Tito’s Handmade Vodka
Tito Beveridge, Founder
I think that when people are pursuing their dreams, there’s generally about 57 reasons why you shouldn’t do it, you know? For me, it was ‘I’m trying to start a liquor business, and my competition is a multibillion dollar multinational corporation. And I have 19 credit cards out, and no money.’ I’ve failed a lot. And failure’s intense. It sucks, and it hurts real bad. But the funny thing is, everybody always sets out to do some particular goal. And it’s never the goal — the actual achieving it — that ends up being the worthwhile thing. It’s generally the journey, and the pursuit, that’s most gratifying. People are happy when they have a mission, and if your mission is something that you love to do, you’ve already won. I don’t think there’s anything worse than waking up in the morning, and just dreading going to work, day after day and getting nothing back. It just sucks the life out of you. So instead, go do something you love to do! And if you fail? Maybe it’ll be overwhelming. All the energy you’ve put into that thing might come crashing down on you. And your initial instinct will be to blame somebody else or something bigger than you. But what I’ve learned through all my failures is don’t blame anybody. Just wrap your arms around it, and say, ‘The whole thing is my fault. I accept all responsibility.’ And it’s very empowering, because you kind of capture all of that energy once again, and you say, ‘It’s mine.’ And you wad it up into a little carnation and you pin that carnation on your lapel, and you wear that failure with pride. And if anybody ever gives you any grief about failure, just say, ‘What have you done lately? What have you tried? When’s the last time you stuck your neck out?’ It ends up that with failure, you’re learning things the whole time. You’re tempering your steel. And as you go along in life, and have had all these different experiences, those failures end up being the foundation of your future successes.
Tito’s Austin Must: Go see some live music. Head down to South Congress to the Continental Club or the Saxon Pub. If Shawn Pander’s in town, go check out his show.
