Pressing On www.MyPRINTResource.com GROUP PUBLISHER Kelley Holmes kelley@quickprinting.com | 800-616-2252 x6104 EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Denise M. Gustavson Denise.Gustavson@cygnus.com | 800-616-2252 x6218 Editor Mark Vruno | mark@quickprinting.com | 800-616-2252 x6225 Senior Consultant Bob Hall | browndawg@aol.com Senior Contributing Columnist Tom Crouser | tom@crouser.com David Fellman | dmf@davefellman.com John Giles | john@johngiles.com Contributing Columnist David Claerbaut | drdc46@yahoo.com Nancy DeDiemar | nancy91762@gmail.com Mitch Evans | mitch@mitchevansconsulting.com Steve Johnson | steve@copresco.com Stuart Margolis | bPfaff@margolisbecker.com Joe Rickard | jrickard@intellectives.com Debra Thompson | debra@tgassociates.com CORPORATE OFFICE 1233 Janesville Avenue, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 Phone: 800-616-2252 Account Executives Kimberly Jorgensen x6103 | kimberly@quickprinting.com Paul Zimmerman x6214 | paul@quickprinting.com Media Production Representative Connie Wolf x1679 | Connie.Wolf@cygnus.com Art Director Yuly Osorio x1732 | Yuly.Osorio@cygnus.com CIRCULATION Jackie Dandoy Jackie.Dandoy@cygnus.com | 800-547-7377 x1711 For change of address or subscription information, call 877/382-9187, fax 920/563-1704, or circ.wideformatimaging@omeda.com REPRINT SERVICE For reprints and licensing, please contact Nick Iademarco at Wright’s Media 877-652-5295 ext. 102 or niademarco@wrightsmedia.com LIST RENTALS Elizabeth Jackson ejackson@meritdirect.com | 847-492-1350 x18 CEO Paul Bonaiuto President Chris Ferrell CFO Ed Tearman SVP, Strategy & Business Development Blair Johnson VP, Marketing Gerry Whitty VP, Technology Eric Kammerzelt VP, Production Operations Curt Pordes Excecutive Vice President Gloria Cosby VP, Human Resources Ed Wood Why Celebrate Failing? Persistence pays off—and learning from non-epic failures is not a bad thing. By Mark Vruno In this age of America’s 21st century wimpification (can you say excessive snow/cold days?) and celebration of mediocrity (where all youth sports participants get trophies), it may seem strange to embrace failures. However, I’ve learned some concepts this year that make epic sense; among them: §§ Vulnerability is not necessarily weakness (search for Brené Brown, PhD’s TED talks), and §§ Failing is not always bad. I had the opportunity in Q1 2015 to hear several inspirational speakers at various vendor user groups and conferences. Firms such as Canon Solutions America, EFI, Hewlett-Packard, and Konica Minolta help to keep our collective print industry mind sharp and always thinking. Last month at DsccopX, the 10th running of the Digital Solutions Cooperative for HP digital press users, the prevailing theme was collaboration. Story after story was told about early Indigo adopters and trail-blazing inkjet pioneers whose common denominator is persistence and not taking “no” for an answer. Printing visionaries have conviction and, frankly, they find ways to make new technology work for their businesses. Some of them are among the nearly 2,200 print franchise locations around the globe. These small business owners, who have weathered adversity, collectively comprise a marketplace approaching $2 billion. (Our Annual Franchise Review begins on page 10.) At EFI Connect, keynoter Avi Reichental, the CEO of 3D Systems, cited the never give-in case of Thomas Alva Edison, the 19th-century grinder known to work, fixated, some might say obsessed, for stretches of three straight days. In the process of perfecting the incandescent light bulb and forever changing the world, the persistent, Ohioborn inventor failed literally thousands of times. Imagine that. Was Edison bull-headed, stubborn? Or did he simply believe in what he was doing? Before cementing his place in history by inventing the phonograph (in 1877, at age 30), practical light bulb (1879), and motion picture camera (1891), and holding nearly 1,100 patents, Edison reportedly had been terminated from his first job for being “non-productive.” (Maybe he thought too much?) Later, he would create over a thousand failed electric bulb prototypes, according to the University of Kentucky. Talk about resilience! Some reports contend that his unsuccessful attempts may have numbered 10 times that number! What’s telling is that Edison himself did not consider these failures. “I have not failed,” he said. “I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” His thought process was all about positive attitude. So we need to ask ourselves, what failures have we embraced lately and, more importantly, what have we learned from them? 4 Quick Printing | April 2015
QP_0415
To see the actual publication please follow the link above