My Story

Every Rough Phase Made Me Stronger: A Timeline of Coming Back

By Hazik Fayaz · September 17, 2026

I have been through multiple rough phases of life.

And I have come out a better person every time.


Childhood: The Below-Average Student

From my childhood, I remember being a below-average student.

But still — I was able to pass every grade in the first attempt.

No brilliance. No shortcuts. Just enough to keep moving forward.


After School: The Struggle to Find My Way

After passing school, I was struggling to find my way to earn.

No clear path. No obvious direction.

But I found a way — through an aviation school and the Institute of Hotel Management.


Taj Hotels, Then SpiceJet

I joined Taj Hotels.

Then, after years of grinding and finding my way, I made it to SpiceJet.

Nothing about that path was instant. It was years of effort before it clicked into place.


COVID: The Financial Crisis That Hit Terribly

Then COVID hit.

The financial crisis hit terribly.

Everything I had built felt uncertain.

But still, I came stronger.

I realized my mistakes. I realized my strengths.

That phase didn’t just test me — it taught me who I actually was underneath the job title, the paycheck, the routine.


Now: A Few Rough Months, Again

Now, a few months have been rough.

Again.

Because life doesn’t give you one hard chapter and call it done. It keeps testing you, in different forms, at different times.

But I had to stand the ground again.

And I became much stronger — by learning AI, learning website building, learning app building.

I was able to create my own website — end to end, by myself.

I built a few apps, completely functional, for personal use.

And I’m sailing through.


Here’s what I’m noticing about my own pattern:

Every rough phase didn’t just knock me down. It handed me something I didn’t have before.

Every crisis handed me a new skill I didn’t know I needed.

I didn’t plan to learn AI or coding. Life didn’t give me the option to stay comfortable.

But that’s the pattern, isn’t it?

The rough phase forces the growth. The comfortable phase never does.


What I want to remember from this:

I am not the same person who struggled to find direction after school.

I am not the same person who got hit by COVID’s financial crisis.

I am not even the same person I was a few months ago, before I built a website and apps from scratch.

Every version of me that survived a rough phase built the next version of me.


To anyone in a rough phase right now:

You don’t need to see the outcome yet.

I didn’t know, as a below-average student, that I’d end up in aviation.

I didn’t know, during COVID, that the financial crisis would teach me strengths I didn’t know I had.

I didn’t know, a few months ago, that I’d come out the other side having built my own website and apps.

You rarely see what the rough phase is building in you while you’re in it.

You only see it once you’re standing stronger, looking back.

So if you’re in the middle of a hard chapter right now:

Trust that this is doing something. Even if you can’t see it yet.

Because if there’s one thing my life has proven to me, over and over:

I always come out the other side. A little different. A little stronger. A little more capable than I was before.

And I will this time too.

If you’re in a rough chapter right now and want more than encouragement — a way to actually work through it — that’s what coaching is for.

Book a free discovery call
← Back to all writing

Read next: I Don’t Have Networking Skills. I Just Talk to People. →