In Japan there’s a way of fixing broken pottery called kintsugi. It means “golden joinery.” The pieces are glued back together with tree-sap lacquer, then the cracks are finished in gold. So instead of hiding the damage, the repair becomes the best part of the bowl. The story goes that, back in the 1400s, a shogun sent his favourite tea bowl to China to be fixed. It came back held together with ugly metal staples. He wasn’t impressed, and Japanese craftsmen came up with something better. By the 1600s, some collectors were rumoured to break perfectly good bowls on purpose, just so they could have them mended with gold. I like that. Most of us try to hide the cracks. The business that didn’t work. The product nobody bought. The idea we never started. I’ve got all three. Kintsugi says the cracks are part of the story. There’s even a Japanese word, mottainai, for the regret of wasting something that still had use in it. A lot of online businesses get thrown out when they only needed one crack fixed. Proper kintsugi isn’t quick, either. The lacquer takes days or weeks to cure, layer by layer. It’s done one crack at a time. That’s how Have A Go works. Find the one crack that’s stopping your next sale. Then do one thing about it every day for 30 days. Your business doesn’t have to be perfect. Patched is fine. Especially in gold. Regards, 920791 is your Substack verification code
326574 is your Substack verification code
Nothing to see but water
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