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CRAVE BlogCheck out this great segment featuring our CRAVE Phoenix leader Shawna introducing CRAVE to the world:
Check out this great segment featuring our CRAVE Phoenix leader Shawna introducing CRAVE to the world:
time's a tickin' / fail fast
Fail Fast-
It may sound like strange business advice, but I’ve invested a lot of money and years to learn this valuable lesson – so trust me.
If it seems harsh to propose failing fast, imagine the alternative of failing slowly – with the small heart attacks that never end year after year. Dare to fail fast.
Isn’t it true that everything we learn and know in life come from trial and error? From learning to walk, to starting a business, we fail in order to master. Sure, you should read all the “how to” business books and give thought to the business plan, but it will still be like learning how to swim by reading a book. It’s just not enough.
There’s been really fast (Wow Cookies-weekend) and really slow (Pike Place Market cafe-15 years) business failures in my life. My shelf life for ideas is now six months maximum. Whether I’m starting something new, or a project inside a current business, I get in, prototype, get it out there. Is it going to fly or not? The faster I know, the better.
I have no patience for perfectionists. When people tell me they are working on a business idea but waiting for the perfect time, location, or partner, my experience is that they will never launch. I don’t live in that world. You can have a Facebook page, twitter handle, and business card up today. You can design your book cover and put it out for comment before you even write the book. You can prototype a product/service and pretend you are in business before you actually take the real leaps. You can’t know what will happen (and I hope you succeed), but at the very worst your failure will be fast and you can take that idea back to the drawing board or simply pursue the next.
My two highest profit businesses as of today, were at one time certified failures. They later got reinvented, rethought, even “flipped” in an entirely new direction. They were fast failures of great value.
If you want to read more about the above businesses (and how I eventually made them work), check out my new book CRAVING SUCCESS.
CRAVE made the news! Watch this special segment all about the power of women entrepreneurs, straight off the heels of the CRAVE Denver guide launch!
Continuing our monthly theme of risk taking in life and business we would like to share with you this great post from Chris Guillebeau:
The Bravest Thing – I asked this question last week and was flooded with hundreds of great responses. Here are many of them, with links to the people who were brave enough to share.
ferolea: Quiting my job go around the world was easy. Coming back… that’s the bravest I’ve been.
avalonmel: Agreed to teach uni computer science course to 130+ students when I was 22… and afraid of public speaking.
TylerLClark: I moved halfway across the country for an unpaid internship. At the end, they offered me a job. Glad I took the risk!
opheliaswebb: Called off my wedding. And killed a spider in the shower. Equally terrifying.
“My belief about fear and courage is that all of us are scared of all kinds of things, so the wrong approach is to pretend to be fearless. Instead, acknowledge your fears, but proceed anyway” (Chris Guillebeau).
Read more here and get started with taking your own life changing risks!
Image by NickNguyen
Happy Birthdays!
Summer brings fun in the sun, tan lines and a ton of birthdays. I’m pretty sure it’s due to the cold fall weather nine months earlier. It gets chilly, folks curl up and the next summer you’re hiring clowns and ordering birthday cakes.
I just celebrated a “mid-forty” (yeah let’s go with that) milestone and it got me thinking about birthdays. I’ve decided to embrace my age. I’m one year closer to owning my stuff and embracing the wisdom that comes with knowing who you are and who you’re not -like coming to terms with the fact that the last time I was a size 6 was when I was 6 and I’ll never see that number on a clothes tag again. I was inspired when I read this passage recently, ”take kindly the counsel of your years” then realized it was from an online dating site guy who was looking to date women 22-26 years old.
You know that cool Martina McBride song that says, “every laugh line on your face made you who you are today” Well, I have no idea what was so frickin’ funny over the years but I must have had a great time somewhere along the way cause I have the roadmap on my face to prove it!
When you celebrate your 10th birthday you love that Mexican place where you get to wear that huge sombrero, there is all that clapping just for you, and then they light the ice cream on fire. When you turn 36 at that same Mexican place you just want the singing to cease so strangers will stop staring.
My oldest son turned 18 recently. A huge milestone, right? I mean come on, the kid had made it to adulthood, that in itself warranted a fireworks display in both our honors. He was about as excited for his special day as he was his 1st birthday…giving me a blank stare as if to say ”what’s all the hype about woman”? He wore a crazy hat in his 1st birthday picture, now he’s sporting a cap & gown…he still dresses funny in birthday pictures. I was looking forward to MY present. After all, the kid was still breathing even after I had lost him, poisoned him, and made him wear shoes that were 2 sizes too small for a year. What do I win to celebrate that “we” made it 18 yrs?!
When I was 40 I threw myself a big bash with live band and all….I couldn’t believe I had made it that far…and on the way home from the party I bought a huge jar of anti-wrinkle cream.
Let’s hear it for office birthday parties- there’s all that healthy stuff in the break room but on birthday day you bee-line to the conference room and you’re like “happy special day, Dave whatever your last name is from accounting”, thanks for being born, now let’s eat some chocolate cake.
Birthdays are milestones in your life. They are cause for reflection and anticipation. I personally will pour myself a stiff drink, cheers myself and kindly celebrate “the counsel of my years”!