No Success Without Risk

You may have heard already: After just over a year in operation, Quartet Restaurant has closed.

From all the fuss that’s been made over Quartet’s financial woes, you’d think the Titanic had sunk for the second time – not just a restaurant.

According to Ohio State researcher H.G. Parsa, around 60 percent of restaurants fail in the first three years. In fact, only about half of all small businesses are still alive after five years. 

That’s how capitalism works.  And it’s how life works. For most of us failure is a necessary step on the road to success. That’s not just something motivational speakers say to make losers feel better about themselves. It’s a stone cold fact.

What if Vincent van Gogh had given up because his work didn’t sell? What if Steven Spielberg had quit movies after getting multiple rejections from film school? What if Bill Gates had got out of the computer business when his first product bombed?

As an investor you always hope your investment will become successful. Sometimes you need to have patience and wait to see that success.  But if profits never show up, you have nobody to blame but yourself. Nobody twisted your arm; you took a gamble and lost… this time around.

Quartet has given Portlanders some truly good times. Quartet founder and co-owner Frank Taylor brought to town people like Stevie Wonder, Spike Lee and Michael Jordan, to name a few. Without Taylor’s willingness to take a chance, we’d have fewer good memories of happy times. Taylor is still delivering great food and service at Portland Prime. We wish him every success.