Failure Builds Growth, Mastery and Trust
Amateurs give up at the first sign of trouble and assume they’re failures. Professionals see failure as part of the path to growth, mastery, and trust. This idea is adapted from The Difference Between Amateurs and Professionals by Shane Parrish at Farnum Street. I added the word “trust” in honor of the relationship between Ron Shaich and Lou Kane.
Panera Bread founder Ron Shaich acquired Au Bon Pain from Lou Kane in the 1980s. Although Kane’s company was badly broken, they fixed it together (see the previous post in this series, Fix It). In that process, Kane became a mentor and partner to Shaich. They learned that they complemented each other. As they failed and fixed Au Bon Pain, they built trust.
Their relationship grew for 20 years until Kane died in 2000. Shaich described Kane to Guy Roz on How I Built This this way:
“People loved Lou. He built relationships. I thought deeply about the business and made it happen. Our partnership worked because we understood each other. We were perfect for each other. Lou developed our real estate; I could turn it into something.
Until the day he died, we took care of each other.
That's pretty amazing.”
- Ron Shaich, on Lou Kane
Shaich and Kane came together because Au Bon Pain was failing. They fixed it together, then fixed the next thing, and the next thing after that. They forged a partnership because they saw failure as part of the path to growth, mastery, and trust.
This image by Mike Coots shows one of my favorite things about diving--trust.
And as an amateur photographer, I appreciate the struggle it takes to get one shot like this. I've shot a dozen weddings for Hospice Charity. I'll take between 3,000+ shots in a day to find 100 that matter. That's 2,900 "failed" attempts that yield a few successes. Each image is part of the path to growth and mastery.
This post is part of a series of entrepreneurial lessons from Panera Bread. Subscribe below for updates as each is released.
