Everyone has a plan…

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth” — Mike Tyson

I’ve been thinking a lot about that quote lately. Starting a company is a lot like that quote. Not the mouth full of bloody chiclets part — just the whole shock to the system part.

When I started Sidgl, I had this idea that I could practice my craft at a very high level and people would find me — that I could essentially do what I love best — make pretty things — and everything would fall into place.

What’s that other quote? Something about bliss? I love a hero’s journey as much as anyone — I just didn’t think following one’s bliss would be a hero’s journey.

Starting a company pretty much means one thing — continually redefining what that company is — I don’t mean the elevator pitch — elevator pitches are designed to be catchy high-level things that sound cool but are pretty vague on details. My favorite, by the way, is from Visio Corp. — “Drag, Drop, Done”. If you don’t know Visio, the product, that makes no sense. If you know Visio the product — it’s cool and catchy and describes the product so so sweetly.

I digress.

It’s not the elevator pitch that keeps changing — except for a continual refining of the message. (I hope to get mine down to three words and some commas some day too, when I grow up.) No — what keeps changing is the roles I adopt — my role as CEO — that keeps changing.

Getting punched in the mouth repeatedly is a valuable lesson. It teaches you how to be agile, for one thing. Standing still will result in more punches to the head. Taking a punch to the head doesn’t teach you how to be tough — but it does teach two things — getting hit in the face is not THAT bad. And — its nothing personal. (Well. Getting hit in the face IS bad if that person happens to be Rocky Marciano — but we pick the fights we are trained to pick. )

And there strangely is nothing personal about getting punched. Even if that person has a strong hate-on for you, at the end of the day, its an input you have to respond to. Respond by eating it, evading it, or using it to your advantage. Maybe all three at once.
When you start a company, all you have to defend yourself with is your passion and the tools you bring to the table. Hopefully, there are tools in the kit that allow you to adapt and adopt.

Ideas change as they are placed into the crucible of reality. Simply having a website and a product does not mean that either will be recognized. Simply telling your story does not mean that you are communicating it effectively to the world. Learning how to do these things — using the medium of words and images to capture peoples imaginations are skills honed and refined through the constant feedback of friends, family and customers.

The other day, I had a friend of mine, a UX designer, look over my web site to see what changes I should make. She had started her own company a few years ago and was familiar with the path I now trod. What sticks to me from that conversation is the common sense truth — “making the product is the easy part.”

UGH! Just. Ugh. Yes. It’s true. I can make the product all the live long day — and I am GOOD at that part of it. But BUT — If I do something awesome in a forest and no one is around to see the awesome, is it still awesome? Well? Is it?

As CEO, my role is really to do all these things — or to delegate all these things. Either way, I have to identify what these things are — marketing and sales. Pipelines, editorials. Outreach. Capturing and inspiring and responding in a way that builds sales and brand recognition.

When I started a company, I had no idea what was involved. The legal end, the financial end — (just filing all the paperwork necessary to sell in a given state is daunting.) I just had an idea — a passion — a desire to bring something into the world. I persisted and brought something new into the world. Now what?

I read once, somewhere, that there are two types of invention: From 0 to 1. And from 1 to 100. Both phases of invention require drive and ingenuity — it’s just — most of us are not prepared for the drive that it takes to get from 1 to 100. One to one hundred is the manufacturing phase, and more importantly the selling phase. Selling the idea, selling a future — a real honest to god future, because if you invent something, if you birth an entirely new idea, you have to find a way to make people relate.

If you are like myself, the first time I realized the silence of a new idea, a punch landed. Like an ice bath. The air left my lungs, my eyes got wide and I thought: “Well. What now.”

I have told myself that I am not a salesman. That I do not have the muscle to sell — this is purely vanity. Sure. My comfort zone is “in the lab”. Making things. Designing things. But. If I want this to be a real company — a grown-up tax-paying company, I have to sell, baby, sell. My role, my perspective on what my company changes and refines around that simple truth. Here, here is gravity. Currency and commerce are the glues that keep these ideas on this earth. Like Newton and Adam before him, I must obey the laws of the apple….

I ask myself then, a simple question: Do I love my idea enough to sell it? And not sell it quietly, with the caveats and philosophical mumblings of a designer? No — to sell loudly and proudly. To speak with enthusiasm — to compel with the truth of great works.

Yes. Simply. Yes.

If you have made it this far: Sidgl makes the best urban messenger bags on the planet. Our mission is to make your life easier by making gear that suits a busy and active lifestyle. And to look cool doing it. Meet the New Utility.