Never Despair - Titanium PowerSeller discusses major adversity and change.

Below is a quote I'm fond of -- it's quoted from a religious leader named Heber J.Grant, who got it from the National Fifth Reader, which I'm assuming was a school book in the early 1900's.  It details in particular a story of perseverance to be learned from, of all things, an ant.

“Never Despair.”

“There is no trait of human character so potential for weal or woe as firmness. To the business man it is all important. Before its irresistible energy, the most formidable obstacles become as cobweb barriers in its path. Difficulties, the terror of which causes the pampered sons of luxury to shrink back with dismay, provoke from the man of lofty determination only a smile. The whole story of our race—all nature, indeed—teems with examples to show what wonders may be accomplished by resolute perseverance and patient toil.

“It is related of Tamerlane, the celebrated warrior, the terror of whose arms spread through all the eastern nations, and whom victory attended at almost every step, that he once learned from an insect a lesson of perseverance, which had a striking effect upon his future character and success.

“When closely pursued by his enemies—as a contemporary tells the anecdote—he took refuge in some old ruins, where, left to his solitary musings, he espied an ant tugging and striving to carry a single grain of corn. His unavailing efforts were repeated sixty-nine times, and at each time [as] soon as he reached a certain point of projection, he fell back with his burden, unable to surmount it; but the seventieth time he bore away his spoil in triumph, and left the wondering hero reanimated and exulting in the hope of future victory.

“How pregnant the lesson this incident conveys! How many thousand instances there are in which inglorious defeat ends the career of the timid and desponding, when the same tenacity of purpose would crown it with triumphant success! Resolution is almost omnipotent. Sheridan was at first timid and obliged to sit down in the midst of a speech. Convinced of, and mortified at, the cause of his failure, he said one day to a friend, ‘It is in me, and it shall come out.’

“From that moment he arose, and shone, and triumphed in a consummate eloquence. Here was true moral courage. And it was well observed by a heathen moralist, that it is not because things are difficult that we dare not undertake them.

“Be, then, bold in spirit. Indulge no doubts—they are traitors. In the practical pursuit of our high aim, let us never lose sight of it in the slightest instance: for it is more by a disregard of small things than by open and flagrant offenses, that men come short of excellence. There is always a right and a wrong; and if you ever doubt, be sure you take not the wrong. Observe this rule, and every experience will be to you a means of advancement.”

“Never Despair” has been one of the guiding stars of my life, as I have often felt that I could not afford to be outdone by an insect."



So lately we've been struggling mightily as evidenced by our dipping feedback.  A couple months back, I thought the worst was over.  We had some system issues related to a new listing service provider that caused us to sell a ton of stuff with free shipping that was far from free to ship.  It cost a lot of time and money to explain the errors, issue refunds, ship out the ones that insisted on shipment, etc. 

Then we had supply issues related to our primary product - iPods.  Apple stopped shipping the products we sold when they launched new iPods; here I thought we'd have plenty available.  Who'd guess that a distributor like Apple wouldn't have inventory of the old, outgoing model?  They didn't ship our orders until we'd paid full price to others on the ones we'd sold, and that was far too long for our buyers to wait.  So that left us with overstock on items we stopped selling, and little money to buy anything else until we sold off even MORE of the old stuff. 

So when we tried to start selling the new lines, we're told "We're changing the reseller program, you can't buy for now".  !!!  We've had 4-5 such instances now where we've had to change distributors, but this time it appears may be one of the last times we faithfully and dutifully just say "okay" and deal with it.  We're going to be proactive vs. reactive to the situation and really review our business model and change so that we don't continue to suffer the negative feedback on eBay that's costing us our customer base, our reputation, our sanity.

And yet, according to the post above, the mighty ant struggled with its burden seventy times before overcoming the small rise and bringing its reward triumphantly home.  Can I afford to be outdone by an insect?  Can I afford to throw my hands up over any setback?  I reckon I can't; I certainly can't without expecting any other outcome but defeat.  Someone else isn't going to fight my battles for me.  Someone else isn't going to bring me happiness and success on a silver platter.  Someone else isn't going to bring my customers back for me.  Someone else isn't going to run my business for me, and I don't want them to.  But at the same time, if I'm having problems, then I need to act, not react.  I need to show myself and my buyers what I'm made of.

Today we're going to email everyone who's left a negative and ask them what we can do to satisfy them, to remedy the situation, to right the wrong.  We're going to ask, and we're going to go the distance to show them what we're made of.  We'll take it from there and see what happens.

Dealus Maximus (ID dealus-maximus)