I’ll be honest…

the seven years spent starting and growing my first company, i came away with more than I think any college degree could’ve taught me. i knew nothing! i taught myself along the way, web design, logistics, marketing, manufacturing… all the things (while raising three young boys!) i learned hard things the hard way, built a team that felt like family (some of them were), and experienced miracle after miracle (or so that’s what it felt like) of “winning”!! bucket list collabs, happy customers across the globe, wholesale orders by the thousands to Canada, singapore, dubai, and wholesale across the USA, including whole foods market, nor cal.

it was fast rising.

it was magical.

,.. until it wasn’t.

my patent was rejected. Big box stores copied my product and took a massive amount of my market, both domestically and internationally.

i was making financial decisions that i wasn’t equipped to handle, finding myself in debt and for the first time, the market in which i had created, was no longer my own. my competition was overwhelming. i couldn’t give it what it needed on my own anymore. i was overwhelmed and exhausted.

to this day, deciding to sell was one of the hardest decisions i’ve ever made.

there are so many beautiful and meaningful pieces to our life puzzle but some of them make more of an impact. entrepreneurial experiences are those pieces to me. i don’t try to love the journey, i just do. yes, there’s fear but there’s more fear of not trying.

the skills i walked away with set me up for

looking back, would I have done things differenlty? absolutely. but isn’t that the point? to learn?

can i tell you something? This is difficult to admit… after selling, i was ashamed and embarrassed. to me, i had failed.