Michael Nova is CEO of Nova Custom Label Printing, (https://novacustomlabelprinting.com) providing custom branding and marketing solutions to businesses all across the USA and overseas. He also founded the worldwide community website, RiseUpEight.org, a non-profit platform designed to highlight the stories of those who never give up, on inspiring others.

How did you get started as an entrepreneur?

I think I started as an entrepreneur when I was working as a flyer distributor for a nightclub as a youngster. The three of us got together and decided to start our own promotion company distributing flyers for other nightclubs. From there, we started throwing our events together and promoting them ourselves. Eventually, I struck out on my own, with my own promotions company.

What is one lesson from failure you learned?

Fall seven times, rise up eight. Setbacks can be only temporary if you allow them to not stop you. My personal motto is “Don’t think of adversity as the enemy, think of it as your ally”. I say this because difficult times strengthen your character and allow you to grow into the person that you are meant to be. 

I experienced this when I created a music and film multimedia project, “X: The Human Condition”, designed to inspire people through the arts. Unfortunately, everyone in the music industry I approached told me it would be impossible, so I ended up funding the project myself. 

I ran into numerous challenges which were difficult to overcome and found myself near bankruptcy and at the same time extremely ill, to the point that I almost lost my vision permanently.

I was able to recover from all of this to achieve success and prove the experts wrong but learned a great deal throughout the process.

Not only did I learn what it takes to overcome great challenges, but I also learned to appreciate life in its basic forms and to feel gratitude for being healthy and experiencing life in general. This was not possible before I became ill because I never took the time to appreciate the small things. It was a great and valuable yet painful lesson that was necessary for me to experience for me to grow as a human being.

I shared my story with the world through the website RiseUpEight.org and found many others who had similar stories to tell of overcoming challenges in life, so the website Rise Up Eight grew to become a worldwide community. The common thread with everyone sharing their stories is that they would not be the success they are today without having gone through the dark times of facing and overcoming adversity. This is why I believe in my motto. You have to go through that darkness to get to the light.

What is one business lesson you would tell a startup founder?

Similarly,  I would say I don’t fear failure or setbacks because you can learn from them. It is very important to learn from your mistakes so that you don’t repeat them, and that you improve and strengthen yourself to the point that you can actually say, “Bring it on!”

The more challenges you face and overcome, the more you can level up, strengthen your character, and become more successful in life.

Published By: Aize Perez