Put That Passion In Your Pipe And Blow It!
One day I decided to start my own business.
But my problem was I was not aware of my passion.
I read self-help books, watched great movies, videos to
find inspiration, motivation, learn positive thinking etc. etc., you name
it.
Everybody was shouting, “You should always follow your heart.”
But my biggest problem was, my ‘Heart' never talked to
me.
And if at all it did I never heard it talking.
I always had a very simple life; School, college, job, marriage
and kid.
I really never got any time to think about this passion stuff.
So now what? How could I find my true passion?
How could I start a business without knowing my passion?
Finally, ‘Mera 'Dil' bhi bola’. Here is what happened.
I made caramel chocolates for my daughter.
I gave them to her friends and my friends and relatives. They
loved them.
Many asked whether I make them on order.
Unbelievable, they were ready to pay for my chocolates?
And “Mere Dil se aawaz ayi”, this is it!
Yes! Chocolate Making is my Passion.
I made wonderful chocolate gift boxes. I made my first sale
ever.
That reassured me I really found my true passion. I
made loads and loads of chocolates.
I believe this is my ‘First Mistake’ even before I
started my business.
Why? Here you go…
Something was not right!
I started hating chocolates, even the smell of chocolate.
Can you imagine making 10,000+ chocolate, packing them. I did
it alone.
Here it went wrong.
Many of my friends and relatives already bought from me.
I gave free samples to many of them as a promotional gift.
What next?
Who will buy the remaining lot?
I listed them on eBay, nobody was buying.
I gave them to shop keepers and marketing people (who were
charging me a lot); they were not able to sell much.
'The homemade chocolate market is saturated‘, that’s what
they said.
I wanted to sell those chocolates at any cost.
I became impatient, frustrated, desperate…
Someone told me, “There is an exhibition, why don’t you participate?”
Guess what?
I sold 80% of my stuff.
Hurray! What an idea.
Exhibition, that’s it.
I enrolled for around
10 exhibitions.
I hired a small
place, employed 2 girls.
Really! 10
exhibitions 80% sale I was calculating, worth making investments.
Then something worst
happened.
In those exhibitions,
I was not able to sell 10% of total stock.
What went wrong?
I was totally confused!
Some organizers said,
they do not know, some said that’s not the case last year.
Some stall-mates said
organizers did not advertise, the crowd was not good. etc. etc.
The harsh reality
was, big piles of chocolates were lying around me.
I was not having
smallest clue of how can I get rid of them.
I started getting
dreams of chocolates. (Horrible ones!).
All my passion of
making chocolate got flushed with the flood of chocolate.
People were
asking," How is your business going?"
I said great. I
operate from home and sell in exhibitions.
Sounds Familiar?
But the harsh reality
was I was not selling anything to a single soul.
My sister came to my
rescue.
She told me a
company is looking for chocolate boxes as last minute Diwali return gift.
You can try your
luck. (Sisters are angels!)
I grabbed the
opportunity. I sold most of the boxes.
It was not that easy.
But it was a do or die situation.
I did it.
I recovered most
of my cost (No, Not Profit).
Got rid of most of my
stock.
And most
importantly got introduced to a whole new world of Corporate Gifting.
That day, I cried
badly.
Those were tears
of joy.
Not because I sold my
chocolates but I felt something really deep in my heart.
I was not passionate
about making chocolates. But I was passionate about making my business work.
It totally took all
the confusion away.
I got
more focused.
The
total experience laid the foundation for my next business…may be next
...next business...
I was ready.
Now there's a lot
more to this story but the relevant part for you is;
You have to
stop thinking and start doing.
You must be having
some ideas about what you think you might be passionate about, you know
what you like doing; stop thinking and just get out there.
Just do it!
Stop wasting time to
find your passion or making the perfect product.
The second part I
want to talk about is this:
Passion is overrated
phenomenon.
Don’t wait for
passion to come to you.
If it has not
happened till date there are very less chances that it will happen in future.
You have to change your approach
Start today with what
you have.
Surely you will find
your passion one day, it’s like a treasure hunt game.
Hope it helps.
Now I would love to
hear from you.
Have you ever
struggled to find your passion? If so, how did you crack it?
Leave a comment below.
Did you like this article?
If so, share it with your
friends.
Thank you so much for reading!
I will catch you next time.
Stay Tuned.
Take Care
Sheetal Mulay
