Setbacks Are Actually Setups: A Conversation with Justworks, The Female Quotient, Just Women’s Sports, and WNBA Player Angel McCoughtry

Sports and business have long been compared. Team mentality. Perseverance. Strategy. Studies show that athletes often make exceptional leaders, but the most critical lesson isn't about winning. It's actually about losing, and what you do next.

Teams lose games, businesses get knocked down, but what people do with those low moments can determine their longevity and success. I always have teams look at what happened and diagnose where we faltered, so we can do better in the future. Setbacks are opportunities, and how we approach them is a testament to our character, and the strength of the team. That’s the power of the pivot. 

I had the honor of discussing this with Shelley Zalis, Founder & CEO of The Female Quotient(opens in a new tab), Haley Rosen, Founder & CEO of Just Women’s Sports(opens in a new tab) (a Justworks customer), and Angel McCoughtry, a former WNBA player and current podcast host(opens in a new tab) during the FQ Lounge™ in Chicago over WNBA All-Star Weekend.

Before the pandemic, The Female Quotient only hosted in-person community events. As soon as everyone was forced onto Zoom, founder Shelley Zalis and her small team rallied together to create experiences for their community that kept the ethos of those in-person events–real connection–but fully online. Even with limited resources, they developed online forums and kept the conversation moving. Shelley said it was a true testament to “pivoting with positivity.” 

Angel McCoughtry, a 2-time Olympic Gold Medalist, has seen plenty of wins and losses. After two major injuries she fought her way back from, her time in the WNBA concluded, and she was faced with the major question of “what to do next.” While she missed the game, she rallied herself to move from Atlanta to LA to pursue new opportunities. She teamed up with Haley at Just Women’s Sports, and started a podcast. Angel said, “do not have fear of the power of the pivot. You have to take the risk, because it can open so many doors. The setback is the setup.” This really stuck with me because it’s reminiscent of the founder stories we hear every day at Justworks: “I was knocked down, but created an opportunity, worked tirelessly, and I’m making it happen every day.”

Founders who take that leap can also sometimes fall victim to a pitfall: when you build something from nothing, you’re all in, but that isn’t always setting the business up for success. I can’t say it better than Haley Rosen, who shared: “A lot of founders go through this, where they have their hands in everything and sometimes they’re the single point of failure. When you remove yourself from the organization–for me, that was when I had my son two years ago and went out on maternity leave–you see where the foundation or structure just isn’t working because you haven’t set it up to. When I came back, we turned things around. We hired, we set up that infrastructure, and we came back better. I looked at my three month old at the time and said, ‘we’re going to build this the right way or we’re going to die trying.’”

Haley nailed something critical: founders can't be everywhere. They need people and partners to help carry the complexity, and they need the resilience to build the right infrastructure instead of just grinding harder.

Building and leading a team is one of the hardest things anyone can do. Whether you're a star player, coach, founder, CEO, or COO, resilience matters. But resilience alone isn't enough. The leaders who endure are the ones willing to pause, reflect honestly on what's working and what isn't, and make the conscious choice to pivot. That's where growth happens. Every setback presents a choice: stay where you are or take the next step. The power isn't in the pivot itself. The power is in choosing it.