disappointment | Keeping up with the Walkers…

When KK read me the email, it truly felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. For a couple of days, we both floated in a bubble of denial, hoping our contact in the US would reply to our list of frantic questions with a solution. It never came.

The news was not what we were expecting to hear. They have decided to restructure and stop the international distribution model. Basically, our supplier will not be supplying us with anymore stock and advised us to close down the CW-X SA business.

Gutted. Angry. Relief. Disbelief. Hurt.

The timing was bitter sweet. After spending so many months getting our business up & running, we had just engaged in negotiations with a few partners to start advertising in top notch media. After a great evening hosting a stand at the Valentine’s Day Night race at Harriers, we had made plans with a few other clubs to sell our goods. Business had picked up! The tingling excitement when my phone beeped signaling a new order had come in never grew old!

Now we are sitting with the dilemma of swapping our growth strategy for an exit strategy.

It’s the weirdest thing. I’ve ping-ponged between feelings of complete sadness to days when I look back and at how much KK and I were able to accomplish in the last couple of months.

There are no regrets.

The purchasing process, registering our company, opening up bank accounts, setting up the website, learning about the product, selling to customers, the late nights of prepping social media posts and running campaigns on Facebook & Instagram. Every day I felt more alive than ever!

KK and I learnt so much about ourselves and one another too. Want to know how strong your marriage is? Run a small business part-time with your spouse! We’ve grown tremendously during this journey together.

The pic is dark but it was a selfie we took the evening we had finally signed offer & loaded the car with stock. We were entrepreneurs!

The first delivery! After being held up at customs for 5 weeks, this was one of the highlights! Unpacking boxes of our very first order of stock!

The Sunday afternoons practicing setting up the banners and gazebo in our garden.

We can’t thank our family & friends enough for the support during the last couple of months. You have been part of the success and the fun. The excitement you showed, the stories you listened to, believing in our vision. It has meant so much!

Thanks especially to all our brand ambassadors and loyal CW-X fans: Dan, Kirsty, Gwynn, Timaya, Advocate Karen, Julia and Zara, Carl, Isabel, Jonty and Portia. It was a hell of a ride!

So where to from here? A huge clearance sale of the stock we purchased. Updating the site to reflect the sale prices and trying to get back as much of our investment as possible. The learnings continue and I suspect it’s preparing us for our next business venture.

As readers who follow my blog, you’re the first to hear the news before we send out official comms to our customer database. The good news is that you’re also the first to take advantage of the sale prices. Head over to the site to grab first dibs on the most amazing running clothes you will soon not be able to get locally before we shut down the site.

I’m disappointed.

I’ve been going through some real ups and downs at work in the past few weeks. Moments where it has felt as if things were all coming together, only to be faced with everything falling apart. It’s left me in a nasty dip. I’ve been walking around the office feeling lost, feeling extremely let down and pretty miserable to be around. I’m highly irritated with myself that I was mentally prepared for change and the change did not come and now I don’t know which way to turn…

Chatting to KK about it, he reminded me that he’s seen this happen before. Periods in my work life where I have been forced to make decisions based on a number of factors. He said, “Things do come right. They always do, but maybe just not when you expect them to.”

I guess the one lesson I’m learning from this experience is how I deal with situations that don’t go my way. I don’t deal with disappointment well. I let it overwhelm me and look to blame others. Nobody is at fault here. Things just didn’t pan out as I thought they would. It’s really up to me now to decide: do I look for a new path or just stick to the old one and wait? Going through some photos recently, I came across this one…

While on holiday in April, KK and I decided to go for a walk through Cecilia forest in Cape Town and chose the hiker’s path through the forest. After 2 hours, we landed up getting lost. We really did not know whether or not to continue on the hiker’s path, which was full of climbs and unexpected turns, or to just find the path that everyone else was on and stick to it. Regardless of the path, I enjoyed the beautiful scenery. It didn’t really matter to me that we did not quite know where we were because I was having fun.

This is what I’ve come to realize about my current situation. I’m more focused on the disappointment than on what’s next on the horizon.Why am I letting this bad patch bring me down? Things happen for a reason. I need to stop sulking and start enjoying the journey. “Build a bridge Bron and get over it!”