The Consequences of Being Right

“Whether you think you can, or think you can’t. you’re right.”

Henry Ford

Human beings love to be right. They like to “win arguments.” They pride themselves with statements like “I told you so.” Yet we don’t always look at how hollow such victories are.

Here at NBG, we are all trying to improve, increase our enjoyment, in general, to make life more fulfilling. I don’t know that we would be human if we didn’t have a voice in our head, often sounding like someone from the past who told us we lack some ability or the right physical appearance, or even the money or connections to reach a certain level. Sometimes it is our own voices, telling us that we were not meant to be more successful, and that our efforts to accomplish would be better spent on a safer path. So if we give up, we get to be right that it was a waste of time. It’s much better to make those voices wrong, no?

The uselessness of the word “Failure”

First of all, we need to consider that the word “failure” is a useless, let alone a disempowering label. There is an old Chinese proverb that says “The person who says it cannot be done is not the person who should be doing it.”

What this tells you is that the naysayers are not the right people, and that perhaps you are. However, even if you do not reach your goals, you have succeeded in gaining experience. If you consider the time to see what could have been done better, or at the best time, then it is not a “failure,” but a way to gather information on how to do things better in the future. Sadly, the naysayers will be proud of themselves for being right that failure was inevitable.

However, you can be right that the lessons you learned were valuable, and apply those lessons later.

The scientific method

Scientists often do things by process of elimination. That means that they try an idea, and if it doesn’t work, they acknowledge it, and try something else or they just give up entirely, depending on the situation. The same works with business, but it is more complicated, depending on the situation and resources of the entrepreneur. Yet, when an experiment does not achieve certain desired results, it is noted that the hypothesis was proven to be incorrect. Why don’t we do that in business? Why do we label ourselves as business failures if we have to close a business?

A restaurant that closes after a few years or even a few months surely succeeded in making some people happy. Is that not some form of success? If they understood that perhaps the location wasn’t the best, or that they didn’t charge enough for the meals or hired the wrong chef, doesn’t that have value to make them better the next time?

Basically, it appears that we in business must learn to be ready to change structure in a timely enough fashion in order to be successful. If a new product or service that you offer doesn’t take off and transform the world at a certain point, then perhaps the world will be ready later. It becomes an opportunity to watch and wait or to apply the new knowledge that you learned to a different type of business.

Being right

Not long ago I had lunch with some friends who were very interested in my project ideas. One of them is a successful entrepreneur. I value his opinion a great deal, so I was quite interested in what he had to say and was flattered by his interest. He asked me to bring my business plan, any of my fashion prototypes, and anything I had of interest. He had seen one of my pants prototypes before and was excited about the possibilities. He was also curious about what else I had developed.

I arrived, folders, cell phone with photos, and prototypes in hand. He was fairly happy with what he saw, and he told me it would take me longer than I thought to be successful. I thought that was interesting since I had not given him a timeline of my expectations. He told me of his failures, which I took to mean that he expected me to fail, so I should expect it. His main concern was that I did not have much money, and only one investor. I told him I was working on that.

After lunch, he said he would “keep his fingers crossed for me.” I of course thanked him as I left, but felt his sympathy to be almost like a wet blanket. I know he is a good person, as I have known him for years and appreciate his kindness. Yet I also felt a little rebellious, like “I’ll show you that I’ll be successful with this.” I also knew that if I didn’t accomplish my goals, he would think to himself, “well, I was right. She didn’t succeed.” By not offering me anything more than platitudes and crossed fingers, he would have the privilege of being right that I did not flourish.

I suppose that I get to be right that it was “too hard” or that I was “unlucky” or that “I didn’t have enough support.” I prefer not to be right about those things.

Driving home, I wondered how we feel about the word “failure,” and how it follows people. We all know that the greatest failure is to avoid stepping out of our comfort zones, or we wouldn’t be here at Network, Build, Grow. I pondered how many people never try anything really new or challenging out of fear of being labeled. Yet challenge is how we grow. Instead of “failure,” we should say “growth.”

We should consider saying things like:

• “I started a new restaurant that served people tasty food for five months and I grew a lot.”
• “I learned about how to better save money on my food product so that I can offer better prices.”

Sometimes we need to go through the scientific method to build the best business.  Such growth may make us feel sad and frustrated, but there is always pain with growth.

Is there not pain with sit-ups? Is there not the burned dinner on the way to becoming a better cook or chef? Is there not the pin prick as we design and sew clothing? Is there not the occasional awkward moment during a sales pitch? These are all just steps to the paths to excellence.

My Unlikely Experience

I’m sure many of you can relate to my story in your own way. I am not a fashion designer, I have a crooked eye (you can’t really see it), so I can’t trust my own sewing, and I’m not rich, having spent most of my years of employment working in the non-profit sector. My true friends know that I’m bright and hard-working, but many people see me as fun at parties and a decent cook to invite for cookouts. I’m hardly your typical fashion mogul.

I had some ideas about women’s clothing fasteners and started tinkering with ideas on improving them, finally getting several in the works with patents pending. It has been scary as I know nobody else doing this, so I have had very little advice. Mostly I have been told that I should be careful since I’m close to retirement age and shouldn’t take risks.

After testing my ideas on friends, I got the patent processes started, got the prototypes created by hiring seamstresses, and began calling professional designers and factories. I was ignored for a while. I thought about how the creators of Starbucks were turned down over 100 times. I told myself the right people would come.

Now I have some of those “right” people working for me. I have a CKO and a CIO who believe in what I’m doing so much that they are waiting to get paid until after I get my full funding. They have helped me develop my funding strategy, and the super cool website I have now, and we are gaining momentum.

We have several top designers that want to work for us. A major designer and global leader has agreed to partner with us and even helped create part of the fund-raising packet for me without my asking. This designer only takes 3-5 people a year and has helped launch some of the biggest names in fashion. She also consults with big-name companies. I am completely thrilled and honored to be working with her.

Stay tuned for what will happen next, it looks much better now than it did just a couple of months ago. We have jumped over some of the biggest hurdles and I can’t imagine turning back now.

Key Takeaways

• Don’t be afraid to try that new idea for a different service or product you offer –the worst that will happen is that it won’t go well.  You can consider it an experiment.
• Have a secondary plan in case your new idea doesn’t go well so you can recover any losses.
• Don’t entertain negative people’s opinions. If they are so sure you will not succeed, ask them what to do better. Chances are they will have nothing to offer. I have asked such people to help, and they are suddenly very quiet.
• Consider any negative period with low results an information gathering opportunity. Now you know, and you have learned more than non-risk takers.
• When things don’t go well, they can always be fixed.
• Continue to grow and be strong.
• Life is an experiment. Entrepreneurs are the scientists of the working world.

Do the best you

The critics will always be there, even when they mean well. Just don’t let them label you as a failure. Being right that something is difficult is a hollow victory, and that is all that it is. The real victory awaits as you become stronger and better at structuring and restructuring, pitching your ideas, and finding the right people who share your vision who are willing to put in real work.

There is another famous saying by the revolutionary famed advertising executive Leo Burnett, “If you reach for the stars, you won’t come up with a handful of mud.” Your journey in the world as an entrepreneur or creator is yours. The victory is yours. Keep adjusting until you claim it.