Bagging For Business #2
Planning vs. Acting
First of all I want to thank all of you who participated in my survey. I gained so many valuable insights that I’m actually more confused than certain about what to do first. 🤯
Still, it reassures me that another bag brand is not just wanted, but necessary. As soon as I‘ve worked through all the content I‘ll dedicate a whole newsletter recapping the survey. So stay tuned!
For those who haven’t participated yet, here‘s the link to the English & German versions.
Speaking of languages, many of you requested a German version of the newsletter, so you’ll now find a link to it at the bottom.
Es gibt jetzt auch eine deutsche Version! Ihr findet den Link jetzt immer ganz unten.
Struggling against comfort.
So far, building my own company has been a great learning experience. In particular, sewing—creating something physical and functional in a short amount of time—is incredibly satisfying.
But one of the biggest struggles I‘m dealing with right now is that I tend to plan too much.
„I definitely have to read that business book before making any moves.“
„I have to research the perfect way to start gathering followers on social media before making my first post.“
„Just one more YouTube video, I need more insights!“
I know it’s stupid.
Experience taught me times and times again that action always outperforms planning; but still I tend to slide into the trap that more information will make me more efficient. It does to a certain degree, but failure will always be the better teacher.
Simply consuming information feels comfortable. Planning creates the illusion of progress without requiring any real risk. Comfort is nice, failure on the other hand hurts; but it produces facts.
The other day, my girlfriend told me that Germany has one of the worst failure cultures in the world. A study ranked 61 countries, Germany crashed on 60th place.
Well, that explains a lot.
Many times I fell for the illusion that by preventing errors, I won't have errors to fix. It was the same when I worked for Volkswagen. Failure was generally not tolerated. Even though nobody actually said it out loud, the company culture made us act that way.
Failure is perceived as bad. You don‘t think that way? Great! But the world does for sure. Need proof? Type ‘fail’ when looking for an emoji on your phone.
Fail to progress.
“You can't experience success without failure. If you avoid failure, you will also avoid success.”
I watched a business class hosted by the founder of Spanx, Sara Blakely. She told the story that her father asked her and her siblings the same question every night before bed: “What did you fail at today? He never asked for their achievements.”
Sara grew up believing that her father cared more about what went wrong and how she planned to improve than about her successes. Ironically she describes this upbringing around failure as the single most important skill to becoming successful as an entrepreneur.
So the guide I pinned on my wall is quite simple:
Take action
Fail
Assess
Adjust
Try again
Sooner or later I‘ll develop the muscle that dealing with failure is something to strive for. It becomes just another step in the process, something you‘re happy about whenever it happens.
Nonetheless, failure does zero if you don’t learn from it. It seems obvious but there‘s a lot to consider.
The first conclusions we draw from our failures (and even successes) are typically wrong. Measuring the outcome without evaluating the process can be deceiving.
Translated it means: Ask questions, listen and read between the lines. Find your personal approach to make better the next time.
The world tells you which direction to go.
If you know 1 + 1 = 2 and the world insists it's 3, you have to let it be, despite your brain. The same applies to your plans and ideas: you won’t truly know what works until you put them out into the world.
That’s why I’ve decided to be fully transparent while building my business. Your needs and feedback will shape my direction. Instead of over-planning, I’ll focus on action, learning, and adjusting along the way.
I’ll leave you with this quote:
“I've found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often.“ - Brian Tracy
