Losing Everything

“We're losing everything,” Süheyla said. “We are losing everything... All the dreams, all the plans... All the financial means... The hopes, the efforts, the fatigue... It all seems to be slipping away. Why did this happen?” Süheyla and her husband, Mr. Murat, were sitting with Mr. Fevzi at their newly established business. It was not a very pleasant conversation. 

They had started with a dream and had built it with their fingernails. They had taken care of everything one by one. They had thought of everything from desk chairs to staff lockers, from wallpaper to baseboards. Such detailed planning had cost a lot of money. “But everything had to be done once, so it had to be the best”. 

Even though she thought so that day, Süheyla regretted it today. They had spent so much money that all their resources were consumed. They had nothing left for working capital. They had also sold everything they had and put it on the table. Our ancestors had not said in idle words, “You don't spare the goose from the gander.” They were giving today, but they thought they would receive later.

Things had not turned out at all as they had expected. They were about to lose everything. In order to put a stop to this, they decided to get support from Mr. Fevzi, who had been trading for many years. Mr. Fevzi was a friend of Murat Bey's father. He had been in trade for many years. He had started his business with a small fabric shop and then expanded it gradually. Now he was supplying fabric to many manufacturers in the market. When they were thinking about how to save the current situation, Murat Bey remembered to consult him. He even regretted that they had not gone and talked to Mr. Fevzi from the very beginning. Better late than never, he said, and they arranged a meeting. Fevzi Bey listened to them calmly without saying a word. Then he spoke again with the same calmness: 

“O my beautiful children! You set out with such beautiful dreams. That point you want to reach is so beautiful. You planned it well, but you missed one of the basic points of trade. Look children, trade is just like life. There are rules for everything in life. These rules work the same everywhere. Sometimes people think that trading is independent of these rules, but it is not. These basic rules apply to every field.”

Süheyla and Murat were listening carefully. They were wondering what these rules were. 

-You had two beautiful daughters, right? Take them for instance. Think about the first time you held them in your arms. How small they were, weren't they? Then they didn't grow all at once, they grew slowly. Even their eyes were closed in the first days, but gradually they opened their eyes. Eyes that were not looking consciously started to follow you or objects after a while. Over time they recognized you. Remember, wasn't the walking period like this too! First, she started to turn, then she crawled, then she walked. There is the same situation in nature. A tree that has shed its leaves in winter does not grow green immediately. Those dry branches are first slowly covered with leaves. Then they blossom and finally produce fruit. It is not the same for every tree. One can blossom while another is still dry.

The Experiential Design Teaching says: “Everything happens step by step and in phases”

This is how we witness one of the basic rules of life, my children. This is how it is in nature and in our homes... Nothing happens all at once in life. It doesn't happen in trade either. We want things to grow and develop immediately, we want to make a profit. But first we need to grow our business like a baby, slowly and slowly. When we put everything, we have on the table, the pressure on us grows. We want to win even more with the fear of losing everything. However, there are stages of success. It is not stable to grow at once in trade. Sometimes there are unproductive, unprofitable days. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, no one comes through that door. Or no matter how much we explain our product, that customer does not buy it. When one knows that it will not happen at once, one relaxes. On the contrary, he gets frustrated by expectation. It is actually better if it is only disappointment. He thinks that he will earn so much at once that he has already spent money that he will not earn for months or years. This time the wheel starts to stop turning.

Süheyla was listening to Mr. Fevzi. But as she listened, she also realized her mistakes. Was this really not their situation? They had expected quick results. They thought that they would immediately turn into a big company and their sales would be very high. They had rented a huge office and hired many people. They had thought of everything from the office to the car, from the logo to the advertisement. They were so focused on the ornamentation of the business that they missed what was really needed. Of course nothing was going to be happening all of a sudden. They were still a new company. They had spent as much capital as a company specialized in their field at the beginning of the business and got into trouble. Now he was listening to Mr. Fevzi with all ears and trying to determine a strategy to recover the next step. Because as the old saying goes, “Whatever you do, it's better to cut your losses.”

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Experiential Design Teaching enables us to make our lives easier with consistent, applicable, understandable and useful information. With this information, people learn how to communicate more effectively with their family, friends and customers.