3 Lessons We learned From The Chocolate King

To say that we both have sweet tooths…wait…sweet teeth?…not sure which/if neither is correct (grammar nazis, chime in any time – this is going downhill extremely quickly).

Wow. Sooo let’s start that again!

To say that we both have a sweet tooth (bam!) would be an understatement. We love chocolate. We love desserts. Cupcakes. Regular cakes. All of the above! And we don’t expect that to change anytime soon even though it means we have to put in a little more exercise if we are going to stay at our current weight! It’s worth it!!!

So a few weeks ago when we went up north to visit Alyssa’s grandparents in Pennsylvania, we had to make a quick stop in Hershey, Pennsylvania for the day! And if you don’t know anything about Hershey, PA, just know this one thing. The whole city centers around one man: Milton S. Hershey.

His imprint is everywhere! There are dozens of streets named after Hershey. The smell of chocolate is in the air. Even the street lights are shaped like Hershey kisses!!!

Ryan had never been to Hershey, PA before, so we wanted to learn as much about this well-documented Pennsylvania hero. We learned how the chocolate is made today, tasted different kinds of chocolate and took a long walk through the streets of the historic city.

But close to the end of our day, we made a stop at The Hershey Story Museum. The museum exists to tell the story of Milton Hershey from his humble beginnings, his many failures and his ultimate triumph. We were captivated by his story.

You can’t learn so much about such a man’s life story without walking away with some valuable lessons. We were actually so impressed by Milton Hershey’s story that we left the museum planning to implement 3 specific principles into our lives! We believe in learning from the past. We believe that learning lessons from great businessmen and business women of the past can change our future for the better!!!

So here are 3 big lessons we learned from the king of chocolate!

Turn Failures Into Successes.

Milton Hershey had more failures than successes. In fact, he had more failures than we could even list in this post! But you don’t ever hear about those, do you? Why not? Because Hershey turned repeated failures into successes.

Hershey actually started in the caramel business, not the chocolate business! He flirted with many new ventures in Denver, Chicago and New Orleans as he was trying to find a place to settle his business down. He even decided on New York at one point, renting out shops and mortgaging equipment, only to back out and default on a $10,000 note!

What if he had given up at that point? We wouldn’t have the amazing company that is The Hershey Company today! And we wouldn’t have Hershey’s kisses! What???? So don’t give up. Keep getting up. Business is hard. Success in business is even harder. But you’ll never know what you are capable of until you get back up. Turn your failures into successes!!!

“What’s remarkable is not the number of times Hershey failed. It’s the number of times he tried.”

Quality Is The Best Form Of Advertising.

Hershey was an absolute advertising genius! He could sell water to a fish! But even Hershey’s chocolate wasn’t going to sell itself! So Hershey did something truly remarkable. He took what was considered a luxury item in the early 1900’s and turned it into a product anyone could afford!

But, he never sacrificed the quality.

He found unique ways of cutting cost such as starting his plant in Pennsylvania close to the milk and other supplies he needed. This cut his shipping costs and allowed him to trim the consumer’s costs as well! Genius, right?!

Hershey advertised his chocolate as an every day delight. And boy did it sell! But when it came to advertising, quality was always his first priority.

He said, “Give them quality. That’s the best kind of advertising in the world.”

As wedding photographers, we could easily cut quality in order to make more money. Quality takes time and attention to detail. We take the time to love our couples and take care of them. And we love doing that! So for us, quality beats quantity every single time. We have to remind ourselves of that sometimes. But Mr. Hershey is absolutely right. It’s the best kind of advertising in the world!

Don’t Let Fear Hold You Back From Your Goals.

We needed this one! How many times have we put off posting on Instagram for fear that no one will double-tap it or comment? In fact, the thought will cross our minds as we prepare to post this blog to Facebook: “Will people read this?” “Will it help anyone?” “Is this worth the time?” That’s fear talking. And we have to squash it as quickly as possible.

Just like every other business in the world, we want to make money. That’s absolutely what we should do! But Hershey said this, “If you want to make money, you have to do things in a BIG way.”

When you are afraid, you don’t do things in a big way. Fro example, we have a video series coming to our blog in a few weeks!!! Woah!!! That has been scary for us! We have never done that before! We have doubts! But if you want to succeed in life and in business, you have to do things in a big way. You can’t hold back!

And for us, that lesson was worth the price of admission!!!

You might be struggling today. We have struggled this week too! We are right there with you!

Remember.

Get back up from your failures. Turn them into successes!
Give them quality. It’s the best form of advertising!
Don’t let fear hold you back today! Chase those dreams! Go big!

Make this week your best week ever. And have some chocolate while you’re at it.

If this post was an encouragement to you, these posts might be as well!!! Go Big Or Go Home and Finger Posts On The Road To Success.