Don't Sell Yourself Short - Each Failure Is A Step Forward

Published on July 29, 2020

Albert Lin

Founder at VegBed | Startup Operations, Logistics, and Market Expansion Expert

[WARNING: If you have any of these following symptoms, then please read ahead. I hope what I say might help you]

Fear of failure, selling myself short, impostor syndrome, fear of outside judgment, if it won’t be perfect I don’t want to post it/make it/talk about it. The list goes on. Do any of those sound familiar to you? Well, I’ve been battling this mentality my whole life. 

I see lots of success within my network and I am genuinely super happy for them as some of these people are my good friends. I want them all to succeed. But then I end up comparing myself and thinking that what I’ve done isn’t as good (or noteworthy).

But you know what? I’m really proud of what I have accomplished working on my business these last 2 years.

Some of you may or may not know, I’ve failed a lot. I tried starting up a vertical farm a few years ago after getting super obsessed with hydroponic growing. The project never came to fruition but I still wanted to start something in the space that I could bootstrap myself.

I started exploring the world of growing mediums and quickly saw that rockwool was the industry standard and dominated hydroponic farming. I wanted to create something better and more sustainable - and thus VegBed was born.

My first ever purchase of microgreen seeds was from True Leaf Market. I remember visiting their website and thinking WOW, they are the Walmart of gardening, seeds and hydroponics. I vowed one day to have my product listed on their site.

My initial attempt actually failed. I reached out to the company with a cold email soon after I had launched the bamboo fiber mats. I touted how a great sustainable alternative they were to what was on the market, sent samples, and got great feedback. I thought for sure I had a chance!

But alas, I was one of thousands of other SKUs vying for valuable stock space. After weeks of back and forth discussion and waiting for a decision, nothing ever panned out.

Fast forward almost 2 years later and through a serendipitous acquaintance, I was able to connect with one of the co-owners of the company. They really liked the product. The demand for at-home growing seemed to skyrocket during COVID and over the next 3 months, we discussed the possibility of them carrying it.

As of five days ago, I am proud to say that VegBed and True Leaf Market have partnered up to offer our bamboo fiber mats to growers everywhere! 

The mats are now live on their site and I am still in shock looking at their marketing email with my product featured at the top. To see this all come full circle has been nothing short of amazing and gratifying. Like they say, this is just the beginning.

I’m hoping my story will help others to not be afraid of celebrating their accomplishments. It took me a while to have the courage just to post this, but once I started writing, things started flowing which leads me to these 4 tips:

1. Don’t give up (obvious, but seriously though, just put your self out there in front of potential customers). 

2. Don’t sell yourself short - You have the ability to step back and judge what you’ve done and what you are capable of.

3. Do things that don’t scale - All the stuff you hate to do and want to automate, don’t worry about that in the beginning. I used to want to think big and figure out what step #100 looked like before I even made a sale yet. Don’t “play business”. Just see if people are willing to pay for your product/service first.

4. Celebrate other people’s accomplishments - Get rid of the negativity/jealousy/hatred. Successful entrepreneurs don’t have time to hate on others, they’re too busy trying to build their thing. 

I’m hoping these tips and my story can add value to anyone that has made it this far. Until next time, keep on pushing and thanks for reading!