MY SCREENSAVER

Let me tell you the story of my screensaver. I took the photo 2229 days ago on 22/6/2012. I look at it daily. It still drives the shit out of me.

The day before, my card declined trying to buy a Diet Coke. I casually tried another. Then, less casually, my credit card. Panicked, I tried my FFF debit card and credit card. Both declined.

Panicking, I headed to the bank - 'banks', actually, as I tried 3. Every account was overdrawn and maxed out. I returned home in a daze and decided to work out exactly how much money I had. The total? ￡4.50.

That was everything. No loans, no other cards, nothing.

I also had to pay around ￡2,000 to staff and suppliers the following day.

What Does 'Rock Bottom' Feel Like?

I distinctly remember saying "well, that's fucking it". I sat and stared at the floor. I thought what it would feel like to tell my staff, my customers and my friends. But, mostly, I thought about telling my parents.

“Failure”.

I knew they would try and convince me that I wasn’t. But, according to my own standards, I would be. And I was the one that had to look at myself in the mirror.

This story has a good ending and a moral.

The Turnaround

The good ending? I stopped staring at the floor and came up with a plan. I shut out everything and focused on one number: ￡2,000. I had to get ￡2,000.

I would get ￡2,000.

I hit the phone, sent emails and lined up meetings the next day. By lunchtime, I had around ￡1,200 worth of orders. I then walked into a meeting I’ll never forget. It was in a hairdressers. I literally sat and pitched FFF to a lady having her hair cut and styled.

And she ordered. There and then. ￡1,500. I left shaking (excitement? relief?). I ran home, paid everyone that needed paying and took “the ￡4.50 photo” as a reminder.

The Moral of The Story

The moral of the story? Simple: refuse to give up. Jay-Z put it well:

“We went to every single label and every single label shut their door on us. The genius thing that we did, we didn’t give up”.

James Dyson (yeah, the vacuum guy) put it this way:

“When you feel like giving up is precisely the point everybody else gives up. So it’s at that point that you must put in extra effort. You do that and then success is around the corner”.