SOURCE - https://brightwanderer.tumblr.com/post/681806049845608448
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I think a lot about how we as a culture have turned āforeverā into the only acceptable definition of success.
Likeā¦ if you open a coffee shop and run it for a while and it makes you happy but then stuff gets too expensive and stressful and you want to do something else so you close it, itās a āfailedā business. If you write a book or two, then decide that you donāt actually want to keep doing that, youāre a āfailedā writer. If you marry someone, and that marriage is good for a while, and then stops working and you get divorced, itās a āfailedā marriage.
The only acceptable āwin conditionā is āyou keep doing that thing foreverā. A friendship that lasts for a few years but then its time is done and you move on is considered less valuable or not a ārealā friendship. A hobby that you do for a while and then are done with is a āphaseā - or, alternatively, a āpityā that you donāt do that thing any more. A fandom is ādyingā because people have had a lot of fun with it but are now moving on to other things.
| just think that something can be good, and also end, and that thing was still good. And itās okay to be sad that it ended, too. But the idea that anything that ends is automatically less than this hypothetical eternal state of successā¦ I donāt think thatās doing us any good at all.
This reminds me of a friend who opened a bakery. The business was successful, and the food was good, but she decided to give it up after a few years when she and her husband started a family.
I donāt consider that a āfailureā by any definition. For her, it was a great experience that had run its course.
Yeah. I would usually see a business as failed only if it is going through bankruptcy.
If you ācloseā it, itās because it failed. Successful business are transferred or sold, because a loyal customer base and a successful business model have a lot of value.
Same for 90% of the other things mentioned. If you do a hobby for a while and you abandon it, itās by definition a phase. Etc.
Not really true. Plenty of mom and pop shops close because no one wants to run it and they donāt want to ruin the reputation of their family business by selling it to someone who might not run it well. I worked for a few places where this happened.
Who are these people that decline tens of thousands of dollars/euros/pounds for their image? Must be nice being that richā¦
Plenty of otherwise successful businesses could not be sold for tens of thousands of dollars just for the name. Several are in business solely because of personal connections with other small businesses. Once that element is gone people go elsewhere. At least in my community/experience.
Thatās freelancing then, not really a business, isnāt it?
There was a dessert business I used to do work for that catered a lot of local businesses events. She got plenty of work there and then had a loyal customer base because of the introduction to her desserts at these events. That seems like a valid business to me. She retired and moved to be closer to her kids and that was it. No one to take her place. I donāt know what you consider freelancing but she put her kids through school off of it so I donāt know why it wouldnāt count as business even if she technically never had long term contracts. She had her stuff in stores in the area because she made a name for herself and her products. People liked her and her story as much as the food so I donāt think people wouldāve kept buying it if they found out she didnāt own it anymore.
I think you might not be aware of how many people have small businesses. 10% of American workers are self employed. I have done a lot of work for small businesses and itās very different than what a lot of people who had a teacher and a factory worker as parents think.
For me a business is an organization with intellectual property (recipes, for instance) employees (institutional knowledge, know-how), reputation, location, customer base, etc. Basically a bus factor higher than 1.
A successful motivational speaker, a good mechanic or a youtuber wouldnāt be āa businessā in my understanding. A car garage with 5 mechanics would.
But she didnāt make infinity+1 dollars so what was even the point
What happened to the bakery? Did she sell it or transfer ownership to someone else?
She didnāt own the building. Last I saw, there was an ice cream shop in the space. It was a good one, too. I think that location is lucky.