Simple, but Significant

When I started this blog it was intended to be a forum for updates on business and life – and business and life have most certainly be going on at full speed. I also didn’t want to be another blog that compulsively updated without something meaningful to say. I see many people/blogs that feel compelled to push content, without necessity or quality. I think this poster below sums it up best, when it comes to this blog and what I am trying to build:

In that vein, here is a simple, but significant update:

• Mizzen+Main has made tremendous progress. After going back to the drawing board to make our moisture wicking, wrinkle free dress shirts that much better, we’ve done just that. We have substantially improved the cuffs and collars and made a number of design improvements to the shirts themselves.
• We’ve taken our redesigned and improved shirts and released them in a beautiful Cornflower Blue and are releasing this weekend an Atlantic Blue Pinstripe and Pink Houndstooth. It’s an amazing feeling to see months of hard work result in such a tangible result.
• Our first video will be debuted this weekend. The team at Slice Media did an unbelievable job of capturing what we are building – the next great American clothing company.
• I received a thank you note from President George W. Bush. That was an incredibly significant moment in this journey.

• I come to understand more and more every day the blessing that it is to work with my two co-founders in building Mizzen+Main, Web Smith and Steven DeWitt. Their talents are overwhelming, and they are two fantastic gentlemen.
• I have learned more in the last year, particularly the last six months, than I have in 4 years of college and 4 years of working.
• I heard a quote when I started out on this journey – “Entrepreneurs are the only people who trade a steady paycheck and a 40 hour week for no money and an 80+hour week.” No sugarcoating, add to that investing your spouse, your savings, your emotions, your family, asking for stress 24/7, and asking others to participate on a roller coaster that could have seriously negative consequences for them, and you are beginning to see the picture. So am I.
• The most significant lesson I have learned in terms of a daily impact on my actions and decisions (and something to keep in mind if you take this plunge yourself) – it’s nearly impossible to get things done on the timeframe, quality level, and price bracket you agree to with a vendor. There are exceptions (cherish those), but this is the rule. Should be done in 2 weeks? Allot 4. Sign off on a sample? Expect something to go wrong. Enter in thinking amount $ABC? Add $DE and perhaps $F into your budget for last minute changes, expedited shipping, and all the extras that will be necessary to complete your effort. A key element of this – people will take advantage of you, lie to you, or just steal from you. It’s reality.
• Getting to spend the holidays with my family nearly six months into this journey was the most wonderful gift I could have asked for. I won the parent lottery, the sibling lottery, and my sibling’s choice of partner lottery.

• Of all the lotteries I won though, I know ultimately I won the wife lottery. To have someone as graceful, strong, understanding, and let’s be honest, beautiful, as Jen… I am one very, very lucky man.