Mistakes

I’ve never made a mistake in running this business and everything has gone so smoothly. …and if you believe that…

In reality, I’ve had some bumpy things happen along the way. I’ve messed up with managing people, I’ve screwed up batches, I’ve gotten caught in traffic and showed up late for events. There’s a saying in business that you fail forward. That’s nice, but there are quite a few steps between failing forward and rising anew from the ashes having sloughed off my caterpillar cocoon and transitioned into a butterfly. I remember the horror I felt when I realized that my first batch of pickles had gone wrong.

I remember many times having a really big and beautiful idea, promising customers that I would do it, and then just not having the money to bring an idea to light.

There are quite a few steps of self-doubt, fear, of regression to thinking that I’m just a scared little kid and I’ll never get this business off the ground. I have those doubts every day. my first impression of leaders was people that could command a room and we weren't allowed to doubt them because they knew it all. The reality is, that there's a new type of leader emerging in the world: someone who is vulnerable and isn’t afraid to admit when they are wrong and leads with their heart and passion. I want to see a leader that isn’t afraid to make an ass out of themselves but risks doing that to make their little corner of the world a little brighter. The world is starved for those types of leaders. We are seeing more of this in boardrooms and running companies but there is a reason people like this make the news, they are a rarity. They are a new breed. The old way of thinking isn’t working anymore and those that are still stuck in their old ways are scared. I will do my best not to offer advice very often on here because no one wants unsolicited advice they didn’t ask for. Maybe I’ll frame it as encouragement: don’t give up.

I promise you there is something beautiful on the other side of that mistake. Be vulnerable and courageous and go find out what it is. I promise you, it will be worth it.

Don’t be afraid to fall on your ass. Getting back up might not look like what you had imagined but there is still the possibility of it being better than you had imagined. It will only happen if you let it.

Go let the light in.