Devon Brooks was 21 years old and just months away from co-launching Blo Blow Dry Bar in Vancouver with two partners when an intruder broke into her U.K. apartment, beat her up and held her hostage.
Nor was that the first significant trauma Brooks had experienced; four years earlier she had been the victim of an unrelated assault. But she said it was the second assault that forced her to confront both traumas – and devise a way of carrying on through the heavy demands of a fledgling business.
"You're starting a company, and you've got to run your employee meeting, but first you have to take care of your court case at a distance conference call with the judicial system in the U.K. before you go lead your team meeting," she remembered. "So you've really got to get your shit together."
Brooks said in that context, she realized she needed to focus on keeping momentum.
"Life and business is just messy sometimes, and you can't fight it, but you have to persevere."
But pulling that off, she said, was a struggle. Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, Brooks was prescribed anti-depressants.
"They were tools to help me get through the day," she said. "And it's great for people who that works for, but that only worked for me for a small amount of time, and at the end of the day, I had to let go of all those things, and I had to get down to me again."
Brooks said she launched into some serious soul-searching and got really clear on her core values. That values clarity, she said, has proved a real source of strength for her – and for how she ran her business.
What advice does Brooks have for business people facing some of life's toughest moments?
"[Find] your go-kick-ass tools."
She noted that everyone's tools will be different – and some will be distinctly less philosophical than the ones that she has leaned on. "It can be figuring out, 'Hey when I have a green smoothie and do 10 minutes of meditation in the morning, I'm a grounded, kinder person.'"
