Nozak Consulting

What is the Hindsight Dress up?

William Nozak

The Hindsight Dress up

If there is one thing learned from being a recording artist for 10 years it is the hindsight dress up. Anyone that has recorded music, started an organization, or spearheaded a project knows the truth behind the statement. In a studio, track-on-track, take-on-take, session-after-session a beautiful product is whittled into existence.

Only after the product is fully produced, mastered, and packaged do we talk about how we walked into the studio laid down a few tracks, laid down on the couch, and wham, out came a masterpiece; the hindsight dress up.

Easily forgotten are the pre-studio takes and mistakes, bad takes, wasted tracks, and the other miscellaneous nuts & bolts of innovation. Have you heard others talk about how beautiful things are in their business and how everything rather snapped together nicely? Well good for them and I am calling their bluff. What is it with this hindsight dress up?

Murphy’s Law in Business Ownership

My first job out of college was as a youth & worship pastor. Early on, I took a risk and initiated the Otis Spunkmeyer Gourmet Cookie Dough fundraiser with the youth group.

A hundred unchurched kids, not fully connected to the church mind you. Terrible idea. It was very messy and this was an established church. Some members did not get their cookie dough on time; other orders were mixed up. No one finds a lemon cookie funny after imagining a chocolate chip cookie for a couple weeks.

Eventually we deciphered the cryptic handwriting and identified the hundreds of buyer’s on the wrinkled, washed forms. It was my fault; first, I should have spent more time observing the leadership and depositing money in the “mistake bank” instead of stepping off the boat with my Superman cape on. (Growing the youth group from five to 100+ in a few weeks put me in superhero mode.)

Secondly, I lacked the foresight to troubleshoot the issues and the intelligence to consult fundraiser alumni to identify troublesome situations. In the end, people got their cookie dough and we were able to purchase two 21-inch IMacs for the youth group; my hindsight dress up.

And before I was done, the youth group added a ping pong table, foosball table, pool table, the 2 IMacs, and several gaming systems in less than a year. Sadly, I never returned to the good graces of the pastor after that experience.

Making mistakes in an established business does not have to be this painful. In fact, companies that provide no space for mistakes, create cultures of fear and limitation.

How I Started Writing SEO Content

When I was a college freshman in Comp 101, I used my Resident Advisor (RA), a senior in college, as one of my term-paper references. What a huge mistake. Mr. Gogan, my English teacher gave me the biggest, reddest “F” I ever received on an assignment. Side note, make sure you record your interviews and pick reputable sources! Comp 102 came, and then 201, then 203, followed by several years of grading science papers as an educator, and then poof I could construct a sentence; the hindsight dress up.

In 2013, I purchased three territories of a franchise. Let me just say, plenty of things went right. So what went wrong? About that. I initially thought Google would honor my UPS stores as my business addresses.

No, they penalize P.O. boxes and suites; several hundred down the drain. In the first month of business, an employee in training, wrecked his car and broke his back. I budgeted the startup cost to be around $20,000 it ended up closer to $45,000. Years later, it is easier to laugh about Murphy’s Law and easy to talk about how great and seamless the business is running; the hindsight dress up.

Everything involves a hindsight dress up so get started…wisely

Much of life is a hindsight dress up.

America is a hindsight dress up. Religion is no different. Most professionals acknowledge the myriad of mistakes that were made along the way, personal and professionally, and acknowledge the gains/losses from those missteps.

Still, employments, friends, families, bosses, and culture in general, project holograms that portend lives of luck, luxury, and fortunate events. Balderdash. Life, friendship, business, and everything else in between are a bit like the birthing of a child, messy; life is the hindsight dress up.