The followup is harder than the debut.
Successes are a lot more fun then failures but I would not trade out any of my failures. They define me, for better or worse. I learned so much from each that I find myself channeling words from my Dad–“I know you’ll hate this son, but it builds character.” When can I stop adding character? Enough already.
Like it or not, we are victims of our past. And when our past is a big success I think the burden is even stronger. If you are Hootie & the Blowfish and your debut album sells 16 million copies where do you go from there? The second version is bound to be a challenge. Time for more character building, I guess.
My second attempt at building a company never went anywhere. Three years wasted until a few members of the team told me it was time for me to move on. I had built the company to something good but it was in a holding pattern. What we sometimes call the living dead. Why?
Needless to say I have thought about this a few hundred times. Here is what I got so far.
I would love for you to click over to INC.COM to read the rest.
Great post Chris — of all the leadership/org examples I have read, I’ve never heard of someone who achieved extraordinary success, or even success for that matter, without encountering failure, challenges and setbacks along the way. Your post hit it spot on. It’s those who have a resilient, ‘can do & will do’ attitude, and a vision for what they want to accomplish who achieve success in however they way they define it!