The next time you're in the middle of a tough situation, when the heat is turned up all around you, remember this: Your actions in this situation are what make you. You will either reinforce your leadership status (internally and externally) or weaken yourself.

You're not the first person to go through this, and you won’t be the last. What separates you form anyone else, though, is how you respond to it. Will you rise to the occasion or retreat into a shell? Will you step boldly forward and place a big bet on yourself, or stay safely in your comfort zone? You have a chance, now in this challenging circumstance, to answer that.

When things are running smoothly there's no real challenge. You cannot become immortal by succeeding at easy tasks. No matter how good you look doing it when it's easy, the emotional charge of the possibility of failure is what makes that win all the more rewarding. No one is worrying whether or not you'll fail at the easy times. When half the crowd thinks you're done for, that's when miracles get made.

Damon Dash once said, “you're not a champion until you're in a position where it looks like you're gonna lose, and you win.”