Follow Through is Gold

This week’s blog is from Ted Dennard, role model for wandering spirits, founder of Savannah Bee Company, and for nervous entrepreneurs who do not yet know him, new found hero. Read on as Ted shares his refreshing attitude towards success, business and life in general.  FYI – – The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map… Savannah is great. Making a career in Savannah is wonderful, but a great challenge. In the late ’90s there may have been fantastic jobs in Savannah but for me, with my Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy, there seemed to be no good opportunities. My credentials weren’t very ordinary: Philosophy major who taught beekeeping in the Peace Corps, traveled the world, worked with Hopi Indians, and bailed out on his Colorado outdoor-adventure company. What do you do with that?! With no prospects I felt I had to just make it up, create my career out of thin air. I was working multiple jobs just to make loan payments and scrape by. I was really worried about never getting my head above water much less getting a kick-ass job that supported me and fulfilled my passion. That was 18 years ago. In hindsight, I really did make up a career and an unlikely one at that. I knew nothing about starting a business. But I had an idea that I could possibly turn my beekeeping hobby into something that would support me. I had 5 hives of bees, was removing honeybee swarms from houses, and selling a few jars of honey to a handful of stores. I figured I didn’t have anything to lose except more time. So I went into a bank and asked for a $5,000 loan to buy more beehives and start a bee business. I simply asked the banker and was given the loan, which seemed incredible to me. I immediately bought 50 hives of bees and an old trailer to move them on. From that time I have taken the next step – again and again. Now I sell $5,000 worth of products every working hour and the business just keeps on unfolding. I get up and fight the good fight of fulfilling this dream every single day. I truly had no idea how to run or grow a business, but I have never been afraid to ask questions or ask for help. There are so many people who helped make Savannah Bee what it is today. I don’t deserve any credit for having a grand vision and knowing how to make it happen. The only credit I should get is for the tenacity of believing it could work and for getting others to believe it too. I get help and ask questions of people who seem to be further along than I am. I keep trying to learn. Knowing I don’t have the answers is very liberating. People always give great ideas–Million-dollar ideas! Lord knows I have a bunch of ideas too, but it is the daily execution of an idea that brings it into reality. Follow through is where the real gold is found. Those who can manifest an idea are the people I need around me. And I personally need reminding that working on one idea to completion is better than several great ideas that never get finished. If I can do what I have done, then you can do much better than I in a much shorter time. Pick something you love, get creative, write out a rough list, and then get to work checking off the list. Don’t give up but also don’t be so rigid that you can’t flow around an obstacle to a better path than you were initially on. Ask for help, get people who complete tasks to believe in your dream. And then just remember to have some fun while you are working. Ted]]>