RE3EL STANCE

There is a saying that entrepreneur success stories are often 10 year overnight success stories. To the outside world, a company comes out of nowhere, makes all the right decisions, makes all the right products and is immediately on the front of inc. magazine after cashing out for a pile of cash. But, to the inside world…the world of the entrepreneur…that rocket launch ride the outside world sees is at the end of building one broken and failed launch after another.

At the end of the day, there is no way around it…building a business takes time. Sure, I know there are exceptions. Sure, I know that there are companies that were built and sold in a matter of a few months. And, sure, you can speed up the process of building and growing a business. But, you still must jump into the game realizing it will almost always take longer than you expect. So, buck up and realize you may have to be at it for a while.

In the end, there is almost no more important trait for entrepreneurial success than persistence. It’s what it explains bad ideas making it after much massaging and tweaking. It’s what explains why average ideas that are stuck with for a while will always out-perform a brilliant idea from an entrepreneur with a get rich quick mentality. Take for example Tom & Tom, founders of Nantucket Nectars.

Come on, did they start with a great idea? No, not really and they’ll admit it. They instead started with a simple idea…help people with what they need on the tiny idyllic island of Nantucket. Starting with a run down red boat and the name Nantucket Allserve, buddies Tom First and Tom Scott delivered newspapers, coffee, laundry, and other necessities to boats around the harbor. It wasn’t going to make them billions or even millions, but it was a start. They were in the game.

After a year of struggle and dealing with a rough New England winter, Tom & Tom came up with the idea to begin selling fresh juices off the back of their boat. Inspired by a delicious peach juice that one of the Toms had tasted while in Spain, it seemed like a way to make a few extra bucks while delivering newspapers.

It was a great idea - fresh delicious juice from different kinds of fruits. No concentrate. No preservatives. Just delicious fresh juice from fruits rarely used to make juice. But, it was a tough business. To make great fresh juice, it was expensive to buy top ingredients so profits were slim. It would have been easy to start buying cheaper ingredients or sticking to regular ol’ Orange Juice. But, rather than doing so, the friends searched for better and better ingredients despite the fact that the better ingredients were more and more expensive.

This led to a few years of continued financial struggle. Tom and Tom had to take random jobs including shampooing dogs and shucking scallops. They had to continue to educate their customers about better ingredients making better juices. They had to distribute their juices on their own and convince people to spend a few extra cents for better, more healthy yuminess.

They continued pushing, they continued believing in their products, they continued to educate the public and continued to live with passion. And, within a few years, Tom and Tom became 10 year overnight success stories in selling their company for a heap of money. They came to be considered a leading company in the national shift towards more healthy eating and better, more handcrafted foods and beverages.

I heard Tom Scott speak a few years ago and his closing line says it best. When asked, “How did you know how to make all the right decisions in building Nantucket Nectars?” Tom, simply replied, “we eventually were able to make all the right decisions because we stayed around for enough years to make ALL the wrong decisions so that the only options left were FINALLY the right ones.”

Persistence doesn’t take skill. It doesn’t take brilliance, a great education, the right connections or even a pile of money. It’s the easiest skill to obtain but the one that is the most rarely used. It’s the one great equalizer. So, go get to persisting, but first remember a few lessons from Tom & Tom:

Start: Don’t think anymore - just go, fail forward and figure it out as you go

Keep going: keep working at it, make decisions quickly and adjust as needed

Enjoy the ride: you’ll probably struggle, it’ll be tough, and you won’t become rich overnight so enjoy the journey

And, keep going and going and going: Keep massaging it, know when to listen to your customers and know when to tune them out, and keep educating the world because by doing so you’ll find enough people that believe in your idea

So, sleep well tonight…you may not be a massive success overnight but tack on a bunch of overnights and you’ll see what it feels like to have built a many year overnight success story of your own.