"What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore and then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over, like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags, like a heavy load. Or does it explode?" (Langston Hughes, “Harlem”)
Theresa Chu ran and owned a dog-friendly bar in Durham, North Carolina called Barley Labs. I chatted with Theresa about what it was like for her to follow her dreams and open up her small business in 2018, and then what it was like to have to close down in February 2020. Theresa recalls her time running Barley Labs as her “spectacular failure" because, despite the disappointments that came with it, running Barley Labs helped Theresa conquer one of her deepest fears: failure. A big takeaway from Theresa’s story is that failure isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, which is the more painful life: to take a leap, fall, and skin your knees, or to perpetually stand at the edge of a dream deferred, always wondering if you should have jumped?
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