Don't tell me you can't do it!

I hate waste.  In particular, I hate the waste of people's talent.  If they'd just get up and start something, they'd discover all sorts of cool things about life. 

Here's a great story that Dan Pink has on his blog today about a woman who did just that.  Pink tells the tale:

Seven years ago, Diane St. Clair didn't know boo about making butter. But she wanted to learn so she taught herself the trade via the Internet and some books. Soon she cadged a "small-scale pasteurizer and got a license to go into production." And with one Jersey cow, she went into business. She called her operation, based in rural Orwell, Vermont -- wait for it -- Animal Farm. One day, she sent her butter to Thomas Keller, an all-star chef. He proclaimed it the best butter he'd ever tasted -- and ordered it for all his swank restaurants, as did many other fancy joints.

Today, St. Clair's one-woman operation has six cows and continues to produce butter for the best restaurants in the country. Now she's contemplating starting a butter of the month club that will offer subscribers a pound of butter a month for ten months for a subscription price of $750. That's $75 a pound! As they say, margins like that are like buttah.

Initiative.  Diane St. Clair took initiative to learn something, and then built a business from it. Initiative.  That is all it takes to start. Personal Initiative.

This is a story fit for both Mavericks at Work and The Long Tail.  Mavericks because she took an idea and built a business from that idea.  Long Tail because she has created a niche business from one cow and some pasteurizing equipment.

To me this one is just another example of a person who doesn't listen to the naysayers and goes and tries something. 

Listen, I don't know everyone who reads this blog, but I do know that all it takes is an idea, some personal initiative and commitment to see it through.  Sure there is hard work, but life's richness comes from giving your very best to what you love.  Follow Diane St. Clair's lead and go start something.  And then tell everyone your story.

UPDATE: As I watched the supplementary materials in the Miracle DVD, the footage of the meeting of Kurt Russell and the filmmakers with Herb Brooks prior to filming, I kept hearing Brooks say things relevant to this post.  Here are two.

"You have to make sacrifices for the unknown."
The unknown for most of us is what we can achieve if we start something.  This goes to a meme that I've been thinking about lately about how ideas get translated into action.  For example, how did Diane St. Clair move from an interest in butter along all those steps to the creation of the Butter of the Month Club? 

If success is unknown, then how can we calculate the level of sacrifice needed.  Is there a line we draw that says, beyond this I will not go?  I think it has more to do with how willing we are to deviate from our original conception of the plan. How willing are we to change in order to achieve our goals?

When I heard Herb Brooks say this, I immediately thought of Lewis & Clark two hundred years ago.  They had a mission and a goal. The mission to find a commercial water route across the country.  Their goal was to reach the Pacific coast.  When they left St. Louis in 1704, some of their route was known because of trappers and traders who worked the Missouri up to present day North Dakota. But after the winter of 1705, they were off the map. They were in the unknown, and day after day, they kept moving forward.  Everyday was filled with hardship.  Sacrifices?  I'm not sure they would have thought so.  They were in beautiful country on a great adventure.  But they daily faced the unknown with resourceful optimism.

The second thing that Herb Brooks said that I insight was his understanding of the development of greatness in his team.  He spoke about how you can't force greatness on them.  Instead you (1.) believe in them, set (2.) high standards, and (3.) pull the greatness out of them. This goes back to the first sentence of this posting.

Most of never experience the fulfillment of the potential that we have.  As Linda mentioned in her comment below, it sometimes that another person to bring it out.  That is what Herb Brooks did with his hockey team. 

Lurking within every human being is some hidden greatness.  For most of us, we need other people to draw it out of us.  I'd like to know about the circle of friends and family that gave Diane St. Clair the encouragement to pursue her dream

Comments

[Ed Brenegar]

Thank you, Linda, you are very kind. I wish others would follow your lead and act on their inspiring ideas. You are a great example.

[Linda Zdanowicz]

Good article Ed.You say all it takes is an idea,initiative and committment. I'd like to add one more. Sometimes it takes a friend to pick you up, point you in the right direction and give you a shove. Knowing someone else believes in you that much can make you believe in yourself again. Very few people are interested or care enough to go there for someone else. You did that for me when I needed it and now nobody can tell me I can't do something. Thanks, Linda

[DennisS]

It's interesting to me that many folks are afraid to step out of the crowd and do something unique. Leaning into who we were created to be doesn't come from following the crowd!

[ann michael]

Ed - that is a great story. What I love about it is it's yet another example of how it was someone's interest, ultimately, passion that lead them to pursue something others would abandon.

This story happens time and time again - Google, Starbucks, etc. Someone gets something under their skin (an interest or a dissatisfaction with the current options) and they go for it!

I would say if you're going to go start something - first think about what really gets you going. What do you love? What do you wish was done better? What delights or frustrates you completely? That might be the first place to look for your business idea!

[Tim]

Amen to that! Great story. Thanks for sharing.

As Joseph Campbell is quoted as saying, "All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time - namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be."