To the moon Read online

  Which brings us back to solving your Ikigai!

  Now hold on, I know you have a billion questions about this and how does one take passion to the piggy bank, etc. Hence I’d like to approach this blog in an FAQ fashion. I’ll ask myself the questions that are probably going through your head and you tell me if I’ve missed anything. (I’ll put that in my next book, or at the very least my next blog!) Ready? #HereWeGo #MissionPassion

  Q. Fine, I have passion! But how do I make that my profession?

  A. Mind the Gap.

  The key to transforming passion into a pay cheque is honing your skills and figuring out a USP (Unique Selling Proposition), aka what makes you and your brand or business unique. You clearly have a passion for something, which means you take a deep and meaningful interest in it. Now think about what you could add to it that would improve the experience for everyone else who has a passion for it? What ‘gap’ could you fill?

  I’ll give you the example of my favourite macaroon queen in the city. After graduating from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, Pooja Dhingra started a classic French patisserie called Le 15 in Mumbai in 2010. She’s not the first one to ever open a pastry shop or offer delicious cakes made to order BUT she’s found her niche by focusing her aesthetic on style and simplicity. Everything about her packaging and the Le 15 experience oozes French sophistication. She has gone from being a home baker to an entrepreneur, made it to Forbes India’s prestigious 30 under 30 list, written two cookbooks and opened five of her own patisseries in the city! All because she followed her passion. Exciting, isn’t it?

  Mumbai’s most reputable chef, Chef Kelvin Cheung, has this to say about her, ‘I’m very lucky to call Pooja a friend and co-collaborator. She’s an absolute powerhouse when it comes to business and I’m always in awe of how she’s found a way to make her passion for pastry into a multifaceted, international business. There’s truly no one like Pooja. She’s fearless, focused and never settles. If she has a goal or idea, she will not just complete it. She will crush it! I think what makes her stand out is her heart. Everything she does is with kindness and that shows in her work, from macaroons to books. Pooja and Le 15 are truly made with love.’

  When I asked Pooja what it took to make her passion a successful profession, this was her answer, ‘When I moved back from Paris there was a big gap in the pastry industry. There was no standalone store focusing on French style dessert and there was no attention to detail. It almost felt like every restaurant had the same chef because all that was available was Black Forest, brownies and cheesecake! I fell in love with macaroons in Paris and my intention was to introduce them to the city. One piece of advice – follow your gut, only you know what you’re capable of achieving!’

  Q. Okay. I love food, but I can’t cook! Then what?

  A. Sure you can. Because you’re cooking the dream!

  See, the beautiful thing about having a passion is that you don’t have to be the one who does everything yourself. Perhaps you love South Indian food and want to open the most magnificent dosa joint your city has ever seen. Now, learn everything there is to learn about the business, use your skills to build a brand, find the right mentors and team and plug into your passion as the captain of your ship! Starting a business doesn’t always mean that you must be the CEO. I chose to be the creative director of my business and have Nowshad be the CEO and Mike the CRO based on our most powerful skill sets, but that doesn’t make me any less of a boss lady now, does it?

  Like I said, think about your USP. What makes you, you? Having a brand identity and personality that stands out and speaks for itself will always be the ticket to your ultimate success. Never settle for being a ‘me-too’ entrepreneur. That means, there is a difference between being inspired by something someone has created to give it your own unique spin or just doing the exact same thing with zero heart.

  Q. But what if I don’t know enough to start my own business?

  A. Then learn.

  Nowadays the internet is available 24/7 to teach you, in unimaginable detail, everything you need to know about anything. Do your research, then do your homework. Research is knowing all the nuts and bolts of the enterprise and homework is assessing the market for it where you live.

  In that process you will also discover whether you’re passionate about something just as a hobby or with a far greater ‘Ikigai’ manner of investment!

  Q. But what if my passion is something silly, like puppets?

  A. First up, puppets aren’t silly and neither is anything you’re passionate about.

  I was thrilled to discover how Apeksha Trivedi turned her love for puppets into a career. Here’s her story:

  ‘My passion for creativity led me to become an entrepreneur in puppetry despite being a post graduate in science. Being a mother, exploring creative and innovative ways of learning for my baby was my priority during his early growth years, which led me to creating puppets. Puppetry became my most favourite passionate pursuit. With my personal experiences, I decided to use puppetry in early childcare and holistic child development. I started experimenting and exploring hands-on puppetry with kids and young children in various forms. Finally, in December 2016, my own company, Duduz House: The House of Education and Recreation, came alive. Along this whole journey from nowhere to where I’m today, I have learnt that there is no passion to be found playing small, in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.’

  And that’s just my point – and the most exciting part about living in the twenty-first century – you can legitimately make a career out of anything today. Especially with the advent of social media and the vast reach of the internet, rest assured if there is something you do well, someone will want it and be willing to pay for it. Now it is up to you to figure out what that is!

  Of course, when I went digging for more examples I used the tools of my profession to find my passionate tribe. Here are some fantastic stories, from my Facebook post, of those who followed their dreams.

