Kintsugi is a beautiful Japanese art form where broken pottery is repaired with gold lacquer, highlighting the cracks rather than hiding them. The idea is that the object becomes more precious and more unique because of its history and the way it was mended. It’s a brilliant metaphor for resilience in business and life.
Imagine your business or life as a bowl or vase. Sometimes it gets chipped or shattered, maybe you lose a client unexpectedly, a project falls apart, or a personal setback knocks the wind out of you. The natural reaction is to hide those cracks, to pretend everything is flawless. But what if, like kintsugi, you treated those breaks as part of your story? Instead of concealing failure or difficulty, you highlight it and use it as a source of strength.
Psychologically, this ties into the concept of post-traumatic growth. People do not just bounce back from adversity, they often come back stronger and with a deeper sense of purpose. Businesses that learn from mistakes and adapt often find themselves more creative and competitive. Individuals who accept their flaws and challenges tend to develop greater self-compassion and emotional depth.
Real examples abound. Take Apple, which faced near bankruptcy in the nineties before reinventing itself with the iPod and later the iPhone. The company’s cracks were the very challenges that pushed it to innovate and redefine its identity. Oprah Winfrey overcame a troubled childhood and career setbacks to build an empire. Her resilience is a testament to how broken pieces, once mended with care, shine brighter.
Humour helps us digest the messiness of it all too. Like that time your perfectly planned presentation got wiped out by a tech failure, and you had to wing it with a smile and a PowerPoint made of smoke and mirrors. Or when a client drops out and you suddenly have to pivot, feeling like a circus performer juggling flaming torches while on a unicycle. Those moments, though stressful, become stories you tell with a grin later, proof you survived and thrived.
Now, relating this back to personal relationships, especially the complicated and fragile ones, imagine the kintsugi approach again. Sometimes people come into your life with cracks of their own. They may be avoidant or distant, difficult to reach emotionally, or slow to open up. Instead of trying to fix or cover those cracks, you acknowledge them and treasure the connection anyway, seeing the beauty in imperfection.
It can be challenging when you care deeply but they keep their distance. You might feel like you’re holding broken pieces that do not quite fit, or like you’re repairing something that could break again. The key is accepting the reality of the cracks without trying to force them away. Sometimes the gold is in the quiet moments, the glimpses of vulnerability, or the trust that grows over time, however slow that growth might be.
In business, in life, and in love, resilience is less about being flawless and more about embracing the cracks, learning from them, and letting them make you unique and strong. Kintsugi teaches us that sometimes what breaks us is exactly what makes us worth treasuring.
