This Tuesday, I heard Johnny Cupcakes speak at T.E.L.L. I walked into the auditorium having never heard of him, and walked out feeling inspired by his story of success. Johnny grew up in a family that struggled financially, so he sold prank toys, candy and had lemonade stands just to earn a few extra dollars. He had A.D.D. and had trouble focusing in college, so he dropped out and worked several jobs. One of these jobs was at a silk screening store. He thought it would be funny to print his nickname "Johnny Cupcakes" on a few shirts and wear them to work. The name stuck, and soon people began asking for the t-shirts. He took the t-shirt business to the next step by making creative cupcake designs and sold them out of the back of his car. The t-shirts began to become even more desirable, and through hard work, devotion, and business smarts he was able to create a million-dollar company.
Johnny Cupcakes' story reminds me of the article "The 10,000 Hour Rule." This article debates whether success is achieved through hard work and practice or through luck. Johnny Cupcakes' narrative supports both sides. He worked extremely hard to set up a business and gave up many aspects of his life for it. Johnny told us that he did not have time for a relationship because his business takes up so much time. Yet there is also a luck element; Johnny Cupcakes stumbled upon this business by chance when he was creating shirts with his nickname on them as a joke. Since he worked at a silk screening shop, one could argue that his environment shaped his luck. Johnny would not have been inclined to make these shirts if he had worked elsewhere.
After reading "The 10,000 Hour Rule" and listening to Johnny Cupcakes, I realized that we can rarely attribute one's success entirely to luck or entirely to hard work. It is typically a combination of both. In Johnny's case, the luck aspect initated his success, but he had to work hard to continue the business. If one wants to be successful, they cannot depend entirely on luck to get them there, they must be willing to put in the effort. Hearing Johnny Cupcakes speak was my favorite part of T.E.L.L. because he was so inspirational. "If I can do it [become successful] with cupcakes, you guys can do it with anything," he told us.
2 comments:
Great Post Courtney!
This is so interesting, at first when you hear Johnny Cupcakes' story, it sounds like he got where he was from hard work, and anyone could have made it too if they worked hard enough. However, when you look at the facts, he seems to have landed in very lucky situations, and it's so hard to say if he could have made it without them. It's so interesting to think of the seemingly random things that lead to huge success!
Nice post Courtney!
It's interesting to see the stories that support Gladwell's 10,000 hour theory. I also agree that luck and efforts help people become successful. However, there is another factor that played a major role in Johnny Cupcake's success. That factor is risk. Johnny mentioned that he once took a major chance when he put all his savings into his Los Angeles store. He also took a risk in not selling his shirts to retail stores. These risks appeared to play major roles in his success. Just as in The Great Gatsby, Gatsby risked going to jail by bootlegging alcohol.
All the factors that contribute to success prove that success is fairly hard to achieve as it involves risk, luck, and hard work.
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