Must Be Nice

We’ve been fans of the?Born Primitive?clothing brand since they were hawking version 1.0 of their “Hungriest Man Eats” shirts at regional Crossfit competitions back in 2012.? Today, the company has sales over $100 million and we admire the ethos of the veteran-run brand which is “proud to cut against the grain. We champion all of you modern savages who work your asses off and refuse to make excuses. No handouts. No entitlements. You only get what you earn.”? Clearly, there is some philosophical overlap with our approach to small business operations.? Of course, having super cute, functional, high-quality, and well-priced clothing doesn’t hurt our affinity for the brand either!?

We also enjoy listening to the company’s podcast, which was launched about a year ago.? In one such podcast,?Bear Handlon, one of the company’s founders, shared some thoughts on how others may reflect on their (now seemingly inevitable)?success.? While today many may see only a growing apparel company, they neglect to understand the blood, sweat, and tears that laid the groundwork for those successes.??From the podcast:?

“I know this is never malicious [when people] offhandedly say things like the ‘must be nice’?comment.? I always try to [not to] get amped up in front of these people but when I hear that I get fired up… alright dude let me actually break this down for you, everything that we had to do to get it to where it is.?

.. We had put in, by that point, four or five years of our lives with no certainty that any of this was going to amount to anything. We hadn’t made a penny off of it… the business was technically profitable, but since we’re bootstrapped [all that money goes] into the next year so you’re never actually making money. Mal wasn’t getting paid, I wasn’t getting paid, we were living off of one salary. And after all that, working weekends into the night, you know, stressed out all the time.? Five years could have gone by and it could have went up in smoke and we would have nothing to show for it…

.. For the most part, anyone that has been on that journey will tell you it’s a freaking grind. You sacrifice a lot of your own freedom and personal enjoyment. You know you could be out getting beers with your buddies and instead you’re emailing suppliers from your laptop at 10 o’clock at night on a Saturday night right with your spouse right next to you doing the same thing. [That’s] something when I reflect back on it’s, like man we got after it, we went hard with really low probability that it was actually?[going to] amount to anything.?

.. so I guess that’s my, like, my caveat to anyone being like ‘Oh Born Primitive, it must be nice.’?[Anyone] that has gone on that journey knows exactly what I’m talking about.”??

?It sometimes seems that many who envy success are unwilling to make the sacrifices required to achieve it.? We understand that after almost 10 years of growing Chenmark, the perception may be that our current situation “must be nice”.? What some fail to?understand is that, like Bear, we have been through?the journey and know exactly what he is talking about.? Years of low to no wages.? Years of personal guarantees on credit obligations.? Years of no vacations.? Years of working late nights and weekends. Years of missing family dinner.? Years of grunt work.? Years of sacrifice with no certainty of the outcome.??It’s all part of it.? As?Ronnie Coleman, (a.k.a, “The King”), who won the Mr. Olympia title for eight consecutive years, and is generally regarded as the greatest professional bodybuilder of all time, said?“Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but nobody wants to lift the heavy ass weights.”??Must be nice, indeed.?

Have a great week,

Your Chenmark Team

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