Lynn Johannson, Advisor, Sustainability and ESG
January 4th, 2024
Lynn Johannson, President of E2 Management Corporation and Catalyst for THE Collaboration
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Strengthening Resilience and Leading Through Uncertainty
Leadership | April 14, 2025
Image: Freepik/rawpixel.com
Why Embracing Uncertainty Can Help Founders Gain Insight (During Chaos)
In an economic climate where geopolitical tensions are high and markets volatile with inflation spikes and policy u-turns, founders and innovators that embrace uncertainty can gain an edge. Uncertainty isn't a side effect of innovation, it's the starting line. Inspired from Deepak Chopra's recent article on the power of uncertainty, this article looks at the impact of embracing the unknown and how it can sharpen decision-making, unlock creativity, and help build resilience during times of rapid change and uncertainty.
Key Actionable Insights
1. Uncertainty Isn't the Enemy...It's the Edge
Chopra argues that trying to eliminate uncertainty kills creativity. When everything is 'the exact same', it breeds complacency. We've all experienced this. During some routine periods, a founder may feel that time is passing by very quickly. Yet during times of great change, novelty, innovation, a founder may feel that time is going by slowly. Fintech leaders who stay agile during times of ambiguity can separate themselves from those who stall in the face of uncertainty. Put differently, successful founders don't just survive during chaos, they scan for signals of change/chaos that others can miss, often giving them an edge.
See: 11 C’s of Soft Leadership and Emotional Intelligence
Just after the global financial crisis in 2008, Toronto-based Wave Financial launched in 2009. CEO Kirk Simpson saw that most traditional accounting software providers were offering tighter pricing and focused on enterprise clients to survive. Wave took a different approach and offered free tools to small to medium sized businesses (SMEs) and freelancers, and turned the crisis into a launch and growth opportunity. Wave was later acquired by H&R Block for $537 million.
Lesson: Fintech leaders who understand that uncertainty can unlock radical innovation, can give them an advantage over legacy players who retreat during times of constraints and volatility.
2. Your Brain’s Constraint Valve and How to Open It
Chopra describes daily constraints as a 'reducing value' that narrows perception and thus creativity, and by way of extension innovation and opportunity. This includes your daily habits and fixed beliefs. It's the caution, fear, and routine that limits all kinds of experiences. Breakthroughs rarely occur when ones perception is full of constraints and limited. If one provides the same inputs, they can expect the same outputs. Fintech founders and leaders can expect breakthroughs to occur where certainty ends.
See: BoE Report: Open Banking Boosts Productivity, Competition
Actionable takeaway: Host an 'uncertainty sprint'! Bring your team together with a single question and use it to generate unexpected solutions and test and iterate the thinking. "What if our biggest unknown became our biggest asset?
3. Transform The Present
It's easy to get lost in obsessing over the future - what's our forecast, future funding rounds or policy changes as examples. Chopra however reminds us that the only time you can take action is now. A strategy that is grounded in the present can lead to smarter execution.
Example: As digital financial services adoption continue to grow, incumbent banks are closing more and more physical branches, especially in rural and underserved areas during a cost-of-living crisis. In 2024, Canadian fintech Koho partnered with Canada Post to begin implementing a modern version of postal banking, which would provide basic digital banking services using Koho's financial infrastructure while making it available through Canada Post's national network. Together they reimagined a legacy system as a tool for financial inclusion while others were fixated on what's broken. By staying level headed and grounded in the present, Koho and Canada Post rediscovered what was already working today, and then transformed it.
4. Resilience is a Learnable Skill
For those that aren't used to uncertainty, it can create severe mental fatigue. Founders are required to juggle a ton of demands from compliance and culture to capital and product development and distribution.
See: What Toronto Can Learn from Tel Aviv’s Start-Up Scene
Founders should work to train their minds like athletes train their muscles to increase their mental resilience. Here are a few proven mental training exercises to try:
- Box Breathing (4-4-4-4) is a technique used by Navy SEALs to calm their nervous system and improve focus and decision-making under pressure. Breathe in for 4, hold 4, out 4, hold 4.
- Mental Rehearsal is a widely used visualization technique that improves composure and clarity during high stress and intense moments that can help founders execute better. Competitive athletes use visualization for a wide range of sports; here's a pre-game hockey visualization for forwards as an example. Visualizations should not just be about success but also how to respond to failure and include a 'mental reset'.
- Cognitive Reframing can help founders avoid defaulting to 'this is a disaster', and instead to a new perspective such as "What does this change and make possible? Founders who can reframe adversity are more adaptable resilient under stress.
Mental fitness training should be done daily and not just during periods of heightened stress. Your companies resilience begins with you and your team's mental capacity.
Why This Matters
Chopra’s insights position chaos as a powerful stage at the edge of creativity, clarity, and courage. Fintech founders and C-suites who embrace uncertainty as a condition of insight and opportunity, and not just risk, will be the ones thriving in the future.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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