"Have you had your brick for the day?"
That is the question that Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey, founders of Barefoot Wine, would ask each other each day as they went through the tumultuous roller coaster of starting a company trying to compete with the most established players in one of the world's oldest industries.
Shit happens, is the way Mr. Gump would put it.
When founding a startup, the very nature of your work implies that nothing is perfect. More than that even- most things are imperfect. It takes a long time to go from blank canvas to Last Supper, and even the greatest talents have a flurry of discarded sketches, disgruntled assistants, and moments of despair and regret for their decision to pursue such an unlikely and far off outcome.
But isn't that what makes the whole process fun? If problems didn't happen, there would be no challenge to the task ahead. And if there were no challenge, the reward would be equally absent, for the prospect of success gets sweeter with every inch it travels away from us.
Preparation is the best bandage for unexpected "bricks in your day", but there is no cure. Realizing this, and not merely accepting it but embracing it can be the difference between an attitude of success, and one of failure.
Worrying seems to be a lasting feeling in the minds of the entrepreneurs I have met. Stress that a deal won't go through. An omnipresent anticipation of negative outcomes to guide the thought process of an artist in front of a blank canvas will lead to something much worse than a failed experiment- the canvas will remain blank.
So don't worry. Be happy. Keep preparing. Expect and appreciate that bricks will land on your head, and be excited to sweep up the ones you couldn't catch. Understand that if everything went your way all of the time, the whole job would get boring after a short while.
Chill out, life is good. A broken brick can be cleaned up, but worrying really puts a damper on your day.
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