Launching my business

Boarding the airplane in New York, final destination New Delhi, we were thrilled. My two best friends and I had initiated the concepts for our company two long years before and suddenly it was time to make our dreams a reality. Twenty odd hours later we blasted into the smokey Delhi night ready for anything.

Starting a business had been difficult from the get go, especially with our product. Luxury scented drawer sachets. Seriously. A product never before made to these standards, the checklist leading up to production seemed insurmountable. We had never before worked with fragrance oils, blending them, scent companies to duplicate them, such an array of luxury materials, natural fillers, overseas manufacturers, packaging specs etc. etc. etc.! Who has? And the combination of everything!? It sometimes seemed so daunting that it felt as if we just couldn't wrap our heads around it. But we did, and now, here we were in India.

Extremely generous and kind, our hosts wanted to be sure that everything was provided for our visit. From the airport pickup to the airport goodbyes they were there. Due to jet lag, we woke early in the hotel daily and prepared for the day then were whisked away to the office. There the days were hard. We struggled with Hindi, with foreign concepts of deadlines, with the techonologies sought v.s. technologies available, sourcing materials, and many promises made and broken. We fought and fought to get our samples completed for the big meeting back in New York only days ahead, and we got hungry. Starving in fact. When finally lunch came we were estatic! Daily, our sweet hosts opened the lunch pails with pride and excitement to share with us their home cooked delicacies but although starving, what was delicious to them literally made our stomachs turn. And so we had a choice, we could either refuse the food, or we could smile, say thank you, and consume the next obsticle that this crazy business presented us. We chose to smile and we realized; we were literally consuming the realization of the continued unforseen. Let me tell you, it was hard to swallow this constant unknown. That trip we ate curry and curd and veggies breakfast lunch and dinner, and until our fingers were yellow and our pores leaked the scent. But our samples were completed, and my partners jet back to New York to land our first big sale. Mission accomplished.

While curry has hardly been our companies biggest hurdle to cross, we always think back to those lunches when we are struggling through the next "impossible" burden. We laugh now at how difficult that seemed and know that we will soon laugh looking back on whatever we are currently struggling through. It's actually hilarious that curry, of all things, proved to us how strong was our desire to succeed.

Advice for others

ADVICE FOR OTHERS:

To be successful and brand your company for a long life you MUST be ready for anything and be prepared to consume every bit of the unknown. Do so, and you will not only see rewards, but appreciate them with all of the memories of efforts included in their making.