Mar 16, 2016

I am sure we have all read ad naseum a plethora of articles and advice about avoiding pitfalls, not making the same mistakes, or falling into the same traps, that entrepreneurs who came before us did.  When I first started Choozi Entertainment, I couldn’t get enough of these articles, but here I am, 11 years later, with a very successful business of which I have made plenty of mistakes!

I am re-assessing our rabid need to avoid making mistakes, for after all, our mistakes give us a chance to grow, to improve, to better what we thought we already knew.  I am in the middle of purging 10 years of business documents and in so doing, am reliving many of the choices I made along the way, many of them mistakes which I learned from and became pivotal to my success today.

This afternoon, while going through too numerous to count Bankers Boxes chock full of documents, I found my favorite “10 Deadly Small Business Mistakes” list in the bottom of one.  It is a list I referred to often, especially while I was writing my business plan.  I took these 10 ‘mistakes’ to heart and assured myself I would not repeat them.  They are:

1. Getting Wedded To An Idea Or Sticking With It Too Long
2. No Marketing Plan
3. Not Knowing Your Customers
4. Ignoring Your Cash Position
5. Ignoring Employees
6. Confusing Likelihood with Reality
7. No Sales Plan
8. Being A Lone Ranger
9. No Mastermind
10. Giving Up

I am a creator.  I make my living dreaming up new and innovative ideas for the stage.  Back in 2010, I created an Abba show for Silversea Cruises that was a ‘costume conceit’.  I took the songs of Abba and re-envisioned them in different settings, with different characters.  The Entertainment Director wanted a straight ahead Abba show, one costume, great music.  I argued my point relentlessly, not so much because I thought my idea for the show was that great, but because I didn’t want to be ‘derivative’.  I mean c’mon … how many cruise ships have an Abba Tribute show?  I couldn’t imagine myself producing something we had seen before but in the end, I acquiesced to my client’s needs of course, and created the show he desired.  Looking back, I was mortified when I realized I had stuck to my idea for way too long.  I learned a wonderful lesson, however, and that was to never be afraid of being ‘derivative’.  Things work for a reason, and when they do, why change them?  The Abba show we created for Silversea was a favorite.  The guests loved the show and the Artists loved performing it.  It was silly and fun and exactly what the people wanted…and it even deserved a nod from USA Today as one of the “Best Shows at Sea”.

My company has ebbed and flowed according to the contracts and jobs I have accepted.  Some were large and called for a lot of people to help me, some were small which I could manage on my own.  I created my business model to be flexible knowing how entertainment trends change over night, so number 8 … being a Lone Ranger, was a pitfall I was bound and determined to never let happen to me.  Sharing ideas, pulling in the right people for the right projects, I thought was always going to be the key to my success.  For the most part, that’s been true, however there have been times when being “The Lone Ranger” would have benefited me greatly.  There is safety in numbers, as we all know, and if by chance we fail, it feels better when we fail together.  By constantly surrounding myself with people, I allowed myself to take a back seat in many instances when I realized later I should have been driving.  Why?  Well, I told myself it was because it was a ‘mistake’ to be The Lone Ranger, yet on further introspection, I realized my need to surround myself with so many others was out of fear.  Fear of failing, fear of being wrong, fear of delivering something awful.  There are times when we, as business owners, MUST be the Lone Ranger, because in the end, it doesn’t matter how many people you involve in a project which has YOUR name on the contract.  YOU are the one who fails or succeeds.

In sorting through these past years of events and shows, I have realized how many of my mistakes brought me to where I am today.  So, embrace your mistakes.  Look at them as your opportunity to grow.  Analyses them and learn from them.  They are one heck of a great business tool.