There are no bad ideas when it comes to business. Being an entrepreneur, its necessary to have a lot of ideas. My mind is constantly in overdrive with ideas and has been as long as I can remember. I know for me I need to write down my ideas and brainstorm on paper how to make something work, if it works on paper and I have a general idea of how to figure it out and can connect the dots, I fully believe you can make any idea come to fruition.
Now, sometimes your idea sounds great, you make it happen and it fails miserably. This is a GOOD thing, a GREAT thing to happen! Failure is the key to success you guys! How can we make our business better without failure? Failure has always proven to make me stronger, smarter, humble, and a better business woman and overall better person.
When I was 20, when pagers were more popular than cell phones, there was an option with the phone company and your landline to have a business line with a different phone number that would ring your home. It had a different ring than the typical landline ring so you could tell it apart from a regular call.
I had this AMAZING idea with a friend, a business that people NEEDED in their life. I was so sure about this. A company that would come running at your beck and call, and every need, you just pick up your phone and call us, we will grocery shop, pick up your mail, go buy a birthday gift for your niece,,, “Express Assistants” No job too big or small . We handed out fliers to retirement homes, college dorms, apartment buildings, dental offices, anywhere we could think of for weeks. Then we sat, and waited for the landline in my apartment to ring…… days went by with nothing. No fancy ring… I knew FOR CERTAIN the line was not working. I had my boyfriend call.. yep it worked, Yet it was deafening silence for days. I was embarrassed! How could people not be using this amazing service?? Then it happened. A few weeks later while making dinner, The line rang. OH MY GAHHHHHH I looked at my boyfriend stunned. All my words were stuck in my throat, I pointed and flapped my arms around pointing,,, “YOU ANWSER , YOU !!!!!!!!” He picked it up: “Express assistance how can I help you”… I stared wide eyed… he slowly hung up… it was a telemarketer!!!!!! That was the only time the line rang you guys. I followed up with businesses they ALL told me they were not interested in our service.
My dreams were crushed, I felt like a failure. I didnt want to talk about it because it was humiliating that not one person called the number. For the record there are many local very successful delivery services doing exactly what I had intended my business to do. Why did it work for them and not me? Because there was something better for me, I learned from the failure.
After about 6 months, I disconnected the line and came up with a different really fabulous business, (handmade gift baskets. For every occasion.. that massive failure is a story for another day)
The point being, My boyfriend then, who was a dream supporter in all my new business ideas, was always cheering me on. We started a construction company, which led into a Retail store years later that was a success and we ended up being able sell the company which afforded us into real estate.. because we never quit you guys. We took all our failed attempts , learned from them and made smarter choices, did more research, searched for better connections, read more books, watched more videos, and we made it happen even when we didnt know how. Because that is how failure works, It made me better.
xo
Mindy
