Better places waiting

When I was 18 or 19 I started a landscape business. I ran it for a few years. My biggest problem was equipment failures and not enough money to purchase the proper commercial equipment. Eventually I ended up in a partnership where they supplied the equipment and I had the experience and know how. The partnership did not work out and I was left with no equipment. My friend who worked for us asked “what do we do now?” I told him we will just do gardening only and purchase hand tools that we can afford. As a matter of a fact I suggested that we went to the more well to do areas and use the fact that we do not have the large mowers etc. to our advantage and advertise that we specialize in gardening only, and emphasise that we choose to leave the grass cutting to the other guys. It worked. we became very busy making more money than we used to with the traditional landscape business.

Eventually we started cleaning gutters for our customers. We even developed a system and targeted certain types of houses that we could do quickly and easily and make a good profit doing so. We were surprised at how much this service was needed. We enjoyed helping our customers and for us it seemed to be easier and faster money. My business partner and I eventually went our own ways, but this business journey that started out as a failed landscape company was one of the best things that could have ever happened to me. I still have the gutter and window cleaning business and now have thousands of happy customers. I love the business and the life it has made possible for myself and my family.

My point of writing this story is to be a reminder that there are always better places waiting on us. Even in the midst of a failed venture if we can keep moving and have an open mind, perhaps the failure can become a chance to shift gears and move into a place we were not open to before.