“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.” ― Confucius
As I write this, it is just about a year since the world shut down. Not to mention the business this series is about. We are a travel related business and when no one can travel there is no need for our product. Covid was the final nail in the coffin for us.
The reality is, we already begun digging the hole with one foot in. We were already on a downward slope to begin with. We have spent the last five years trying to heal and recover from one blow after another. Many of the blows were beyond our control but the impact of many could have been minimized or prevented had we done some things differently; hindsight is twenty-twenty.
Looking back through the glass there are many lessons to be had for the choices we made over the years. The hard truth is we can really go back to day one and see that the manner in which the corporation was formed and structured placed the business in a vulnerable position financially. After that, we backed ourselves into a corner as a one trick pony; easy prey for bigger companies to pounce on. We didn’t realize it until it was too late.
I have shared on many occasions the events that led to our first major fall so I will not go into detail here. The fact is that we have been working to recover from that for nearly a decade. It has truly been a roller coaster ever since. We climbed pretty high several times but would fall back again. We were just never able to get back to that high point again and maintain our position. It was always one thing after another; a recession, copy cat products, trade wars, factory headaches, the list goes on.
Each issue alone was not the biggest deal but when you are already in a compromised position, the impact hits harder. So, we did our best to mitigate the external issues beyond our control but the timing was always off. Looking back that begs the question “did we really do our best?” I can only answer for my choices and actions and the answer is a resounding “NO!” I absolutely did not do my best.
That it a blessing and a lesson in and of itself. The ability to see our mistakes and admit we were wrong is huge. That places us in a position to learn and grow from the mistakes. There a many to be had through the years of this business which prevents the mistakes from becoming failures. Not that a business that operated for twenty year is considered a failure, but I can easily throw my thoughts to the darkness and say that I failed because we are shutting down.
I will close with that and leave the lessons to be shared in another part. For now, we are still in limbo with the closing. This door sure is taking its time to shut!
Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator
You have to leap if you want to live
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