Fine&Raw Sklaar: the best advice I ever got

The best advice I ever got was before Fine&Raw and my career with raw chocolate . It was during my schooling back in South Africa where critical and creative thinking were encouraged. One day a guest speaker shared these life altering words:

" FAIL YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS "

I love the statement because it's so daring and punk. It tells you to have courage and face your fears and all the ideas you have. The reality is your ideas might not work. But you still have to give it a good bash!

The advice paid off when I first entered the financial world.I talked about these years in an earlier post and how they lead to my interest in raw chocolate. When I first came to New York, I approached a boutique firm for a job and I was rejected. I was quite disappointed, but after a six monthsI came back and tried again, and this time with a game plan. I expressed a real desire to be there, learn and gain experience, and was even willing to work without a salary. That's how eager I was for the practical exposure. They didn't take me up on my plan , but they did take me on as a three month consultant. And at the end of the three month project, I tasted success. I was hired.

This taught me to be tenacious and go back to a problem and try again, even if I had failed the first time. It's the quintessential experience of following through and committing to yourself. It also called on me to be humble, and that was really challenging for me - but I did it. It's one thing to fail, but it's another to go back into it. It was scary, but facing it gave me the confidence to handle new failures.

When I started Fine&Raw, I knew I could deal with obstacles because I had looked failure in the face in my first career. When you're building a new business, it often feels like 2 steps forward, 1 step back. I create a chocolate and it's incredible, and then it doesn't come out right in production. So I go back to the mixing bowl and do something else. When I was looking for contracts with buyers to carry my chocolate, there were times they'd call back and tell me they weren't interested. So I'd wait and call again, and it often worked. You just have to keep going forward and not be deterred. Failure is part of the human journey.

Here's a compelling video that speaks to this very idea.


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And what's the best advice you've ever received?

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Possibilities and cacao,
Daniel