Fail big or go home

I've been hearing/reading a lot lately about failure in business. It peaks my interest, because I, like many business owners, struggle with fear of failure.


Donny Deutsch, God of entrepreneurial dream making, discusses this topic frequently with his guests. Most of them agree that you have to fail. In fact, most say you can't really succeed unless you fail.


Then, I read an except from a book called Bounce by Barry J. Moltz, in my BeE magazine. He says that "business leaders and entrepreneurs must acknowledge and even value failure as a natural part of the business cycle so they can anticipate, acknowledge, and recover from blows."


Wow. This sort of ties in with my very first post about holding my nose and jumping. Sometimes you can't know what's around the corner, and that's okay. Because the alternative is KNOWING what's around the corner. If everything is laid out for you and there are no more surprises, good or bad, would that make life better? I'm not so sure.


While most people don't like bad things to happen to them, failure included, most people would agree that failure and hardships do show you what you're made of. The more you can get through, the more you feel confident in what's waiting for you around that corner.


I read a book once, Growing a Business, from the guy who started Smith and Hawken. In it, he discusses how he feared each day and what problems would come with it. Each day a situation would arise that would seem like a crisis, but by the end of each day he had solved the crisis.


Finally, it dawned on him that every day there would be something to hit head on. He went to the office saying, "What problem can we solve today!?" With this new attitude he was able to take on tasks easily without worry, and most importantly it freed his mind up to think about new positive things, since he didn't have to worry about what was to come.


Being an entrepreneur/business owner is certainly interesting and challenging and entertaining. There's never a dull moment.


Embrace failure for what it is, and do what is necessary to get your busienss to the finish line.

Most recently, while watching Meet the Robinsons with my sons, (which I believe has the best message of any kid movie with its motto of "Keep moving forward") I heard a simple, yet powerful thing. One of the older siblings in the future said, after Lewis had failed at fixing the peanut butter and jelly shooter, "That's okay. "From failure, you learn. Success, not so much."


I've had multiple business that didn't go anywhere, but they were all half hearted attempts at something I didn't have my heart in anyway. However, each of those failures taught me something that I have used in DipSticks. I have taken each lesson learned and applied as often as possible in this adventure.

Nobody knows what's around the corner, and I'm okay with that. I hope it involves producing the most unique, high quality gourmet pretzels in the world, but if it ends up being diaper duty at the retirement home, I'm cool with that. Knowing me, I'd probably figure out a way to turn that into a business, too.

Keep on failing!

Lucky me...

Some days, I'll admit it, are harder than others to get motivated. Some days I don't feel like even looking at a pretzel, let alone making 100 of them.

I often feel guilty about it, because I love the business so much, it doesn't make sense that I'd ever feel burned out.

But, while watching my favorite TV show, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, I was once again inspired by something a guest said.

There was a woman on there who had started a business and she said that she would never go back to working for someone else again. She said that she was the luckiest person because she gets to wake up and do what she wants to do.

Now, that should have been a "duh!" moment for me...and it was. I was all, "Duh! I can't believe I ever hesitated at making pretzels. This is the best job ever!"

So, armed with that new inspiration, I have started to branch out and seek new shops to get DipSticks into and to keep forging ahead towards the bigger goal. I am creating new brochures as well as new web site design ideas, that will hopefully be done in the next few weeks.

You may be wondering why I need so much motivation. Well, when you're a stay at home mom and your choices are a.) stay in your pjs all day and play hide and seek with your cute kids, or b.) actually work....you'd probably choose option A every chance you could get too. Am I right, or am I right?

Holding my nose and jumping...

So, I was watching my favorite TV show last night, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, and Jeff Foxworthy was on. He said, "You have to have moments in your life when you hold your nose and jump in" and it really rang true for me.

I started DipSticks Gourmet Pretzels the Christmas after Joshua was born. I was a breastfeeding, baby wearing, attachment parenting newbie, and never let my kids "cry it out". What does that have to do with anything? Well, I made my first HUGE order of 300 pretzels while he was just 9 months old and needed my attention every 2 hours at the very least. Sometimes I would have him in his baby bjorn while I dipped and dolloped. Other times, I just crashed on the couch for a nap with him.

It took me over a week to make all of those (I can make that in a day now!) and thought I never wanted to make another pretzel again in my life.

Fortunately for me I had a great mentor who reminded me that I wouldn't always be the one making the pretzels, and that someday I'd be able to focus on the more creative/anal retentive aspects of the business that I'm more suited for. So, I forged ahead.

Today, 4 1/2 years and one more son later, I now regularly take orders of 700 or more with no qualms. However, I have done it the safe way for far too long!

I believe it's time for me to hold my nose and jump in. I'm not exactly sure what that will mean, but this blog post is my first step. I hope to chronicle here, not only my adventures in business, but also in life.

Certainly we must make plunges in life as well. What is living if it's not to feel alive? So, with that I will say tata, until I blog again, and let the universe take it from here....