The myth of the overnight wine success

What is this wine and where did it come from?? It’s suddenly everywhere!

Who is that sales rep that is mopping up business all over town? Nobody knows anything about her!

Overnight successes are found in all industries, including ours.

Some brands, from previously unknown wineries and tiny weird distributors, shoot into a city like a delicious fermented virus and suddenly the label is all over the place, being poured at all the hot restaurants and stacked up at all the cool kid wine shops.

Some brands, from big national distributors with deep pockets, explode into a market via marketing, pushing, advertising, giveaways, and hustle. The influence of power and scale can make success happen with just a little push. Once a train starts moving it’s hard to stop it.

Some sales reps simply start to hit the nerve of buyers, selling more wine with greater efficiency than a market has seen in years. Quietly, behind the backs of the sales reps, wholesale managers start saying “If she can do it, why can’t our people?”

They all seem like overnight successes.

Here’s the obvious, be we always need reminding: there is no such thing as an overnight success.

But there are:

It’s the opposite of overnight success. It’s success based on months, years, or a lifetime of staying true to your missions, ideals, and reputation while at the same time building skills and systems that multiply efficiencies. 

The key word here is multiply. By working at being better than you were yesterday, combined with staying true to a mission and ideals, your reputation can make an amazing impact in a short amount of time. Thus, the so-called “overnight success.”

Many of you know this famous story but it’s always worth repeating: Picasso was approached by a woman in a park. “The famous Mr. Picasso! Would you please draw my portrait?” Picasso pulled out a small piece of paper and drew a quick sketch in one minute, then told her it would cost tens of thousands of dollars. “But it only took you one minute to draw!” she protested.

Picasso held onto the portrait and said “No, madame, it took me a lifetime plus one minute to draw.”