When I was in my mid twenties, I was running my first real business—a glossy, high-quality publication in the southeast of the US. I was full of that dangerous mixture of confidence and insanity that are fundamental qualities for a young entrepreneur. I didn’t really know what I was doing, of course, but was hellbent on making it happen (insatiable drive—another necessary quality of a young entrepreneur).
We were creating from such a heart-led place. We wanted to have the best paper, the most unique size, thought-provoking topics, amazing photographers and photoshoots… all the things, obviously. We were driven by art and quality and about making every moment count. Our motto was “inspiring people to be proactive in their lives.” We were about challenging the status quo, cheering the underdog, and about reminding people of their power.
The art and the mission were paramount, so we worked our butts off. We were still young and idealistic and also just fine living off of cheap beer and ramen noodles because we believed in the cause! What was the “mission” exactly? Our goal was to inspire people to remember they could do anything they set their minds to, and we aimed to lead by example. And we did. We created one heck of an art piece each time, and we won lots of awards for it too.
The mag was expensive to produce with the fancy paper and odd sizing. The only people who could afford advertising with us were the older, more traditional folks (cause they actually had money), but our readership consisted of other bright-eyed twenty-somethings, still too young to be jaded by financial responsibilities. So, we threw wild parties, which helped us make enough money to pay the over-the-top printing costs. We did this for two years. The partnership then started to fall apart and I left, and then the whole thing collapsed since I had been the main sales person.
Why am I sharing this nostalgic young entrepreneur story with you today?
I’m sharing it because of the notion of “failure.”
Twenty-five-year-old me was devastated, really devastated, full-blown depression-devastated. I labeled myself and the business as a failure. But forty-eight-year-old me looks back on her and that business with so much love, and frankly, admiration.
I put my heart and soul into that publication. Most artists paint or make music; this had been my art, my creation, my baby. One should never label something that comes from the heart as a failure. Maybe from a societal view, it “failed” because it didn’t bring in money. But money is just one form of currency. Love, joy, inspiration, joie de vivre are also currencies, and are often much more worthwhile. We did exactly what we set out to do, which was to “inspire people.”
I’ve created many different businesses since then—including a different publication that did make a lot of money and that I was able to sell for a nice profit, working as a successful transformational coach for over 15 years now, and most recently, running a school for personal and professional development. But almost 25 years later, people still come up to me and say that was such a cool mag you made back then, usually followed by a story of how it inspired and gave them the courage to create their own thing, saying “I saw you do it, and thought, I can launch my own thing too.”
I think the concept of failure is a strange thing. Did it fail??? From a certain perspective, yes, and from another one, not at all. The same goes for personal projects, most major life decisions, and relationships. Just because something ends does not mean it “failed.” (Reminder: all things end.)
I’ve learned it’s important to ask these questions:
- Did you learn something?
- Did it make you feel alive and excited to get up in the morning?
- Did you show up with your whole heart?
- Did you give it all you had?
If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, in my humble opinion, you did not fail at all. As a matter of fact, you were extremely successful, because you showed up fully and did the thing. Let’s re-write the script on some of these life stories. The currencies of love, joy, embodiment, and self-expression are often worth more than money because those experiences and lessons will live with you forever. They form part of what has made you, you.
