Birthday Blog #2

Almost every time I get my hair cut at the salon on the next block the owner tells me the same story. We're chatting about the neighborhood and how long we've each been here when he says "You know - I have to tell you, " and sets down his scissors. He continues. "When you first opened, I was sure you wouldn't last a year. I told everyone you would never make it. But you did, and I learned something. I never say that about anyone now, no matter how crazy I think their business might be." I have to admit, I get a kick out of being the one that proved him wrong - he's pretty positive about most things. And someone else predicted my failure from the start - the man whose space I took over, who actually told me, right to my face: "You'll never make it, this neighborhood is really going down." Of course, as he was reopening in a bigger space just one block away, I took his opinion with a large grain of salt. To myself I was thinking, I'm just try trying this for a few years; I'll see how it goes. All of these stories to say - yikes! Twenty five years later, I'm still here. And to be honest, it's just as difficult for me to imagine my life twenty five years into the future as it was when I opened the doors of Joie in 1984.