Stepping out of my comfort zone always seems to help me achieve stronger resilience and acquire talent that I have not had before. That means working with people smarter than yourself or people with talents that you do not have. I LOVE working with people that I can learn from. In fact, I much prefer working with people where I know I’ll end up learning things from, while others may shy away from working with people who are different.
In my work as a coach and consultant, I speak with business leaders across multiple industries about their most significant challenges. One common theme continues to emerge — rapid change and disruption are the new norm in business, and the only constant is the demand for resilience. At the heart of resilience is the ability to adapt and recover quickly from adversity. I am certain that more than intelligence and talent, resilience is the single most important trait required to succeed in today’s highly complex market.
My “Rising through Resilience” interview series explores the topic of resilience in interviews with leaders across all walks of business.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Haris Bacic. Haris is the co-founder and CEO of consumer price transparency platform, PriceListo.com, and co-founder of content publishing agency, Bacic Media Group. With a strong background in web design and development, he was able to quickly build and exit multiple online businesses. Today, he mainly works on PriceListo and managing its vast amount of data for consumer and business uses.
Thank you so much for joining me! Before we begin, our readers would love to get to know you. Can you tell us your backstory?
I started getting my feet wet in web design in my teenage years. Although I never thought it could turn into a real job, it was one of the most exciting parts of my childhood, along with playing various video games on PC. It felt like a magical experience to create something out of nothing, even if it was only digital.
What are the top three factors you would attribute to your success as a leader at PriceListO.com?
1. Finding the right talent that can help you achieve your objectives faster and smarter.
2. Making sure the partners you choose can contribute in ways you cannot.
3. Don’t let hard times or dips in growth slow down your ambition and drive.
In your opinion, what do you think makes your company stand out from the crowd?
We have the right talent and expertise in our industry to take our company to where it has never been before. All three of our partners (co-founders) have vast experience in the field.
How has your company continued to thrive in the face of rapid change and disruption in your industry?
We see ourselves as disruptors since we are a startup taking on the bigger guys. The fact that we started from scratch instead of using cookie-cutter solutions has helped us create a database that can be scaled up and utilized for purposes our competitors cannot provide.
I believe that “resilience” is the underlying trait of all successful businesses. How would you define “resilience?”
Resilience to me means giving it 200% when times are hard and growth seems slow or unattainable. In business, it is very easy to give up when it becomes rough. When you’re low on capital and growth just doesn’t seem there, why keep going further into the hole right? But the way I see it is you need to be able to dig yourself out of the hole no matter how big it is if you believe in your idea. Giving up is easy, digging yourself out is 100 times harder. That’s why there are so many less successful entrepreneurs than there are unsuccessful ones.
When you think of tenacity and endurance, what person comes to mind?
In this day and age, I would say Elon Musk has the tenacity and endurance needed to be a successful entrepreneur. Just look at all the obstacles Tesla has faced since their inception. So many analysts and “experts” have doubted his every move, yet they still keep going forward and crushing their goals. They are forcing all automakers to compete with them when most of them were doubting that electric cars would ever be a thing.
Has there ever been a time that someone told you something was impossible, but you did it anyway?
When I was a teenager, the Internet was just becoming popular and working “online” seemed like a dream that was never going to come to fruition. I’ve been told by so many people to just seek the standard education and get a regular 9-to-5 job. And while I did all those things, I was never really happy until I started working from home at an ad agency. Eventually I started my own business and increased my happiness and work satisfaction exponentially.
Did you have a time in your life where you had one of your greatest setbacks, but you bounced back from it stronger than ever?
In my previous venture, we faced legal troubles early on and several people told me it was better to just quit than to face them. I didn’t really want to give up because I knew that what I was doing was right and hiring the right legal team helped resolve those issues very quickly. When it comes to legal troubles, it is very important to find a law firm that believes in your idea and supports it 100%. You do not want to work with a law firm that just wants the pay day and doesn’t care about the success of your idea.
Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency?
I think growing up in a war zone in Eastern Europe has helped build my resiliency since we were used to not having much as kids. The horrors of war were way too close to home for me, and I hope many people never have to go through those things. But like most bad situations, there is always good that comes from it, and in my case, I think it is the resiliency and determination to never give up in what I believe in.
Resilience is like a muscle that can be strengthened. What strategies do you use to strengthen your resilience?
Stepping out of my comfort zone always seems to help me achieve stronger resilience and acquire talent that I have not had before. That means working with people smarter than yourself or people with talents that you do not have. I LOVE working with people that I can learn from. In fact, I much prefer working with people where I know I’ll end up learning things from, while others may shy away from working with people who are different.
What are your thoughts on how leaders can create a more resilient workforce?
I believe giving the employees more power, ownership, and responsibility creates a stronger workforce. When your work is tied directly to the success of the company, then employees can experience very similar feelings that entrepreneurs experience daily. The crazy rollercoaster of business growth is something that can only be experienced when you have something to gain and a lot more to lose.
Extensive research suggests that people who have a clear purpose in their lives are more likely to persevere during difficult times. What is your purpose?
My purpose is to create tools, platforms, or applications that help consumers with their daily lives. Whether that’s saving them money or time, or educating them, I believe that when consumers are smarter, everything will be better, because only the best and most honest business owners will succeed. At the end of the day, consumers are the ones that control the economy and the success of a business.
What is your favorite quote or personal philosophy that relates to the concept of resilience?
Winston Churchill’s famous quote “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” really relates to the concept of resilience because it shows you that as a business owner or entrepreneur, failure cannot be avoided. It is a daily occurrence for some, and you have to learn to live with it. In fact, you should embrace it because failure should be an educational lesson. Failure is simply a result of what did not work.
Can our readers follow you on social media?
Of course, my twitter handle is https://twitter.com/harisbacic
About the Author
Alexandra Friedman is an executive business coach with more than 25 years of experience enhancing the performance of individuals, teams, and companies such as Xerox, Peppers and Rogers Group, Microsoft, and The Wall Street Journal. She received an MS in Management from Loyola Marymount University and earned her Executive Coaching certification from Columbia University.
Resiliency Quiz: How resilient are you? https://www.friedmansolutions.com/assessment