I was at a new gym on the elliptical machine when one of the personal trainers walked by. “Hey! You look like you’re doing great! Why don’t you turn it up a couple of levels—then hang out there for the next 30 minutes,” she suggested, immediately bursting my fantasy bubble about how fit I was!
Reskilling can be a lot like my gym experience. It’s not limited to getting additional education or learning a new skill. It is also about stretching beyond your comfort zone and hanging out there.
In the July series, Reskill, Reframe, Restart, we’ve talked about the journey of LÄRABARs founder, Lara Merriken. After getting an idea for natural snack bars and three grueling years of product development, she obtained distribution at Whole Foods. Getting a deal with a huge grocery chain sounds like a slam dunk, right? Well…not so much. Transitioning from a regional product to national distribution required a whole new skill set.
Lara’s first hurdle was replacing her kitchen tools with professional grade materials. No problem, she thought—I’ll just buy a giant Cuisinart. Only Cuisinart didn’t make a commercial version.
Then she had to find the right manufacturing facility. After hauling her new 400-pound vertical cutter mixer to three different locations, facility #4 was the right match. Lara struggled to find people who would take her seriously, but she kept going. She remembered, “I wasn’t afraid…to keep asking questions and be curious and tenacious.”
Those roadblocks created a perfect storm, delaying launch from the Fall of 2002 to Spring of 2003. That led to more bad news—her investors got cold feet and slowly pulled out as the months ticked by. Even her father, who had volunteered to run manufacturing operations, began to lose hope. But Lara countered, telling him, “I believe that this is going to work out. I really have faith and I think that the right people will come along at the right time.”
Everyone has times in life when you think, I just cannot catch a break! But let’s consider a different angle. How often can you look back and say, “I didn’t realize it then, but Life gave me a defining moment. I either had to go for it or limit myself.”
That crossroads is the time to use soft skills to level up. To be courageous, facing hard challenges square in the eye. To have self-confidence, knowing that you can quickly learn what you need to know and apply that knowledge. And to be tenacious, making a conscious choice to push through rather than giving up.
Lara had a happy ending after all those dark days. She sorted through her manufacturing problems and funded operations with a new set of angel investors. They did more than casually invest in LÄRABARs—they were thrilled to help her get started with $150,000.
Are you huffing and puffing on your own version of an elliptical, feeling uncomfortable? Don’t let your worries block you from reaching for new abilities, even if the learning curve is much, much tougher than you imagined. This week, use soft skills to toughen up.