  Khushboo Gupta: I love gifting and not just gift personalized gifts. So, now I run a gift store with full back-end related to all sorts of printing and branding.

  Kavita Bagga: Corporate rat turned into farm rodent! I gave up on my golden handcuffs after twenty-one years and got into organic farming and launched Kara Organics. My love for food, aversion to allopathy, an urge to give back and pangs to return to the basics were easy-enough triggers.

  Rayna Jhaveri: Growing up, I was always crazy about cooking, and count the last Tarla Dalal as a family member. Now, I’m a co-host on a new US national cooking and radio show alongside a bigwig in the American home-cooking niche.

  Rita Verma: I studied to become a hardcore programmer. Little did I know that I would fall in love with makeup. I love making people look great, it truly is my passion. I’m a media makeup specialist effectsartist and have worked for iTV, BBC (London) and have my own international academy coming up soon!

  Rashmi Uday Singh: From income tax commisioner to foodwriter; from assessing india’s largest companies and raiding filmstars to revieweing India’s restaraunts. I’ve written India’s first city restaurant guide and the first vegetarian guide to Paris. It’s been a fun ride and now my vocation is my vacation.

  Tom Cherian: Drinking is my passion and then I opened my bar – Ghetto.

  You can feel the energy brewing, right? How’s that for inspiration? These are just a fraction of the comments I received, and I assure you, all their journeys were riddled with the same questions you are asking yourself today. I wish I could feature them all in this book but then I’d run out of pages. So, please visit the blog to read them all in the Lifestyle section. But they decided to jump anyway. If you were to ask them what it took, they will undoubtedly say lots of hard work and raw PASSION. Besides, everybody knows this universally true adage: ‘If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life,’ Marc Anthony.

  Q. Will my ‘passion profession’ be sustainable? Will it be scalable?

/>   A. Well, answer me this: How good is it? Or rather how good are you at it?

  Look, sustainability and scalability go hand in hand. For instance, to create a scalable brand, it must be sustainable. (But that’s not even the real concern here, because if you ask me, it’s up to you to decide how far you want to go. To my mind, it’s perfectly alright to decide that you want to run a boutique operation and not shoot for the moon.) But to have even a sustainable business you MUST maintain quality. I have witnessed so many entrepreneurs start companies with all kinds of gusto and excitement and then, as soon as they hit pay dirt, they let the reigns go and it is all over.

  Unless you are continuously offering a quality experience, you will disappoint your consumer. Someone who trusted you, came to you and drank your Kool-aid, and left unsatisfied. Because remember, in the world of modern entrepreneurship the consumer attitude is, ‘Fool me once, your bad; fool me twice, my bad.’ Which means there is very little wiggle room for a sub-par product and absolutely none for insincerity.

  Think about how many times you have gone back to your once-preferred restaurant or ordered something online and were dissatisfied with your experience. Suddenly your emotional rating for the brand plummets because you feel let down by someone you trusted. (It’s basically like a giant invisible game of Uber ratings!)

  So, focus all your energy on creating the best possible product and experience. Then figure out how you can keep them coming back for more. Maybe expand your first product so that it comes in different colours, flavours, shapes or sizes. Maybe it’s the first item in a future collection that becomes a must-have set. Or maybe it’s just one product that you find ways to distribute far and wide.

  In my case, I started out with a blog covering just my adventures in Mumbai and my love for Bollywood. Sensing a growing audience interest, I branched out into regular Bollywood news, which quickly bled into celebrity fashion, beauty and lifestyle content. Before I knew it, I had a small team helping me write stories, publish on social media, and edit short videos filmed on my way-ahead-of-its-time Flip camera. What started out as a personal online journal has today grown into a multi-category, multi-format, multi-platform media and entertainment brand, with still a lot more to grow into. But it all started with my words pouring out onto a WordPress page with heartfelt stories about my experiences in the city I loved, in a uniquely relatable voice, and it grew from there.

  Of course, like I said, not everything has to scale into a behemoth. And to be honest, not everything can. But if you’re able to carve out a name and a niche for yourself in something, I sincerely believe it will give you the confidence, experience and reputation to continue forging your own path in bigger and bolder ways. Your first business doesn’t have to get you to the moon. But it can certainly be the launch pad to independence and success. I mean, have you read Blogs #1-#24?

  MissMalini wasn’t built in a day. But even MissMalini had a ‘day one’.

  Q. Okay, dope, now I have a business. How do I convince people that I’m the best?

  A. Do it yourself. (But first make sure you are the best.)

  In the age of social media influencers, there is no one better equipped to champion your product than you. In some cases, of course, you may need to enlist the help of other influencers that fit the role of modelling your clothes or wearing your makeup – but no one will tell a more compelling brand story than you.

  ONCE UPON A BRAND…

  A brand is a matter of perception. Your brand story isn’t just what you tell people, it’s also what they believe about you based on the signals you send. The story is a complete picture made up of facts, feelings and interpretations, which means that part of your story isn’t even told by you. Its told by the people that choose to consume your brand and nowadays it’s told loudly on the internet!

