A founder shut down his skincare business in 2008 with $400,000 in unsold inventory, standing in his driveway in tears as retail collapsed. He learned that knowing when to quit is harder than starting, and that honest self-assessment and willingness to pivot can lead to rebuilding later.
Losing one of my first businesses was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Shutting down a business is way harder than actually starting up a business. And in 2008, when the stock market tanked, I was in the skincare business. Retail had gone into the toilet. I had an amazing skincare product. It was— had no parabens, a whole bunch of stuff in it. I had a garage full of $400,000 worth of skincare that I couldn't sell. Eventually, I decided, you know what, I'm just going to liquidate the business, walk away from it, and go do something else with my life. You have to know when to pull the plug. So I pulled pulled the plug on it. I never forget standing in my driveway, tears, yeah, pouring down my face. My wife was standing there jumping for joy because she could finally get her car into the garage because of course we had so much skincare in the garage. But also it was the end of what had caused me so much anguish, so much stress, so much deep inner anxiety that she's like, I'm so glad that's gone. We can go do something that's going to make the world a better place. And actually rebuilt from that, actually using the skincare but in a different form. I'll put that in a later video for you. Keep watching because how you you approach things will tell you a lot about how you're going to get through things as an entrepreneur. Like I've said many times, entrepreneurship, you think it's easy. It's not for everybody. And I hope that this video helps you stay resilient, stay true, but also know when to cut it off.
