How You Fall Defines You

Late last year, I had to shut down our entire VA team.
Not out of emotion. Not drama.

It was a business decision. The way the VA team was operating was not efficient, and keeping them was not in the best interest of the business.

Afterward, the owner of the VA company reached out angry and talking trash. I did not respond immediately because I was in the middle of running multiple businesses and handling real priorities. He took my lack of an immediate response as me blowing him off.

He sent a phrase in Spanish commonly used in the Philippines: “Sube como palma, cae como coco.”

The literal translation is “He rises like a palm tree, he falls like a coconut.”What it really means is “the bigger they are, the harder they fall.”

That interaction stuck with me, because over time I have noticed a pattern.

When something goes wrong, small-minded people tend to default to blame. They complain. They talk shit. They focus outward and look for someone to fault instead of looking inward.

By contrast, the people I have seen grow the most are the ones who are genuinely committed to excellence and to high standards. They still feel disappointment. They still feel frustration. But instead of turning it into resentment, they turn it into reflection.

They ask why this happened.
They ask what they could have done differently.
They ask how they can raise their level.
They prepare for the future so that they control their own fate.

The people who end up doing well are not the ones who never get fired or never mess up. They are the ones who use setbacks as feedback instead of proof that the world is against them.

That has been one of the clearest differences I have observed over the years. When things do not go your way, how you respond tells you a lot about where you are headed.