  Me, I have a story too. I landed in Mumbai seventeen years ago with nothing but an alphanumeric pager and a dream, to live a life less ordinary. And I think I can safely say ‘mission accomplished’!

  I love ENTERTAINMENT. My entire career is based on it. From being a professional backup dancer for Sukhbir, to a radio DJ on Radio One, to a copywriter for various websites, handling digital content for MTV then Channel [v], a gossip columnist at Mid-Day, a blogger, a TV host and now an author as well! And the one thing I found in common in all the entertainment that I loved or remembered years later, was when it made me feel something. Happy, sad, angry, afraid, inspired, amused, conflicted even; and THAT I feel is the secret to good entertainment.

  A good brand story is something that makes you feel a human emotion even in the absence of human interaction.

  So how do I come up with a good brand story?

  When you tell a story that reflects the human experience, you form a connection that resonates with your audience. A brand story must inspire an emotional reaction. The trick is to be authentic. Consumers aren’t stupid.

  Think about the brands that have stood the test of time. Be it Nike or Coca Cola, their legacy continues because their brand stories are so powerful. When you hear their names, you automatically feel an emotion. The Nike swoosh alone inspires you to push harder, to ‘Just Do It’. Coca Cola conjures up memories of good times with friends, to ‘Open Happiness’, Apple reminds you to ‘Think Differently’. Even newer brands that have already made a mark, like Airbnb gives you the comfort of feeling like you’re at home and ‘Belong Anywhere’ and Red Bull, as everybody knows, ‘Give You Wings’!

  Stop and think, what’s your brand story? What emotion are you serving?

  Q. Okay, you’ve convinced me, but how do I convince my parents, spouse, friends, siblings, kids that I’m not crazy or stupid, or both?

  A. Show them your passion, for your passion.

  The tricky part here is that, especially in South Asian families, our parents have been raised to believe that there is nothing more important than securing a ‘decent’ job that will pay the bills for the foreseeable future. How ‘happy’ it makes you was never part of the equation. It just had to be a secure job that ideally fell into the doctor, lawyer, engineer or accountant bucket. But it’s a new world and there are now countless examples of young entrepreneurs just killing it on the scene!

  But first, you must warm up your nearest and dearest to the idea that you are considering following your heart, and letting that occupy all your mind space going forward. The best way to show them that you plan to do this responsibly, however, is to be practical and soundly informed. As opposed to just saying, ‘Mom, Dad! I’m going to start a biryani truck!’

  Talk them through your idea and get their input and advice. You’d be amazed at all the things you can learn from their experience. In fact, use them as a mini test group to see what they think about the idea before you tell them you’re going to launch into something or jump ship from a secure place.

  Remember, their greatest concern is for your future and how you will sustain yourself on a career path they are not familiar with. So, if you do your homework and show them some industry comps (in this case, the Bombay Food Truck perhaps?) plus your plans, in detail, they will feel a lot more comfortable and be more likely to support your ambition.

  The more you show them you know, the more they will begin to believe in you. Let them ask you all the challenging questions they want to, in fact it’ll be great for your business to have a good, hard look at the model and a perfect dry run for your first investor pitch!

  Q. But what if I fail?

  A. The fact that you tried means you didn’t fail.

  I firmly believe that businesses fail, people don’t. Just because your company tanked it doesn’t mean you as a person are a failure. Pick up the pieces, learn from your mistakes and move on. As the wise lyrics of ‘Chumbawamba’ go, ‘I get knocked down, but I get up again. You are never gonna keep me down.’ (This song plays often in my head like songs tend to, as explained in the movie Inside Out.)

  And if you’re still not convinced check THIS out:

  Eva
n Williams developed a podcasting platform called Odeo, which folded in the shadow of Apple’s iTunes podcast section. He then went on to co-found Twitter.

  Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper because his editor felt he lacked imagination and ideas. He went on to become the man who redefined American childhood!

  Reid Hoffman created SocialNet, an online dating and social networking site that ultimately failed. He co-founded LinkedIn.

  Vera Wang started out as a figure skater but failed to make the U.S. Olympic team. She was even turned down for a promotion to editor-in-chief for Vogue before she became a famous fashion designer.

  Milton Hershey tried to start three different candy companies, all of which failed, before starting the Hershey Company that makes Hershey’s chocolates, one of the most recognized chocolates in the world today.

  Jeff Bezos created an online auction site that failed but he repurposed the idea that would eventually become the Amazon Marketplace.

  Fred Smith got a poor grade on an assignment in school because the professor didn’t think the idea would work. That idea eventually became FedEx!

  Before launching The Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington had trouble getting people to read her work. Her second book was rejected by thirty-six publishers.

  Jay-Z couldn’t get a record label to sign him. He and his friends sold his first CD out of the boot of his car. Now he is worth $550 million as per Forbes.

  J.K. Rowling was a single mom on welfare when she started writing her first Harry Potter novel. She is now an internationally renowned author for her seven-book series and became the first billionaire author in 2004!