Posts tagged dreams

An Ending and a New Beginning

Jan 24th

After nearly 6 years of working for corporate, this past Friday I finally had the courage to end this chapter of my life and pursue my dreams to become an entrepreneur.

I decided to partner up with a person who’s been a great influence for me, a hard-worker and a dream-fighter…my brother George also known as Chef Sazon. Our family own company, Chef George Catering, has been operating for the past 2 years. I’m jumping on board to run and take the business to a greater level. He has no idea what my plans are for him! Let’s just say, the next Iron Chef America

Veeah Media, is my design and interactive company to launch pretty soon. Stay tuned. I’m very excited about this as well as other business opportunities and dancing sugar plums in the works.

This is the part of the story where I’m hesitant, whether to rant about how my frustrations led me to this decision or share about the beautiful journey of my career. <sigh>

Simply I was fed up. Burnt out. Unhappy.

My motivation was slowly shutting down. I wasn’t growing or being challenged. I felt stuck in bureaucracy. I’m sure many have felt this way before and it’s a scary thought, to step out of your comfort zone and start all over again. The idea of walking away from a steady paycheck and health benefits to go on my own was terrifying but I knew it was time to move on.

Last week during my last days at the office as I packed my things and peel memories of the wall. I started to think of my early beginnings when I was just a recent grad out of college full of energy and I interviewed at this company.

Here’s how my interview and proposal sounded: “You will be replacing someone and that someone doesn’t know it…yet. During the transition he will make your life impossible, maybe cry, he will try to boss you around and most likely will not train you. You will have to learn our systems on your own …Do you still want the job?”

This was like some crazy-reverse-psychology-pansy way of forcing me to withdraw from applying to the position.

Clearly there were many challenges but I felt that this company needed help and I could do something about it. I was intrigued by the intimidation so I took the job and the rest is history

AND YES, the guy I replaced was exactly as described and more.

The “history” part are the great friendships I made along the way. The many-many times I pushed myself over the edge to learn…grow…excel. The challenges I ambitiously pursued to take the company and my career to the next level. The late nights, over-time and weekends to tackle projects and meet deadlines. The opportunities to speak at conferences and presentations that helped me overcome my stage fright problem. The fancy titles, ha!

I’m grateful for those six years. I matured, grew and accomplished many things. I’m going to miss my colleagues and the fun times that nearly got me written up. I always tried to bring unity and smiles to this company. I think I did a good job leaving my mark, see pics below

What I’ve learned in this journey is that “No person has the right to rain on your dreams”. Martin Luther King Jr. said that once. Make a change for yourself. If you are sitting there miserably, complaining about life, bitter about your job, wishing of a lifestyle you wish you had…Do something about it! Noone is going to make it happen for you. Do what’s necessary to reach the happiness level you want. Work your ass-off for the things, people and goals you believe in. Don’t let that fire in you and passion die, ever. That’s your motivation. And don’t ever let anyone hold you back. Stop using the economy as a reason to give up. You are never too young or too old to go after your dreams.

To a new beginning. To happiness. Here’s to keeping dreams alive. Yours and mine.

Nessy