Ups and Downs

So, yesterday I was feeling a bit frustrated by what seems like our constant lack of $ to raise our large family as Corey pursues his dream (and puts into it any money that we might have used to buy a home...) But his heart is in the right place, he just wants to make the world a better place. And we've had great adventures because of his dream, and we've had lots of miracles and lucky breaks. But somedays, like yesterday, the failures and snail pace just leaves me feeling frustrated and tired of it all.

Then I received a tender mercy in the form of a book, and it really helped me feel better and I put things in perspective: this isn't anything new, we've been here before, and we'll very likely be here again, and this is what life is like everyone anyway, we all just experience it in different ways.  Highs and lows, ups and downs, peaks and valleys. I got this book a few weeks ago cause I thought Corey would like it. But he hadn't started it yet, and since it was sitting on his nightstand, I picked it up cause I had a feeling it would hit the spot, and it did. I started it yesterday, woke up during the middle of the night and read for an hour or two, and then read it every chance I got today and just finished. And my hope is renewed. It's all just part of the life of an entrepreneur (and his wife). The book is called The Birth of a Brand by Brian Smith.

From Amazon:
Brian Smith's story as the founder of the world-renowned UGG Australia brand is a hero's journey and roadmap to success with stories of achievements, failures, lucky breaks, and near disasters. 

Brian's guiding principle: You can't give birth to adults. Every company is conceived as an idea and birthed into reality, and the baby business grows through its infancy, toddler years, early youth, and tumultuous teens, to eventually arrive at maturity.

For those who have yet to set their dreams into action or those who are already on the rocky road to success, this book is a candid, colorful, outrageous, enlightening adventure in product development, world-wide brand recognition, and star-struck fame and fortune.

It was seriously intense at times. And I loved the analogy of how a business is like a child, that made so much sense. Each growth phase has it's own successes and challenges. I'll have to wait until Corey reads it himself to see what phase he thinks Movie Mouth is in right now. I'm hoping we're past the "infant" stage where "progress will seem to move at a crawl" and the business is like a baby that requires "endless feeding, diaper changes, and attention to every cry, while offering the occasional smile or giggle as scant compensation." Yes, that's where I feel like we're at, oh dear, maybe we're in the infancy stage still after 7 years! But software is different than retail... hm, MovieMouth has a board of directors... UGG got that during it's "high school" phase (p. 144) so maybe we're in high school? MM isn't selling yet, but they've got everyone lined up in Brazil ready to purchase as soon as the software is ready. Corey's almost ready to push the "Make Money" button.

Okay, Corey just totally made me laugh, he says Movie Mouth is a 7 year old that likes to just roll and flop around on the floor.  ...and is still nursing. Oh great!

It seems like we've had a few "near disasters", but reading Brian's stories gave me some perspective - his situations got really desperate and more than once. The highs got higher and the lows got lower. Yep, we're in for a roller coaster of a ride! His whole book and sharing his experience from beginning to end helped me so much to take a breath and believe that things will progress as we continue to dig in and work. Well, as much as I can as a wife to just be supportive and carry on with a smile. And I'll be singing "Smile like you mean it" as we go. I read parts of the book to Corey tonight on our date and we both nodded in agreement several times as he shares the struggles and the things he learned. This book was great, I hope I find another book like this to help me when we're in our next low point! or I'll just re-read this again. :)