I spent time the other day staring at the pictures on the Hall of Fame wall at Awesome Inc.

As I admired the accomplishments of each of the entrepreneurs on the wall, I searched for trends that might have led to the success of the men and women who stared back at me.

Was it Lee Todd’s keen sense of innovation?

Or perhaps RJ Corman’s work ethic and charisma?

Or just maybe, it was John Y. Brown’s “handsome as a devil“ good looks?

I scanned the wall for the formula to entrepreneurial success. And while I couldn’t deduce every variable that resulted in a successful entrepreneur, I did find one common thread. Resilience. Everyone on that wall faced setbacks, but each one matched those setbacks with remarkable resilience. Resilience and persistence in the presence of adversity - something I can say every successful entrepreneur possesses.

I want to tell you a quick story about an entrepreneur that I’ve been working with over the past year. Jacob is one of the founders of Pawn Metrics, a startup participating in the Awesome Fellowship Program. This summer Awesome Inc took a retreat to the Smoky Mountains.

We spent part of the time focusing on strategy in mentor led sessions.

We spent part of the time taking selfies with Black Bears. And we spent part of the time on team building adventures.

One of the adventures we tackled this year was to hike Chimney Tops. Chimney Tops is a rigorous 4 mile hike, with 1,000 foot elevation change.

I was confident that everyone in our group, if healthy, could complete this adventure. However, Jacob wasn’t healthy. He had cut his foot the day before while jumping off a rock into a creek. It was a pretty deep cut and we all told Jacob “you don’t need to do this hike today. It’s going to be tough and with only one good foot, we don’t think it’s a good idea.” But Jacob promptly put aside all doubt, “I’ll be fine, don’t worry about it guys….I’ll just wear sandals”. For some reason at the time that actually made sense as a solid argument and we accepted it that Jacob wasn’t going to back down.

The hike started off as a comfortable stroll through the woods, nice clear path. Half way up the mountain, no problems. About another quarter mile up though and Jacob’s hurt foot was starting to bother him. Each step he took required much more work than the rest of us. His face was turning somewhat pale and we could all tell he was in a lot of pain.

We took a few breaks and each time we would give Jacob an out to stop here and we’ll meet back up with him on the way down. But each stop, Jacob persisted. We got about 90% of the way up the mountain and I remember seeing Jacob turn a corner behind me. Kid looked like Rocky after taking a few too many punches from Apollo Creed.

I remember being pretty nervous about the situation. And not the normal kind of nervous like you get when you’re about to give a performance or ask a girl out on a date…but the kind of nervous you get when you feel like you’ve made a series of bad decisions and you’re about to pay for it. You know, the kind of nervous you get when Jim Host calls you and you see his number on your caller ID before you pick up…“Oh crap, what I have done this time?”

We urged Jacob, “Just wait here and we’ll be right back.” After catching his breath, his shirt drenched, and sweat literally dripping from his face.

Jacob responded, “Ok. You guys go on.”

We rushed ahead and did what was by far the most dangerous part of the hike, climbing over rocks single file, on all fours when necessary, with steep 200 foot drops on both sides. It was one of the more challenging and risky free climbs I’ve done. We made it to the top and took some pictures & enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment you get when completing something really difficult. As we were enjoying the views from the top of the mounting, out of the corner of my eye I saw someone climbing over the summit of the rocks.

It was as if the music from the movie Rudy was playing in the background, Jacob stood at the top of the summit and everyone from our group cheered in astonishing amazement at this young man’s persistence…His remarkable resilience.

Jacob wasn’t going to take no for an answer that day. He was going to persist against the challenges and the obstacles that were presented to him and reach the top of the mountain with only one good foot. And just like all the entrepreneurs that are going to be inducted into this hall of fame tonight, remarkable resilience was demonstrated from this young entrepreneur in a small, but meaningful way.

Because of that resilience, when you look at this picture…

…you see one more in person in it. And that one act from one individual provided inspiration that will last a lifetime to everyone around him, when they may doubt, “Do I have what it takes?”.

When I look at the pictures on the Hall of Fame wall, I’m reminded of an important part of our mission - to encourage future generations of entrepreneurs to pursue similar ambitious endeavors. Thanks to the support and accomplishments of the Hall of Fame entrepreneurs, this wall can serve as inspiration to the rest of the entrepreneurial community. When it gets tough for those of us that are still in the early stage of our careers we can look at their pictures on the wall of the EHOF and know that each of them faced adversity in their journey to the top of the mountain…and at one point in time, they were at the same part of their climb, facing the same challenges that we’re facing now. And it was with remarkable resilience that they made it to the top.