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A month after I bought my first drycleaning store, I was sitting on my heels, behind the store, at almost midnight. I was crying, not knowing what I got myself into. It was the coldest winter in history for Wichita, Kansas, and I had left the boiler on low fire. It was New Year’s Eve, and I ran by the store, and the boiler had alarmed out.
No water feed. Damn. Jumped into the car to find a small space heater. Not a single store was open – including Wal-Mart! All I could do was wait. Once the stores opened, I started warming up the boiler room. That’s when it started flooding. I went to turn the main water valve off, and it literally fell off, completely rusted. Grabbed some pliers and got it to stop. Went out back, started crying, and felt like a complete failure. I had no idea what I was doing. I picked myself up, realized I had to learn from it and decided this New Years was going to be a turning point where I would embrace my failures, and learn from them.
Over twenty years later and more than $100 million in services rendered, I can tell you I have learned the most from my failures – and I’ve had a lot of them. I have learned to make calculated risks and to wake up every day hungry to learn something new. If I’m not personally and professionally growing very fast, I take more risks so I can either be rewarded for taking the risk, or learn from any failures.
Most people tend to seek lives of comfort and security. While I enjoy those things, they don’t help me to grow. They take me to a point of complacency, which stunts my growth. Don’t be afraid to fail. You will fail. You will pick yourself back up and be richer because of what you learned and what you experienced. It will make your wins that much sweeter.
Have a great week!
Dave
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