Years ago, a friend told me about a successful entrepreneur who had moved to our tiny village. “He sold his last company, and he wants to start his next one right away!” he told me. My friend helped him set up a stunning website showcasing his latest creation: Swiss cheese fondue to go.
The product came in a custom carton box, complete with bread, spices, and a microwaveable container. The idea? Heat the box in the microwave for just two minutes, then get to enjoy authentic Swiss fondue in a small portion.
I remember how impressed I was by the whole thing when my friend first told me about it. So was he, I think, and his respect for the guy was contagious. Here was this guy who, already successful, came to a new place and committed in a big way. The entrepreneur bought a small old workshop 50 meters from our house and transformed it into a fondue factory. In the winter, he held weekly dinner events there. The local newspaper featured him in a story. You could even order the boxes online!
But winter came and went, and every time I walked by the factory, it seemed to be a little less active than before. One day, the red, branded cars he had parked in front of there disappeared. The last post on their Facebook page appeared less than 18 months after they had started. When I last checked the now-defunct website, he had pivoted to providing fondue for other restaurants. But now? It’s been a few years, and…silence.
There are a lot of lessons in this story. About not being impressed too easily. About words like “successful,” “sold,” “featured,” and even “entrepreneur” having near-infinite ranges of what they might mean. About how tough the food industry is, how hard it is to repeat past success, and how bad timing can kill the best idea.
Perhaps the most important lesson of all, however, is one that will never stop ringing in my ears because my parents repeated it so many times when I was younger: Everyone uses water to boil.
It’s a German saying, and it means there are no magicians among us. Whoever they are, whatever they are trying to do, every person will use all the skills and resources they have to accomplish their goals. No more, no less — and sometimes, those skills and resources simply aren’t enough.
Even the world’s richest man can’t warp humanity to Mars with a snap of his fingers. He must painstakingly build the technology it’ll take to carry us there, and he might not live to see it done.
Beware the person with an all-too-impressive resumé, but most of all, beware your own belief that you might have grown wings overnight. Everyone uses water to boil, and whether it’s cheese fondue or rocket science we’re trying to cook, we can’t bend the laws of the universe to hit the right temperature any faster — and in some cases, we can’t hit it without burning our hands at all.