Gear # 4 – FAILURE POINT MOTIVATION
MAXIMUM HORSEPOWER 4
If you look at a few of the great athletes in life , they are driven by the fact that some person told them that they could not succeed. Tom Brady was one that comes to mind and Michael Jordan was another. I’m not comparing myself or any small business owner to those two megastars, but I am going to say that it is a big part of small business horsepower.
My potential vendor that I was just about to get started with as a partner; told me at the last minute that I was not wanted and that my services were not required. What I did as soon as that initial shock wore off was go right back to work. I already represented a competitive vendor to the one that just dumped me, in some product areas with a line I acquired in 1998. Well, I decided to use that as motivation to sell against the vendor that left me at the altar.
My questions for small business owners:
Will you push enough in your career to reach a failure point?
Can you recognize failure and when you reach the that point?
Can you recover from the failure and re-energize your engine? Will you add another gear?
Listen to my conversation with Nayana and Tarik
Both Nayana and Tarik Currimbhoy grew up in India, and came to New York City in their early twenties to study. Tarik went to Pratt Institute, and then to Cornell, getting his degrees in Fine Arts and Architecture, and Nayana to get a Master’s in media studies at Fairfield University.
They met in New York, in Central Park one Fall day in 1981. Tarik had taken part in a William De Kooning international sky sculpture show. Nayana, went to interview him for her newspaper, and that was the beginning.
They have been married for over 30 years now, and have one adult daughter. They started an architecture and design office in the nineties, with Tarik as the creative director, and Nayana, the business partner. Their work has been published in magazines and newspapers around the world, and has received many design awards and distinctions. They have designed private residences, offices, restaurants and small buildings around the U.S. and abroad.
Nayana, whose degree is in Journalism and Creative Writing, has published four books, both fiction and non fiction, including Indira, a biography of the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (Grolier Publishing) and Miss Timmins School for Girls (Harper, NY). She is working on her next novel.
Tarik, whose first degree was in Fine Arts from Pratt Institute, is also a successful sculptor. He brings his understanding of form and structure to create kinetic sculptures in stone and metal. In the past three years, he has showed at Soethby’s NY, Art In Buildings, the Johnson Museum, among many. his work is in public and private collections around the world.
www.Currimbhoy.net