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?

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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?”

I did all my preparation within a night and put my first ever stall. 

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.

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Thank you so much for reading!

I will catch you next time.

Stay Tuned.

Take Care

Sheetal Mulay 

www.sheetalmulay.com