The business fails that led to success: Matt Moran and Pam Brossman tell how they bounced backThe business fails that led to success: Matt Moran and Pam Brossman tell how they bounced back
YOU never hear a successful entrepreneur deliver a speech telling everyone that his or her success has come easy. You’re much more likely to hear about how many times they have had to pick themselves up and dust themselves and go back to the drawing board. Although I’m sure having businesses fail is stressful at the time, it is an experience that seems almost championed at later successes.
A recent American study showed that companies funded by entrepreneurs who had experienced failure resulted in significantly higher innovative productivity.
Everywhere you look in the business world there are examples of successful business people who have endured many setbacks before they enjoyed success. Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas” and his first animation company went bankrupt. Henry Ford’s first two car companies failed and left him penniless, but it was third time’s a charm when he founded Ford Motor Company which led him to become one of the richest men in the world. And who can forget that JK Rowling was a single mother surviving week to week on welfare payments when she wrote the first Harry Potter book.
You don’t have to look far to find local examples of successful business people who have overcome a set back or two along the way.
MATT MORAN
The Shock
Matt Moran is one of the most recognisable chefs in Australia. He has seven successful restaurants throughout Australia and a successful catering business. What many people don’t remember is 10 years ago his flagship restaurant Aria Sydney lost a coveted and nationally recognised chef’s hat, taking his two hatted restaurant to a one hatted restaurant overnight.
Matt is philosophical about the blow today saying he was definitely shocked but it all turned out for the better in the end.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was a blow to the ego — this is a tough industry and I work incredibly hard and so do my staff,” he said
“So of course when something like that happens it devastates you. But in the end, it’s probably the best thing that’s happened. It made me look closely at myself and the restaurant — we worked harder to turn things around and regain the hat and it’s also probably the point in time that my attitude in the kitchen turned around. It was humbling and I’m a better person for it. The restaurant is too.”
Re-evaluate
Matt viewed the setback as a chance to re-evaluate the business and revisit every aspect of the business.
He also felt Aria became a better team because of it.
“Of course morale dropped initially on first hearing the news but we quickly rallied around as a team and worked hard to get the second hat back, which we did. And fortunately so far, we’ve kept it ever since!” he said.
Count your blessings
The ten years that followed the loss of a chef’s hat have to have been the most successful of Matt’s career, Matt attributes some of this success to overcoming the situation.
“In any successful business, in any industry, there are always triumphs and pitfalls. And you learn more from your setbacks than your successes I think.
“I count my blessings and take nothing for granted these days. In the end it was the best thing to happen,” he said.
“It was humbling and improved the restaurant and the quality of what we deliver.”
PAM BROSSMAN
Losing everything
Pam Brossman was a successful business woman with a beautiful home in Mossman when a poor investment led her to lose everything, including the family home. She and her husband had $30,000 in credit card debt and were living week to week in a rental property, where Pam said she stewed on her stupidity for four years.
“In hindsight that was four years of nothing but wasted energy that I could have been investing into a new venture and getting back out there,” she said.
Pam has since become a ten times number one bestseller on Amazon and is leading international digital marketing expert.
Learning from the experience
Pam views every setback as a learning experience.
“I believe challenges in business and in life are just tests to see if you really want it or not.
“Those who do want it will persevere and keep going no matter what. Those who are just testing the waters, will either give up or move onto other things.
“I also believe that sometimes a setback can be the catalyst for something even better that you never would have explored if the setback had never occurred,” she said.
“These days I always look for the rainbow in every bad situation because I know from experience that eventually I will find the pot of gold just waiting to be discovered.”
Source: News Limited, 24th August 2015
Originally published as: The business fails that led to success: Matt Moran and Pam Brossman tell how they bounced back
