Weekly Newsletter: Lessons learned from failure
Hello Friends!
Thanks so much for all of the well wishes over the past few weeks. I’ve spent most of this time unraveling myself from Studio No. 7. At the same time, I’ve been pushing ahead with Holy Sip (I realize I haven’t fully explained what this is yet, that’s coming soon). It’s weird ending a business and starting another one at the same time. It’s not quite how I planned it. I imagined taking a few months off to lay on a beach somewhere to decompress, but I have a great opportunity so I’m pushing ahead.
I’m riding a wave of emotions (mostly good), so I thought it would be good to try and capture everything that I’m learning. Maybe it will help someone else that’s trying to leap. Here is what I’ve got:
Walk away. What you want most is waiting for you on the other side when you let go of whatever you’re desperately clinging to. It was amazing to watch new doors open the second that I decided to let go of Studio No. 7. I knew it was too stressful and that it no longer served me, but I didn’t have a real plan. So much of my identity is tied to the space and while I was fearful, I instinctively knew that better was around the corner if I just let go.
Be resilient, not fearless. I’m grateful for the difficulties that I endured growing up because the challenges have made me extremely resilient. I realize that people confuse that with being fearless. I’m definitely fearful, there is just something inside of me that tells me to do it anyway. I'll let fear have it's day or two and then something will rise up inside of me and say "We must."
Remember to laugh. I saw this article months ago and it came back up on my phone randomly and it gave me a great laugh. This lady was pulled over for suspicion of drunk driving and she told the officer, “Jesus drank wine and so did I.” I felt kinda bad for laughing about this woman’s plight, but this is the best excuse ever.
Take a break. I planned a trip to Mexico from July 3-10. I booked a hotel room. I had a flight using miles. Then I talked myself out of it. I convinced myself that I had too much to do, that I needed to get started right away and that I’d still be dealing with Studio No. 7 stuff so I wouldn’t be able to relax (this one was mostly true). I should have taken it anyway.
Take one small step. Yesterday I felt incredibly overwhelmed with all the different things going on (this is the result of not taking a break). Finally, I gave myself permission to do one thing, a small thing, and then I loafed around for the rest of the day. I’ll feel motivated soon, but until then I’m going to take it slow.
Don’t take on other people’s issues. I’ve been watching a mind boggling episode of revisionist history unfold from a few of the investors. Finally, I had to remind myself this isn’t my issue. More than anything, personal growth is what drives me. While difficult, I’ve had to accept that everyone doesn’t go about life the same way and that I can still move on despite that.
Failure is good and necessary. The lessons will lead you to the next thing and you’ll be able to do that better. I’ve taken all that I’ve learned from Studio No. 7 and I’m pouring that knowledge into Holy Sip. One of the noticeable differences is size of the space. Studio No. 7 was over 4,000 sq ft. The Holy Sip space is 125 sq ft. (This isn’t a typo). My whole approach to this is different and it’s because of all the lessons that I learned while running Studio No. 7. Business lessons, but also personal lessons about what I value. This information is priceless.
Hope you guys have a great week!
Shannon