“In France failure is seen as a dirty disease that nobody should ever catch!”
Never hesitate to try! And if you fall, you will get back up stronger.
This Sunday’s column is a bit special, as it will be as much about entrepreneurship as about literature. I can easily understand if the lesser fans of the genre among you pass by.
At the end of this summer, I read Smiling in Hardships, written by Efuet, an entrepreneur in France. It’s a beautiful, heartfelt and real account of the failures and issues Efuet faced when starting his business in France.
As I said in a message to the author, this book came into my life at the best of times. I won’t go into the details, because that’s not the theme of this publication, but a few days ago I closed my first business to concentrate on other projects.
In his book, Efuet explains the mistakes he made as a young entrepreneur in France. Boy, did that make me feel good! I made those mistakes too. Between bad investments, bad entourage, focusing on what is not our core business and lack of knowledge in various aspects, reading his testimony, I simply rewound my story.
Through writing, Efuet learns from his mistakes. This is beautiful because it is not easy when we undertake something to see and understand what we are not doing right. We often have our heads in the sand, we don’t count the hours we spend working, and we don’t always see that we are losing sight of our goal.
The authenticity with which the author writes impressed me. In France, failure is seen as a dirty disease that nobody should ever catch. This is a stupid idea, often imposed by a biased school education that trains executors and not creators. It flies in the face of what America can promote as a nation in which every attempt, successful or not, is celebrated.
Never hesitate to try, no matter what the field. And if you fall, you will get back up stronger and more honest.
Stéphanie
Chroniqueuse de 📚 et buveuse de🍸
