Commentary for Studying Entrepreneurs in Crisis and Resilience
- Notes
- Index
6 - Situation Selection and Modification
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2026
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures, Tables and Boxes
- About the Author
- Acknowledgements
- An Introduction to Entrepreneurs in Crisis
- 1 Understanding Resilience
- PART I Strategies Entrepreneurs Use That Strengthen Resilience
- PART II Strategies That Can Compromise Resilience and How to Manage Them
- PART III Conclusions
- Appendix A Additional Commentary for Studying Entrepreneurs in Crisis and Resilience
- Appendix B Additional Commentary for Studying Entrepreneurs in Crisis and Resilience
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Vivek, who was in his late 40s when we met, had moved to London from South Asia. He prided himself on a strong work ethic which he used to start his own shop over a decade before. His busy convenience store, located in an East London neighbourhood, was targeted during the London riots. Vivek set the scene: ‘If you put a bomb on the shop, it was like that. With the ceiling down, electric wires hanging there, lights hanging, the counter was completely flat, fridge broken, freezer broken.’ Yet, despite the extensive damages, what angered him most were the scattered takeaway boxes, carelessly discarded on what little of the business remained: ‘They went out’ and came back again to ‘eat chicken and chips in the shop’. He explained, ‘They had a party inside!’
Vivek described to me the day after the London riots, when his world as he knew it had ended:
You know that day, you never forget that day. I’m telling you. It's the saddest day in my life. When my dad was passing, I never cried. My dad lived a good life. You know? I didn't cry. He just had, you know, a good death … heart attack, so, it's a good, you know, death. But this [the riots] is, oh, I cried. I cried. The whole day I cried! I couldn't take it … I just went home. I didn't step in the shop at all. I couldn’t. I couldn’t. I couldn't do it. The mess of the shop. It's completely ripped from top to bottom.
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- The Resilient EntrepreneurFrom Crisis to Enlightenment, pp. 99 - 114Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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