The Fine Line Between Confidence and Delusion

In the September 2011 issue of SUCCESS magazine, we explored comeback stories of businesses from across the United States. In Vermont, the family-owned Darn Tough sock company couldn’t compete with wholesale, overseas operations. A heartbeat away from filing Chapter 11, Darn Tough changed their strategy and turned their company around. Selling their new, upscale socks for $15 to $26 a pair, Darn Tough socks came with a lifetime guarantee. So, if the dog ate your sock, get a replacement with no questions asked.

The Darn Tough sock company is like California-based Solairus Aviation, who fought off creditors for its life. And like Hurricane Katrina-ravaged AGJ Systems and Networks, whose employees didn’t have homes, but showed up to work the next day. And like Seattle’s Elliott Bay Book Co., which flourished for years in its iconic location, but suffered once the neighborhood changed and crime moved in.

In other words, no matter their circumstances or location—whether in Greensburg, Kan., pop. 777, where Fleener Furniture and Flooring fought a tornado to come back to life, or hurricane-ravaged Biloxi—perseverance and relationships were the great equalizer in easing the comebacks.

“If the company survives the drop it can be difficult for them to return to the same high level. Not impossible, just difficult,” says Dan Olszewski, director of the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Business.

That’s where attitude sets apart the ones who come back and the ones who don’t.

“There is a thin line between an ‘amazing level of confidence’ and being ‘delusional,’ ” he says, “but given all of the pressures and issues that exist when a company experiences a major drop, it is just that sort of unwavering drive that is required.”

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