《My Memoirs》05.10 | When I Mistook Market Momentum for My Own Ability

《我的回忆录》05.10｜我把市场红利，当成了自己的能力

English Version ⬇️ 

2021年5月，英国全面解封。经历了两次 Lockdown 后，压抑已久的消费需求终于释放。整个零售市场开始疯狂反弹。

从那时候开始，我们的业绩一路上涨。到了2021年的圣诞节，更迎来了一波远超预期的销售高峰。当时的我，很兴奋。我开始相信，只要库存够、门店够，销售就会一直增长。

🚨 于是，我开始做出一连串现在看来过于激进的决定：

⛔ 大规模增加圣诞库存；

⛔ 同时准备推进多个新店项目进行第二次扩张；

⛔ 希望尽快把疫情期间的损失全部赚回来；

👉 现在回头看，我犯了一个很大的错误。我把市场带来的增长，当成了自己的能力。后来我才慢慢明白，那一年的高增长，并不完全来自企业经营得更好了。它也来自很多特殊因素：

➡️ 疫情后的消费释放；

➡️ 政府对经济的刺激政策；

➡️ 市场整体信心的恢复

而这些，都不是企业能够控制的，也不会永远持续。而这些因素，迟早都会消失。

直到很多年以后，我才真正理解：

增长，并不一定代表企业变强了。有时候，它只是市场暂时把你推到了更高的位置。真正重要的，不是在市场好的时候跑得有多快，而是在市场回归正常之后，你是否依然站得稳。

👉 这也是后来我学会的一件事：

当机会出现的时候，不要只看到机会，要看到机会后面的风险。机会越大，越要保持冷静。因为真正决定一家企业能走多远的，不是抓住了多少机会，而是有没有能力承接这些机会。

《My Memoirs》05.10 | When I Mistook Market Momentum for My Own Ability

In May 2021, the UK fully reopened. After two national lockdowns, months of pent-up consumer demand were finally released, and the retail market rebounded faster than anyone had expected.

From that point on, our sales kept climbing. By Christmas 2021, we experienced one of the strongest trading periods we'd ever seen. I was excited. I genuinely believed that as long as we had enough inventory and enough stores, sales would continue to grow.

Looking back, that was where I made one of the biggest mistakes of my entrepreneurial journey. 

🚨 I began making a series of decisions that now seem far too aggressive:

⛔ Significantly increasing our Christmas inventory.

⛔ Preparing to launch multiple new stores as part of a second expansion.

⛔ Trying to recover all the losses we had suffered during the pandemic as quickly as possible.

👉 The mistake wasn't expanding. The mistake was believing that the growth came from us. 

Over time, I realised that the exceptional performance of 2021 wasn't solely the result of running a better business. It was also driven by a number of unique factors:

➡️ Pent-up consumer demand after COVID.

➡️ Government measures to support the economy.

➡️ A strong recovery in overall market confidence.

None of these were things we could control. And none of them were going to last forever. 

Years later, I finally understood something that changed the way I think about growth. Growth doesn't always mean your business has become stronger. Sometimes, the market simply lifts everyone higher for a while. 

The real test isn't how fast you grow when the market is booming. It's whether your business can remain strong when the market returns to normal.

👉 One of the biggest lessons I learned was this:

When opportunities appear, don't just focus on the opportunity, look carefully at the risks that come with it. The bigger the opportunity, the more important it is to stay disciplined. Because what determines how far a business can go isn't how many opportunities it captures.

It's whether the business has the capability to support that growth sustainably.