Discover how Q Branch embraces failure by being BOLD
“What do I have to offer?”
This is a question I have asked myself many times over the years, and one I hear others asking during my sessions.
And often, there is a lot to offer, but it may not be immediately obvious with no way of knowing how to execute that offering and no confidence that it will even work.
I’ve worked with clients in the past who had really great ideas, but ideas are only that if you don’t take the steps to execute them. I've also had clients who took the very first steps and then backed away. Action takes guts, or as we like to say in Q Branch – it takes BOLD!
Many people talk about being an entrepreneur and having their own business, you may be one of them. I think that’s amazing, and I know anyone can do it but it does involve taking action. And action for many is hard. If you have amazing ideas but also struggle with social anxiety and standing out in a crowd, putting your ideas out there for criticism can be excruciating. The fear of failure can be overwhelming. You look at everyone else who seems to be making it and think that could never be you. You don't even know if your idea will work and besides, it's been done before by someone else. Or it's never been done before, perhaps people don't want it.
But, as Stephen Bartlett and Daniel Priestly say, being an entrepreneur is about testing and failing time and again.
This can be hard for the perfectionists among us. It has taken me years to embrace failure. Now I see it as a learning opportunity but until I hit 40 it was a constant source of mortification.
I Failed, and it was embarrassing.
I’m going to share with you one of my biggest failings in my early career. A story that makes me cringe. In fact, it’s so bad I didn’t even include it in my autobiography, so this is an exclusive!
After I had finished my fashion degree someone asked me to make 8 dresses for a gala day for young girls who would be going on a float through the town. Gala Queens and Princesses are a big deal in Scotland. The problem was, I didn't have the skills to organise this on my own; plus there were some weird things in the brief and I was too afraid to say no. The dresses had to be able to grow with the girls across a year, which could be any amount.
I had in my head a design where they would expand at the back, but I didn’t have the time to test it and no one else saw my vision. When the time came to hand over the dresses, it was a complete disaster. They had to be completely remade (not by me) because they were far too big. Because I wasn’t there in person to check the dresses, or illustrate how I thought they should be worn, there was nothing I could do to rectify the situation.
It wasn’t the making of the dresses that was the main problem, I had a whole degree in that. I just wasn’t ready for that size of order with no help and no organisation skills and a misunderstanding of the brief. They didn’t want fancy ways for a dress to grow, they wanted me to make them a size up. I made it all too complicated in trying to be innovative and it didn’t work for my audience. I was also trying to do it all within a ridiculous budget (which is often what people do when they go to dressmakers, they think it will be cheaper).
I was so embarrassed; I wouldn’t accept payment for the work I had done or any of the materials. They did send me a cheque, but I didn’t cash it. I felt like I didn’t deserve it.
A couple of years later I made all 8 of my own bridesmaid’s dresses and had learned from that experience, but the learning curve was so painful at the time, that it put me off sewing for several years. I felt a fraud and a failure. I felt like I had let those girls down and myself. It was such a big deal back then, and although even now I feel embarrassed about it, it doesn’t impact my life at all, apart from to see it for what it was, a learning opportunity.
Does failure hold you back?
Do you have moments in your life that you look back on and wonder why you failed so badly? Do you feel embarrassed? Did it hold you back like it did me?
Perhaps you have tried to start businesses before, and it hasn’t worked. Or you realise you are not a boss who is liked or respected by your team, and you don’t understand why. Or maybe you just have that niggling voice in your head saying you are not good enough, no one will buy into what you have to offer, it’s worthless.
We all have our worthless moments when we can’t work out what we have to offer the world. One of my skills is pulling that out of people so they realise their own brilliance. One of my clients said to me “I never knew I was that person until we worked together, now I do, and my life has changed”.
You can be that person too. The one who knows what you have to offer and how to execute it with BOLDness.
So, tell me, what ideas do you have and how are you going to make them a reality?
The first bold step is to ask for a first date.
Are you ready?
Find Out More..
Jenny Jarvis
Founding Partner of Q Branch, Jenny is a highly trained and experienced Human Transformation Specialist, Coach and NLP Practitioner who is passionate about positive relationships and giving founders and leaders the BOLD Confidence and tools it takes to build BOLD Brands and Cultures. She is also an inspiring keynote speaker and lover of french wine and cheese.
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