Resilience Is A Muscle

The Hotpot | February 2026 | By Lisanne

15.2

Is there something like being overly prepared?

The Uber founder Travis Kalanick grew up in a suburb outside Los Angeles, dreaming of becoming a spy.

He sold knives door-to-door. Started his first business at 18. Went to UCLA for computer engineering, then dropped out.

He worked full-time on a peer-to-peer search engine while collecting unemployment. Got sued for $250 billion. Went bankrupt.

Then he started another company, fought with his cofounder, navigated post-9/11 chaos, skirted legal boundaries. Almost lost it all.

Then, in 2007, he sold it for $23 million. Bought a house he called the “jam pad,” where ideas and failures became experiments, and traveling the world taught him even more.

Those awkward stumbles, the dead ends, the lawsuits, the fights—they were the waiting room for something bigger.

You don’t get strong by winning; you get strong by surviving bankruptcy, co-founder breakups, and post-9/11 economic collapses.

By 2007, Travis was “battle-hardened.” When the idea for Uber finally arrived, he didn’t just have a vision—he had the scars to prove he could protect it.