Life is volatile. Your closest relationships can end. Your promising business can fail in an instant. The highest highs pave the path for the lowest lows.

But these challenging, I-don’t-know-if-I-will-survive situations, present us with the opportunity to learn our most enduring lessons.

And for Ian Morris, CEO of Market Leader, one of those lessons hit hard in 2008, at the peak of the Great Recession.

“After years of success, I was driving layoffs and took a company down. We took it up from nothing to almost 600 people. After the real estate market collapsed, we took it to a low of 140 people… It was miserable.”

It was a scary time. There were layoffs and long, restless nights. Ian wondered if he was in the right position to lead the company.

But, Ian, now CEO of Likewise, learned something through that tumultuous period with Market Leader: He had to trust his instincts.