This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
I tried to sell something no one wanted. That's what we're gonna hear about today. It is a case study of a failed project, case study of something that did not work out. And if you're wondering like, "Hey, why are we hearing about failures?" Well, first of all, this is failure Friday. That is the segment we do every other Friday here on Side Hustle School.
So that's why. But the greater reason behind why we do this segment in the first place is because I believe we can learn as much from failure as we can from success, if not in fact more. And not every project that you start is going to work out. In fact, in a few days, I think it's maybe early next week, we're gonna hear from somebody who had a failed partnership and it just didn't work. And they're ready to do something new, but they wanna make sure that this previous failure doesn't prevent them from moving forward positively.
So it's a common issue, a common struggle. So I like to look at stories of mistakes, missteps, disasters, and of course failure. It could be failure because of something that the side hustler did wrong, or it could be an outside circumstance that kind of comes along and just derails them. And so what happens? What do they learn from the process?
But also just how does it feel in that process? Not even looking ahead to the lessons all the time, but just understanding that this is a normal part of life and of starting projects and of working on your own. So without further ado, today's short story features Bertie from Central Ohio. She had this idea to sell gift baskets for corporate alumni. Seems like it might be a good idea, right?
But the reason why we encourage listeners to take action as quickly as possible is because you don't always know in advance which ideas are gonna work out. So in this case, unfortunately, buyer demand was non-existent. I'm gonna let her tell the story. Let's pass the mic to Bertie. [Music]
Have you ever tried to sell something that no one wanted to buy?
Guess what? I did. I was going to say that this is the story of me selling something that didn't get a lot of sales, but that's not exactly accurate. It got zero sales. As in absolutely none.
What's funny is this happened after a previous idea I had worked well. I guess I thought I could do no wrong. You know what they say about pride going before fall. All right, so my idea. Gift baskets in the theme of school colors.
I thought this could be great for alumni parties, fundraising, or just general school spirit. I talked to my college alumni office to see if they'd be interested. Seemed like they were. Later I realized they were probably just humoring me. Anyway, I spent a lot of time, too much time, curating items for the gift baskets.
I wanted them to be perfect. So I made dozens of calls to potential vendors and looked at hundreds of items. In contrast, I spent very little time thinking about marketing. Big mistake. I guess I just thought, if you build it, they will come.
But they definitely didn't. Once I had the offer page ready to go, I'm not sure what I expected. But it was supremely anticlimactic. Very few people visited and no one added anything to their shopping cart. As for the alumni office, when I followed up with my contact to let them know the product was ready, they passed me on to someone else.
But that person never responded despite repeated follow-ups. In the end, I realized I might have sounded desperate or at least discouraged. I was. I'd worked on this a lot and nothing came of it. After a couple of weeks, I finally recognized that this situation was almost entirely my fault.
I'd made something that no one wanted and then failed to devote enough time to marketing. I guess I'll never know what would have happened if I solved the second problem. But my gut says it just wasn't a good fit in the first place. I left feeling humble but not humiliated. After all, I'd been able to succeed in the past and I even learned a valuable lesson from this failure.
Live to fight another day. Just not with the same idea. [Music]
Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. That's the theme of failure Friday. Live to fight another day.
Just not with the same idea. I like that theme as well. Little sub-theme for us. Fair enough. Thanks to Bertie for sharing this story.
Remember listeners, sometimes things don't work out. You gotta just keep going. You gotta try something new. I wanna encourage you to keep trying new things. Keep moving forward.
Just a couple of simple steps every day. Just make a little bit of progress every day. That's what I try to do in my life, of course. A mixed track record, but I keep going, right? I keep going.
All right, if you have a question and update about your hustle, sidehustleschool.com. You can also access notes pages for every single episode. Every single one we've ever made. More than 3,400 plus and counting. You can get new episodes seven days a week wherever you get your podcasts.
Much more is coming up. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
