Keep It Coming
No Pain, Yes Gain
If you've never started your own business, you might start
thinking "OK, first I need to lose all my money. Maybe I can
even develop a drinking problem. And then, when things really look
bleak . . . " Ah, but you'd be wrong. Failure may be a frequent part of
business, but you can lessen your risks. "Try to contain your
failures," suggests Kevin Donlin, 37, of Minneapolis.
"Think of your business as a ship and failure as an ocean. If
a fire breaks out, you want a fire door on that ship to contain the
flames." In 1994, the mail-order business Donlin was running made a
laughable five bucks. In 1995, his e-publishing business netted $95
in sales. Sure, those two businesses may sound like colossal
failures, but they were part-time gigs, amateurish efforts that
cost him nothing but time—many weekends over many months. Content Continues Below
But you know what? "It's only failure if you
haven't learned something from it," says Donlin, and,
indeed, he launched a resume-writing company in 1996 and, in 1998,
was able to quit his day job. "And I haven't bought a tie
since," says Donlin, whose one-man operations, Guaranteed
Resumes LLC and Guaranteed Marketing LLC, brought in more than
$100,000 in 2001. However you start your second business—or your
22nd—you can't become a success by moping about your past
failures or predicting your future failings. Comedian Jonathan
Winters once concluded: "I couldn't wait for success, so I
went ahead without it." The future of your business is your
call. Do you want to be a Sir Edmund Hillary or an anonymous
beekeeper? | You Did What? | So you're thinking of starting a company for the first time?
And you'd like to learn from somebody else's blunders and
not your own? Then talk to people. Talk to experts who've been
there—like Dave Power, a marketing partner at Charles River
Ventures in Waltham, Massachusetts. Power, who has more than 20
years of experience in business, has seen many start-ups tank and
feels there are two central reasons entrepreneurs fail at what they
do: - Mediocre "metooism." Power uses the word
"metooism" to refer to a common instinct among
entrepreneurs. (Think, "Me, too!") It's that desire
to say "Oh, our company is good at that," when that
isn't really what you do best. "It's being good at
everything, but not the best at anything," says Powers, who
advises having a product or service that's either the first on
the market or the best. It's the one way to be noticed in this
crazy, mixed-up world. But if you make the "first" or
"only" claim, "be prepared to defend it to the
death," advises Powers.
- Making a big splash. It's wonderful to make a strong
first impression, but if it takes all your resources to let the
public know you're alive, you may have little energy or funds
for the long haul. Says Power, "A cannonball makes a big
splash, but it doesn't win the diving contest."
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After numerous setbacks, Geoff Williams has written for
LIFE, Ladies' Home Journal and other publications. Contact Sources
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