Learning lessons

It’s been 3 weeks since KOMApparel.co.uk went live and I’m full of excitement for the future as I try to grow the business into a full-fledged side hustle. Going live felt like a huge achievement after a build up of months of work; it was 8 months since I had my first design meeting! I know that the hard work starts now.

With Matthew Syed’s black box thinking on my mind, I think it is important to reflect on the process. As part of my main job, I assist with recruitment into specialist units and a question I often like to ask candidates, is ‘tell me about a mistake you made, and what did you do to overcome it?’ A gold standard answer is when a candidate has the emotional intelligence to realise that they made a mistake, seeks help from research, experienced peers and/or a supervisor, corrects the problem and then shares their learning with others so that a repeat mistake can be avoided.

I get annoyed when candidates pretend that this is a hard question to answer. We make mistakes all the time, even when operating within our comfort zones. They’re part of life.

Looking back on the last 8 months, I know I’ve made several mistakes, but I’ll focus on one: When I first told my Dad that I was going to try and start a business, he wasn’t overwhelmingly supportive. At the time, I reacted badly to what I perceived as a lack of faith when he asked me questions such as:

How are you going to market it?

How are you going to find the time to do it?

How are you going to finance it?

In reality, he was signposting to me towards challenges that I would need to overcome, and I needed to think of solutions then. Half an hour after my website went live, I had a notification; my first order. It was an order from my Dad for a t-shirt. The next time I saw him, he was wearing the t-shirt, a visual endorsement of his support for me. He even had some feedback for me about my packaging. One of the greatest leaders I’ve ever worked for was called Jo, she always said ‘feedback is a gift.’ At times I suspect she was saying it sarcastically, but there’s always an element of truth to it.

It’s hard to not be defensive when someone is questioning your ideas, but when the questions come from a place of compassion, they should be embraced. I will always be grateful for that very first order. Lesson learnt – listen to your Dad.