Ellen Marie Bennett - Dream First, Details Later: How to Quit Overthinking & Make It Happen!

Hey, theres a girl, shes going to make us some aprons for the restaurant, said Chef Josef, the head chef at Bco Mercat in LA. Do you want to buy one?

Everything froze. I was a cook in Chef Josefs kitchen, and I didnt know this apron supplier, but I knew I did not want one of her aprons.

Oh my God. Do I say something about my apron company? I mean, its not really a company yet, but it WILL be. My aprons are going to make everyone who wears them feel like they matter. Theyll make them feel like the amazing cooks and artists and makers that they are. We all hate wearing these cheap, shitty, scratchy aprons that fit about as well as a hospital gown. This is my chance. The opportunity boat is sailing by. I have to get on it!

Chef, I have an apron company!! I said, taking a little liberty with the verb tense. I will make you those aprons.

What are you talking about? Chef Josef said, giving me his steady, inquisitive look that I knew so well. Youre a line cook in my kitchen.

It was a fair point. I was a line cook in his kitchen, standing at my station, chopping vegetables.

I have an apron company, Chef. I started it recently. I would love to make you those aprons. I can totally do it. What is she charging you? What is she making them out of? Whats her turnaround? I can do it faster... and better.

She said its gonna take six weeks.

I could tell by his tone that he was not too jazzed about that timeline.

Ill do it in four, I said.

Yeah? he said.

Yeah, for real, I said. Ive already been working on it! Well, Id been talking to my coworker Kevin about it, and I actually had just filed for a DBA, or Doing Business As, which is the very first step in registering a company. So it felt real enough, at least to me. But as for a company, that was pretty much all in my head. I didnt have a design. I didnt have a pattern. I didnt have fabric. I didnt know where to buy fabric. I certainly didnt know how to run a company, nor did I have the infrastructure, or even know anyone with a sewing machine, yet. I had no idea how long it would take to do any of this, let alone all of it. But I was damn well going to try. And I was gonna get it done.

OK, alright, cool, Chef said.

WTF? Really?

If I screwed up the aprons, Id probably lose my job. Not to mention that I respected Chef Josef to the moon and back, and I didnt want to mess this up. I could not let him down, with an all-caps NOT. At the end of the night, I clocked out and called Kevin to tell him that we had a 40-unit ordereven though our last conversation had been about early days decisions, like finding fabrics and a pattern, and what wed call the company.