The House that these Bricks Built: The Rise of Brixton and What We can Learn

The House that these Bricks Built: The Rise of Brixton and What We can Learn “The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”  Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture The Rise of Brixton.  A company that I never really understood.  I never understood how Fedora’s and old style headwear fit in the world of skateboarding.  Maybe it’s because I’m not a skateboarder (Despite that I still own a couple pairs of OG Chad Muska Supra Skytops).  What I do understand is progression and an entrepreneurial spirit, and that’s what I appreciated most about this feature from The Hundreds on the brand Brixton.  I never really understood what the brand was about.  Out of all of the startup skate/independent brands that have come up over the years I wouldn't have chosen them to have made it to this much success.  The formula makes sense however.  The founder David Stoddard was working for the Transworld magazine when he conceptualized the idea for Brixton.  Then he left the company with 2 other partners who also had worked for the magazine and started Brixton.  They pooled together $10,000 from each of them and formed the brand. This interview gave me much more respect for them.   The article touched on something that I have been wondering about.  To be successful in startup fashion, do you have to have had prior experience in the fashion industry? Should I quit my day job to pick up another one working for another brand so that I can learn what it takes, and make connections with the right people to further my own brand?  Should I shoot off a resume to Bobby Hundreds to see if I can intern for them.  If I have some skill that they could use?  It seems like a good formula for success.  You get yourself in the trenches and you gleam all you can from your position until you can spread your own wings and fly.  It worked for Brixon.  Although he was mainly more in advertising it connected him with the right people who also had similar passions and they combined their dream into something.  Why am I not taking this path Why am I afraid to do this?  Why don’t I want to take this step.  Ideally I would love to make a clean jump from working my current full time job straight into working for myself.  No, not ideally, in my mind that’s the only way it will happen.  I don’t want to have to deal with the middle ground.  I don’t want to have to give up the traction I have made in my current industry (Which isn’t fashion) to work for someone else again.  I want to give this job up only to go work for myself.  The day I hopefully leave my day job I want to step out into the abyss only to be caught by the loving embrace of my own pursuits. It may be my pride, it might be my stubbornness, but that’s how I want to do it.  This also could be why I never make it.
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