Fail More

"The haberdashery is closing!", I joked as I flopped into the rocking chair, surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. I didn't want their sympathy, I think I was looking for the most clever dig, or someone to one-up me by sharing a bigger fail of their own. I didn't want to quit, it just put a damper on my fire.

It's not a haberdashery, it's an online hat store my sister endearingly called a haberdashery. I'd just spent every spare moment for the greater part of a month slowly designing, loading, and setting up shop. After reviewing some samples that were slow to come in, and chatting with some humans I love, it was determined that I'd be removing my branding from all hats that had it. At least for now. That's a lot of hats, and the work to upload them all isn't fun.

The best part of my pity-party was my brother-in-law commenting on one of my biggest shirt designs from the last couple of years that I had transferred to a hat. "That's not how you spell independent." I came into the room, "What? Are you serious? Not again!" You'll note that the image in this blog is my design with a typo. I'm a French major, schooled in French all the way through university. Independent in French is indépedante, with an a. My brain didn't catch it, for a second time, and my design program doesn't have a grammar check! The funniest part about it all is I’d just gotten in from a little photo shoot, wearing that hat.

Trying new things inevitably means we'll fail, especially if it’s in an unfamiliar arena, and sadly more often than I care to admit I'll let failure prevent me from trying. Failing feels like such a (humbling) waste of time, but it's literally what the road to success is paved with! Lots and lots and lots of failure. Most of us need to get more comfortable with the idea of failure, and learn that it’s an invaluable part of the creative and business process.

I hope if you're on a new road, in the throes of working through failure and other good character refining things, that you'll be encouraged to learn you're not alone. You are in the company of great men and women everywhere, daring to become something greater than they are!

Did you know there's a hat made to encourage people to fail more? Check it out here!