MATTHEW QUINN
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failures

"Improvement at anything is based on thousands of tiny failures, and the magnitude of your success is based on how many times you’ve failed at something. If someone is better than you at something, then it’s likely because she has failed at it more than you have. If someone is worse than you, it’s likely because he hasn’t been through all of the painful learning experiences you have"

Our failures are real, our failures count, when we hold success as a binary outcome - everything we did, every tear we shed, every drop we sweated, every year we gave up is worthless.
Failures are my stepping stones to success and from now on will be treated as such.

Fortified Threads

8/9/2020

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Picture

What was it?

Like every aspiring entrepreneur I tried my hand at building a t-shirt company.

Well actually in 2013 my best friend at the time did, and he enrolled me to be in charge of strategy and operations.

The entire approach was that instead of using normal screen printing and okayish quality t-shirts, we were going to use a new product called Lumi, that effectively lets you develop prints on clothing with sunlight.

Just like a photo.

We'd then only use the highest quality sustainable materials from the box to the shirt, do limited runs, and produce a new kind of premium shirt.

What were the results?

  • We printed a bunch of designs on a few shirts
  • We spent a week in Abu Dhabi (endless sunshine) experimenting with Lumi and working out how to get great prints
  • We got to work on a cool project together outside of work

Post mortem

Why weren't we t-shirt billionaires?
  • Manufacturing with the sun in the UK is unpredictable
  • Lumi is really hard to use - hard to iterate on design & you won't know if the shirt looks good until it's finished
  • Producing a single item would take ages
  • We focussed on supply side product - no idea how to find customers and sell
  • The project didn't have a leader/executor. Even if you're working with your best friend you need someone to drive the project forward.
  • The marginal effort to create an item could never pay itself back
  • The t-shirt market is over saturated and hard to stand out in
  • We never really released the product
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Leave a Reply.

    Continually in progress

    ​If you've failed, and you want to talk about it but no one "gets it" or want's to talk to you about it. I'm here.


    ​If not, take 10 seconds for yourself, breathe deep, watch the water - and let's jump in.

    Either way I would fully recommend reading "When Smart People Fail".


    This page follows on from this post.
I enjoy helping people. If you need help, just ask.
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  • About Me
  • Blog
  • Projects
    • Uncivilized Health
    • Chrome Extensions
      • Linkedin to Streak CRM
      • Seed Oil Shopper Warning
      • Seed Oil Shopper
      • King Soopers Coupon Clipper
      • Sprouts Coupon Clipper
    • iOS Apps
      • Flicker
      • Pouchy
    • SAAS Portfolio
    • Reading