I gave up a million-peso company twice!
The first time was during the growing days of our family blinds business in 2011, and I decided to sell my shares to my brother. We started this business during the transition of the company Omega to Hilsoft as a contingency.
My mother started it during our college years, and my brother continued it in our hometown in Lucena City. I remember it was during the Ondoy storm in 2009 when I took photos of the blinds swatches, I put up a website in Google Sites at the time, then promoted it online with Google Ads and simple SEO techniques for the Metro Manila market.
It had immediate traction. We were generating sales that we didn’t forsee coming. We then decided to put up an 8sqm kiosk in Waltermart in Makati. The business kept on generating income. Similar to most companies, sales growth is equal to operational issues. Our family had disagreements; each member who was involved in the operations had conflicts.
Yes the money was there but I thought I was not passionate about it, so I decided to sell my share and moved on.
I had another opportunity after a few years to go back to this business when a dear friend asked me for help to start a business and offered a chance to put up a kiosk in a mall for a very cheap cost.
And so, I repeat the same process, the business grew and was generating good profits. Long story short, I decided to give up the company because I wanted to focus more on the thing I am passionate about, solving business problems through computerization and automation with Hilsoft.
Steve Jobs said, “It’s hard to tell with these Internet startups if they’re really interested in building companies or if they’re just interested in the money. I can tell you, though: If they don’t really want to build a company, they won’t luck into it. That’s because it’s so hard that if you don’t have a passion, you’ll give up”.
I want to dive deeper into this thought and ask, why would you want to find something you might love? My answer here is similar to Jobs, to do something that you enjoy so you won’t work a day in your life again.
I love so what I do so much that I am not thrilled anymore about the idea of going out to travel anymore or have a vacation. I know I should also consider my family and their passion, and so I entertain their needs from time to time.
So if doing what you love every day is what you want, then you might want to try these practical ways to try things you might love.
- Deduct hours you spend on your passion for consumption like tv, Netflix, social media, drinking, etc. Then add hours on your passion for creating things such as business, arts, music, writing, good health, relationships, etc.
- Choose your top 10 here, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hobbies
and https://grit.ph/business-ideas. Sort them by priority and then try what works and discard what’s not. Do it on a monthly or a quarterly period. - Master the hobby you chose by spending at least 10,000 hours doing it.
- Register it as a business, put up a website, build your community, and initial loyal customers then advertise.
To end, I would like to share this poem a stumbled upon while writing this;
“You know a dream is like a river
Ever changing as it flows.
And a dreamer’s just a vessel
That must follow where it goes.
Trying to learn from what’s behind you
And never knowing what’s in store
Makes each day a constant battle
Just to stay between the shores.”
“The River” by Garth Brooks, Victoria Shaw