It’s OK to zigzag.
Because when you’re zigging, you don’t really know what zagging is like.
Until you actually zag.
So it’s good to try.
Always Wear Red.
Going ‘all in’ on a project that is important to you seems like the right thing to do.
If and when you do this, only then will you truly know what it feels like.
In the middle of 2018 I stopped working as a Brand Consultant and worked 100% on Always Wear Red, my fashion brand.
Being a Brand Consultant is where I am safest.
I’m good at it.
I’ve been doing it and similar business communications activities for 20 years.
But as I decided, at the age of 47 to go into fashion, a totally new thing for me, I also decided that if I was going to do the new thing well I’d better commit.
Fully.
So I did.
Logic.
The logic behind this decision is sound.
Surely the more time you spend doing a thing, the better you become?
I had to do it and I don’t regret it.
But a few months in, something happened.
I realised that I was struggling with the responsibility of just doing the one thing.
It HAD to be successful… NOW.
Because it was all I was doing.
Patience.
My ability to be patient weakened.
I was forcing things that should not be forced.
Like design.
And every day I woke I was hit full in the face with ALWAYS WEAR RED.
It was all I thought about and all I could see.
And that was not good for me.
Or for Always Wear Red.
Zag.
So, I’ve zagged.
I’ve gone back to working with just a couple of brands as a consultant, helping them to maximise by getting their business communications right at a brand level, then both strategically and tactically, and all of this aligned to the overall organisational objectives.
I can do that for other people.
And I can do it for me too.
In fact because I am doing it for myself it makes me better at helping others.
And, for the moment at least, because I am helping other people, it’s making me better at doing it for Always Wear Red.
Weird!
I’ll do this for a while. For as long as everyone is winning.
Then, if things change again…
I’ll zig.
