“The greatest failure is not to try,” says Fields. “Had I listened to all the people during the course of my life who said, “You can’t. You’ll fail. It won’t work. You don’t have…,” I wouldn’t be here today.”
When Fields first decided to create her own business baking cookies, she was ecstatic. She thought her family would be too. But even her loved ones, the people she had expected to count on for support, turned their backs. “[My husband] immediately said, ‘Oh, sweetie, that is such a stupid idea,’” recalls Fields. “And then my mom and dad pipe up and say, ‘You don’t have any business going into the cookie business.’”
Fields’ parents began to list off all the reasons why their daughter was not qualified to start her own business. They told her that she did not have a college degree, let alone a business degree. That was true, Fields thought. They told her she had no money to begin such a venture. That, too, Fields knew was true. “You’re just going to fail,” they told her. “It’s not going to work. Nobody’s going to buy your cookies.”
Fields did not have an MBA, but just two years of college. And, her only collateral was a used Volkswagen Beetle she had bought with cash when she was 16 years old. “The only thing I had was this recipe, and with that recipe was a dream,” says Fields. “And those were the only things that I had to build my business: a recipe and a dream. And there was no way, no way, I wasn’t going to see this dream through.”
As far as Fields was concerned, she had nothing to lose. She knew she was not going to disappoint her parents; they did not believe in her anyway. The only person she risked disappointing was herself if she did not try. “And, so, my journey began,” says Fields. “I made the decision, and I was going to see it through.”
However, once Fields set her plan in motion, things did not get any easier for her. She began visiting banker after banker to try and get the startup capital she needed for her business, but the response was poor. “I would tell them about my plan, the cookies, my dream, and sure enough, they would listen and eat the cookies,” says Fields. “They would respond by saying ‘Thank you so much. Thank you for coming in, but no, we’re not interested.’”
Meanwhile, Fields’ parents continued to discourage their daughter’s plans. Again, Fields’ mother told her to give up. “There’s magic in those words because when she said, ‘Debbi, just give up,’ I said giving up is the easiest thing any of us can do,” says Fields. “I can always throw the towel in. The only thing that’s going to make a difference, the only thing that’s going to get me to my dream come true is don’t give up.”
Fields created a mantra for herself, and maintained the faith that there was someone out there that would finally say ‘yes’ to her dream. After that, it was not long before she found a banker who agreed to back her dream. “You do not have to be superhuman to do what you believe in,” says Fields. “The most important thing is for you to believe in what you are doing. Absolutely know there are people out there who want to say yes.”
Lesson #1: Make Your Critics Eat Their Words
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