Hint: Willy Wonka knew it all along.

“Oh, you can’t get out backwards. You gotta go forwards to go back. Better press on.”
– Willy Wonka

You guys. This past weekend I stepped up my dad game and removed a fish hook that accidentally got caught in my 6 YO’s chin.

Yep. You read that right. Fish hook. In my 6 YO’s face. Removed by me.

We were at a friends’ farm in Illinois and he was doing some fishing by a lake. It was a freak, innocent accident, but yeah man…that suuuuucked. No…I didn’t get a picture of it because I was focused on getting it out — c’mon, what kind of parent do you think I am?! (Note: Ok fine, I wish I took a picture).

As you might know, fish hooks are barbed. That way, when they go in a fish’s mouth, they stay in. After a few minutes of investigation into my son’s wound, I knew that it was going to get worse before it got better, because the only way it was coming out was to push it all the way through.

He was crying loudly. We clipped the end off. I pulled it through. He was immediately fine and given a huge cookie. I wasn’t fine for another ten minutes, but was then given a few high-fives and a cold beer.

It was the same with my old garage.

It was a mess, stuff just thrown and stored in there haphazardly. When my wife and I decided it was time to clean it out, organize, and maximize the space, we had to pull everything out onto the driveway before we put it back in. It’s the only way: you have to pull it all out before you can purposefully put it all back in. That mess had to get worse before it got better.

Afterwards, we had all kinds of space for a sitting area and a painting studio. It was rad.

Turns out that it’s the same thing for building a business, too.

I was told that it was going to be a day-to-day roller coaster ride. Wrong, it’s an hour-by-hour roller coaster ride. Perseverance is key – if you don’t have it, get it.

Magic Room Brand is a one-man, boot-strapped, built-from-scratch operation. That means that although every decision and step is carefully and purposefully made, not all days are going to be gems.

But, you can’t get out backwards. You gotta go forwards to go back.

Like pulling fish hooks out of faces and cleaning out garages, it’s a good reminder that the things that are worth doing often require getting messier before getting achieved.

Better press on…

#bewhatyoumake