Multiple failures, minor successes
Just over 5 years ago was the first moment I considered the possibility of opening a business, and it was likely the most inopportune moment I could have chosen to do so. At the time, I was a single mother of a 4 year old with Autism. I was working part time as a retail manager, commuting to work and barely making ends meet as it was. My life was a blur from one day to the next as, I was simply trying to get by. To this day I feel certain that if I had chosen to be reasonable, Breve Crepes and Coffee and consequently, The Burrow, would not exist. It was the perfect combination of desperation, stubbornness and a deep desire to believe that my life could be more than what it was, and that I could be more than what I was, that ultimately led me to even try.
In my previous post I talked about how opportunities are often disguised as problems. I truly believe that, and I have found over the last 10 years that the majority of my most challenging problems were in fact the starting point for my most notable successes. To be fair, I also feel that success, as a rule, is incredibly personal and is not at all linear. For me, looking back, success has always been more about the process and less about the finish line. In that capacity, I feel that I have minor successes every day, and likely, you do as well.
Before Breve closed, we made the decision to expand from our Downtown location to the Heights, which was partly because I was afraid to turn down the opportunity, and partly because I saw so many mistakes that needed fixing. I assumed I could do it better the second time around, which would help alleviate the pressure of trying to keep up with our first location. I wasn’t exactly wrong, but I also wasn’t right. Second time around, I made even more mistakes, and even repeated some I had already made. Even now, as I navigate the mistakes made while planning and opening The Burrow, I feel confident in my belief that there was more success than failure throughout this whole process. Which is funny, because there were an awful lot of failures leading up to this point.
Ben during one of our walk around EDo. We were looking at a potential location for Breve.
I talk a lot about what I believe to be the most common misconceptions around success and failure, mostly because I believe the way you feel about both of those things really impacts any venture or opportunity you take on. Failure is less scary when you recognize that failure isn’t a negative thing. Success is more tangible when you accept that it is not one size fit all. When I believed that I could have success in opening a cafe, with absolutely no experience, it was not because I believed myself to be exceptional in any way. It was because I believed success could be found in even attempting something that was incredibly valuable to me, which was the idea of a better life.
Ben I standing in the buildout of our second Breve location.
We have the choice every day to either embrace our successes and our failures, or to reject them. Only by embracing each of these things with flexibility, and compassion for the process will you really be able to grow. So, with that in mind, I hope that as you move forward into this week, whatever challenges or opportunities you face, offer you a chance to consider just how successful you can be. I hope you are not deterred from trying something new, or working towards something that is important to you simply for the fear of failing. Trying is enough, learning from it is enough, and believing in something more than what you are currently experiencing is more than enough… and coming from a woman who has “failed” more times than I can count, I promise it will all be worth it.