The Failure of Success

I have several inspirational quotes laminated and taped to my bathroom mirror, a few of them reminding me that without failure there would be no success. There’s also a copy of Teddy Roosevelt’s 1910 The Man in the Arena speech made popular by again by Brene Brown’s TED Talk and book, Daring Greatly hung on the wall. From these words I have drawn much strength and perspective.  

Failure. It has such a negative ring, doesn’t it. But the truth is that it is the foundation of success. We tend to only look at the peaks and not the valleys. As a farmer, I am intimately familiar with both, openly admitting to my failures and let me tell you, over the years there have been some whoppers. Yet at the same time the lowest of lows have delivered that which I only previously dreamt about.

One facet of success that people tend to overlook is when to call it quits. Stop on a high note being the best advice given to me over the years. Also, stop when your endeavors are no longer supplying the desired results. This is where things get murky.

Popular restaurants close after only a few years while others stay open for decades. Award-winning actors, musicians and writers pursue other interests after gaining achievement as their colleagues ride off into the sunset on long train of repeated successes while remaining in their chosen fields. Both have succeeded.

I got a few calls from Farm-to-Fridge customers wanting to know What happened? as the weekly delivery service ended last week.  What happened was the supply chain stabilized, nearly half of the country has been vaccinated and customers are returning to the market in person to shop.  Do I think it a failure? Absolutely not! Actually, I think Farm-to-Fridge was wildly successful given the speed in which it was spun up from zero. We were able to keep our patrons fed and our vendors in business during a global pandemic that had much of society sequestered at home for over a year. We hit plenty of bumps in the road and kept on going while the service was needed.

As infection rates fall and vaccinations climb slowly society is beginning to return to pre-pandemic life—going to restaurants, live music, family and social visits in person, shopping in person at the farmers market, and {GASP} going maskless! I saw several customers last week who had not been inside the market since March of last year. There was even impromptu live music at market last Sunday, the musician, though, being masked.

Although only a fraction of Central Farm Markets’ thousands of customers utilized the delivery service even fewer realized the impact it had upon the vendors who participated. Success can at times be quite painful. Vendors spent hours preparing individual orders, some having to hire extra staff to do so. We were challenged with inventory management and transportation logistics. I’m not going to lie about enjoying an increase in sales as windfalls are always welcome. But last Sunday after the news of the final delivery a few fellow vendors admitted in hushed voices, I’m glad that’s over. The consensus was the same: we’re exhausted. Success can be tiring.

Farming is laborious work demanding 27/7/365 attention. The constantly changing dynamics are mentally challenging. The uncontrollable aspects take an emotional toll. Over the years I’ve known many farmers, despite their financial success, say I just can’t do this anymore. Some choose to sell wholesale in lieu of going to farmers markets and/or a CSA while others embark on an entirely different path. When I decided to forgo production on a few of my popular, but very time-consuming products this year customers were openly upset, often asking What can we do to help? Some offered to come out to the farm if labor was an issue, others offered to pay more, even to purchase more. Explaining that I want a few extra hours to myself each week for something other than farming has not gone over well after spending the last year bending over backwards to ensure patrons’ access to local foods. I’m tempted to ask them if it’s alright if I enjoy my success a little before buckling down again.

Here’s the thing about the failure of success—we know what we’re doing. If ever there were another event that required the need for a market delivery service, we can do it and do it very well. For producers, time to experiment with new things doesn’t mean defeat of our previous endeavors, instead we are priming our pump for future achievements…hopefully.

Let’s call it a happy medium at this point. Customers still have access to zero-contact pick-up through ongoing curbside pre-orders and producers get a little breathing room to enjoy their success.