F#@k Failure! Tales from the blogger!
I have been blogging about business for over a year now and I have never really blogged about my specific businesses, successful and failures.
So over the next few weeks I want to write a little about them. But before I write about the first failure I wanted to just take a look at the word and meaning of failure:
The dictionary says:
fail·ure
(f
l
y
r)
n.
1. The condition or fact of not achieving the desired end or ends: the failure of an experiment
2. One that fails: a failure at one’s career
3. The condition or fact of being insufficient or falling short: a crop failure
4. A cessation of proper functioning or performance: a power failure
5. Nonperformance of what is requested or expected; omission: failure to report a change of address
6. The act or fact of failing to pass a course, test, or assignment.
7. A decline in strength or effectiveness.
8. The act or fact of becoming bankrupt or insolvent.
Now we can read the definition but i think failure is interpreted differently by different people. Think of our negative friends, they always complain, nothings fair, life’s a bitch etc etc, they say ‘Why does this always happen to me, just my luck’ etc etc
Then you hear of the entrepreneurs that say failure are lessons and we need to learn from them. Well, when i started out in business after reading all of these inspirational stories of these successful businessmen, I failed at my first venture and was horrified, I took failure very hard indeed.
Even my family said ‘maybe you’re just not cut out for this self-employment lark’, go back and get a full time job. So i did, because I was good at working for other people, or so i thought, but it wasn’t long before the feeling of opportunities and ideas came knocking in my mind. But the thought and that feeling of failure which was still fresh from my first failure knocked my confidence. In short, after 4 more failures and a lot of lost money, failure has become easier and now its the best MBA i have ever had!
Looking back my first successful company was Evolve Creations which I ran with a friend while at school. WAP technology had just came out and we thought it was going to be huge like everyone else. We targeted large corporates in the Midlands area and said we could design them WAP portals and mini WAP websites. The orders came in for about 4 months and we made some decent money from the venture, but the technology never really took off and we also hit development problems although my mate at the time was whizz.
So we wrapped up the business and went back to school! My next venture was a mobile disco business which i ran aswell as working as an apprentice in Telecoms. I basically visited hotels, told them if they gave me the contracts for their hotel for weddings (which was where the money was) I would give every 5th booking a 50% discount. I ended up converting so many hotels that I had to employ other DJ’s to help me run this little empire. Profit margins were good and I soon gave this up when I was old enough to discover alcohol and girls and didn’t want to be spending my Saturday nights watching people having fun! I sold the rest of the contracts to a DJ who I had pinched business from!
I was then contacted by a hotel who I had done DJ work for in the past and he asked if i knew of anyone that could do security for a corporate function. They wanted 8 security personnel at short notice, so seeing an opportunity i said yes, I can! I went round on that night to 3 nightclubs and recruited myself some doormen and agreed rates. The next morning i called the hotel and negotiated a price and cash up front and got the business. Having the cash in my hand my mind spiralled into ideas and ideas! A huge security company ….
After wasted hours and phone-calls to other hotels i realised (market research) these events are once in a blue moon (this was before SIA law). Now that was my early days ….
Join me over the next two days when i profile my next few ventures and the mistakes i made.
And join me in saying F#@K FAILURE!