Epiphanies can happen at the oddest of times, in the strangest of places.
I’m in the O’Hare airport traveling back to Houston from 10 days with my mom and grandmother. I’m standing in front of Hudson News thinking about how I’ve drifted away from the things I love to do and the people I love to be around. One of the things I’ve missed most is reading. So in I go and purchase some of my favorite magazine, bought a ridiculously overpriced lunch and sat for the next few hours reading.
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about one of the articles I read by Jason Fried, Starbucks wasn’t built in a day. He begins by telling us of his favorite pop-up tea shop owner. The owner has gotten successful enough that he can seriously consider opening a permanent location. Immediately, his attention fast forwards to opening multiple stores.
Entrepreneurs are told to go big or go home.
There is all this hype, he explains, regarding scaling up. From business schools to media to gurus promising to show you how to make big cash fast. The emphasis is on instant fame and world domination.
Who isn’t guilty of that kind of thinking? I certainly am! All the work on the business plan and other workshops this summer pushed me to think about the next 3, 5, 10 years. And it was exciting to think about where I might be…what Nerdy Girl Success can become. It’s called having vision right?
Stop obsessing over scale and perfect the basics.
Jason brings us back to reality. It is important to have vision but not at the sacrifice of mastering the basics. This tea pop-up owner who is already planning 3 and 4 store openings hasn’t opened the doors on his first one let alone perfected those processes. Do the fundamental work. Perfect your craft. In fact, you have to perfect it if you’re going to scale…at least scale and be successful.
His words made a lot of sense to me. It was my light bulb moment in the O’Hare airport. I need to get back to my basics. Perfecting my fundamentals. That’s my focus this month and moving forward. Hopefully, you’ll see the glimmers of that and will enjoy it.
What basics will you be working on? How are you going to scale back?