People often ask me how my fashion company went from local to global so quickly. I explain that my success is rooted in a simple method when facing challenges. I view challenges as walls, then simply break through any wall that is keeping me from what I want.
When I say “walls,” I am referring to anything that can and will get in your way. I have learned through life and business experiences that these “walls” are what hold us back from great opportunity that is actually within our reach. An external wall could be the cost of moving into a bigger office space. A perceived wall could be thinking that you are smart enough.
If you feel as though you are being held back or if your company growth is not progressing as fast as you’d like, there are walls in your way. Try these simple steps to identify the walls holding you back and learn how to break through them.
Identifying Which Walls Are Holding You Back
A large part of your ability to break through in today's dynamic economy and ever-changing cultural environment is to know which walls are holding you back. Then, you must believe that you can (and will) do what it takes to make it past these walls. Anything and everything is doable if you believe it is so. This mindset has helped me grow my business time and time again.
One example of a wall I see that holds people back from international expansion is the cost of traveling. People have an impression that going overseas is much more expensive than it is. I discovered models in London who I wanted to recruit for my company. Rather than focusing on the wall — the distance between my plan and my situation — I decided to book the flight to London and broke through the wall. When you are an early stage startup, you have to be able to be agile and make quick decisions. I asked for forgiveness rather than permission. I trusted my gut and searched the internet for the cheapest ticket I could find. I told my investors about my trip once I landed in London. I told them that I would put together detailed reports so that they could see the trip’s impact on our bottom line.
I was grateful to learn that they trusted me and were proud of me for making the decision to take action. If you spend too much time talking with people about how to get over your walls, you will get lots of opinions and you might not take action. It was more than worth it, and now I have multiple international models on my team to show for it. If I had not gone with my intuition and taken that flight, the wall would have prevented my expansion in Europe. And the sales that resulted after the trip more than paid for the cost of the tickets.
Walls Will Fall When You Take Action
Before my company was in our current location, we were in a 400-square-foot warehouse. We called it a warehouse, but it was more like a room. We quickly ran out of space and had to move to a bigger office. But as a startup, all we saw were walls impeding our growth. The new space was ten times larger but cost three times as much as our 400-square-foot office space. These were huge walls.
But there were more walls. When I inquired about the space, the landlord didn’t want to rent to us because we were a startup. I spoke with the realtor, and he said, "We've got to do a lease for five years."
I told him I really liked the space and I was definitely interested. He never called me back. I wasn’t going to let that stop me, so I simply drove there. I knocked on the door and the current tenant opened it. I asked him if I could take a look and he let me in. The following week, I brought my investor. He agreed it was great but very expensive.
I told him not to worry and that I would work the landlord down on the price.
I knew that the landlord was worried about risk and that they were looking for a bigger company to rent for a long time. That was a wall that he had built around the negotiations. So I broke that wall down by suggesting that we agree on a three-year lease that we would have to renew every three months.
This rolling short-term commitment made my investor more comfortable because of the lower price, and the landlord was happy because if a larger company came along, he had the option to try to sell a higher rent for a longer term. We closed the deal a price we could afford.
Find Your Direction And Stay The Course
Everything is possible, especially when you are a startup. This is the type of mentality you must have as an entrepreneur. The key is to constantly learn exactly what works and what doesn't work. You'd be surprised. When you're in the right direction, things work out perfectly. But if you're not in the right direction, you may find yourself trapped. The trick is to realize when you are stuck and get back on the right course.
For example, my company had to launch twice. When we first launched, sales didn’t come in as projected. We evaluated what went wrong with our plan, adjusted, then launched again. On our second launch, sales started rising the first day.
Don’t waste your time getting hung up on what does not work. If you run into a wall and can’t seem to break through it, find a hidden door, dig underneath or fly over it and keep moving on to the next challenge with open arms.
