FAILURE

"You need to become someone new to execute against that vision. 

If you had your dream today you would f*ck it up."

- Tom Bilyeu

It's a very negative word, a heavy word on the shoulders pulling your entire body down to the ground. 'Failure'. As many of you know, I started my business 'Christiaan & York' back in 2017. Over these past 3 years I have invested approximately $11,000. It was my first business... and it wasn't a success. 

But I wouldn't say it was a failure either. 'Failure' is such a negative word and it should never be used to describe anything. I didn't lose all of $11,000. Actually, I only lost approximately $500. $500 for ticking an accomplishment box of having started my first business, alone. $500 for the lessons of how to run a business, what difficulties arise and how to manoeuvre around them, which I can apply to my future businesses (that's right I'm not stopping here). $500 to know that there are thousands of people in Australia who have a watch designed by me on their wrist now. $500 is super cheap for everything I got in return.

And it wasn't all money, of course there was the time investment too. But here's the thing... I enjoyed the process. Doing this really emphasised the advice you hear from other people about how important enjoying the journey is, because it's 99% about the journey and 1% about the destination. If you don't enjoy the journey, not only will you most likely fail to persist when things get hard but you won't even enjoy the destination because after the gruelling journey that you went through and hated, the destination wouldn't even be worth it. Working on Christiaan & York wasn't really work for me. Instead of using that time to go on Facebook, Instagram or watch Netflix I spent it on Christiaan & York. It was a hobby almost*.

Although this was not a success story, credit should be given to where credit is due like a Hollywood actor going up to grab their award on stage (except here's me, no award, no stage... and not a Hollywood actor... but you know, besides the point...). Although I started this business alone, I didn't do it alone: So here's to my mother who helped me mail out all the watches (sometimes large boxes full) while I went to my full-time job in the daytime. Here's to my older brother for long talks about business strategies and introducing me to the community of Kmart mums. Here's to my SO who walked all around Shelley suburb with me in the evening putting vouchers in people's mailboxes. Here's to my little brother who would be there whenever I needed a helping hand or mind to double check that I got the orders right and to carry the massive orders to the post office. Here's to my friends (Q, K, S, D, J, E, C, R, A, Y) who bought watches from me and gave me words of support. Here's to Y and A who spent an entire Sunday morning with me at Canning Vale markets to sell off the watches for cheap (and spontaneous photoshoots as my models too).   

The dream to build a successful business is still there and I have definitely become a new person after Christiaan & York. I know of the ins and outs and illusions of this gig more now than before. I know where I went wrong (the market was way too saturated and the product was too expensive and not differentiated/functional enough) so I can do it right next time. And there sure will be more learning to come with the next project, whether or not that is a success project. But so far? So good!

*It's not alway happy, fun and enjoyable times running a business. But that doesn't make me love the process any less.  

VANCL Puffer Jacket / Lareina Sweater / Cotton On Jeans / Stan Smith Sneakers