Nutrition & Wellness Quotes For A Happy Healthy Life
APRIL 28, 2021
In this article, I share with you a little bit about my journey into entrepreneurship and most importantly, my five key entrepreneurship principles, which helped me quit my full-time job, become a female founder at the age of 27, land my first client job and to stay motivated on the uncertain road of entrepreneurship since.
"The world is our oyster! We only have to have our goals crystal-clear in front of us and work as hard as we possibly can to reach them. As simple as this may sound, that's it!"
If you read my About Page, you already have a pretty good overview over who I am and what happened in my life since I graduated from High School. I always knew that I am a super creative mind but it took another 6 years after High School had ended until I knew that I want and I have the capabilities (very important aspect in the equation) to share the science and art of how to cook healthy, delicious and beautiful with the world and build a plant-centered community full of wonderful minds around it.
Today, I call this my mission but it took years until I got to this point. So don't worry if you don't know what your purpose is yet. The only thing I encourage you to do is "be open", "get out of your comfort zone (CONSTANTLY. Really think about what this means applied to your context)" and "test through trial and error" until you found what you love.
I always wanted to become this highly-educated woman who can pay each and every bill by herself. I thought a creative job would never give me the opportunity to cover my living costs (this is btw how I ended up with a business-engineering degree). I also thought, I have to do what everyone else does - Study, finish my degree and enter the corporate world.
I was so wrong! Doing what everyone else does is neither a very inspiring thing to do, nor will it ever make one person happy. Most likely, you don't even perform very well, if the job at hand isn't inspiring to you. Instead, standing your ground for the things that truly inspire you and capture your imagination, is, I realized over time, beyond inspiring to others. The more I spoke about my dream over the past years, the more I grew in confidence and slowly but surely, I started acting on it. I mustered all my courage, quit my full-time job in a baby food company, and took a deep-dive into entrepreneurship.
It's true. My first client appeared out of nowhere in my first month at a time in which I hadn't even set up my company legally yet. But that I didn't see coming and therefore had already looked for a part-time job to cover my rent. Does this mean I am not 100% entrepreneur yet. Yes, I am not. Living in Munich is beyond expensive and as I didn't consider moving out of the city right away, I had to look for a part-time job that covers my rent. This btw, I also highly recommend to you. Entrepreneurship is connected to so much uncertainty. If you can find a small job that lifts some weight (financial uncertainty) off your shoulder, take it - even though this means you have to compromise some of your new "free-time" to it.
In my personal case, the unexpected happened happened in April, 4 weeks after I had quit my job. I found my first client, or better said - he found me and I just pitched my value add to him. Now, I really have a client who pays me to do what I love to do - sharing healthy-wholesome recipes with the world. Therefore, see this article also as a little motivation that everything is possible! If you asked me a year ago if I can monetize my business, I would have said, I'd love to...one day! But never would I have thought that I can earn money 4 weeks into the business. In the following, I will share my most important newbie-entrepreneurship principles which I recommend you to take as a guideline to plan your way into entrepreneurship.
And remember: As long as you don't give up, you're still making progress (even though you might not see it every day.)
Before anyone else believes in your dream you must believe and speak about it. Determination attracts and long-term commitment to a big dream not only attracts, but also paves the road realization. How? Take me as an example. Every person I've met in the last years, I have told that I want to build a plant-food focused brand (which I can turn into a restaurant chain one day) and share healthy, beautiful and delicious recipes with the world . The longer I've been talking about it, the more people I sold the story to and the more have started to follow my journey and have been complimenting me and since stating that they truly think I am inspiring to them.
2. Network
Networking is a super important aspect. Don't think you are alone in this world. There are so many wonderful people who are willing to support you in your journey and help you grow if they only knew about your talent. Therefore, don't hesitate to contact strangers. Write DMs to all people that are inspiring to you and tell them why they are so inspiring to you. You will be surprised about the wonderful feedback you will receive sometimes (which by the way, also motivates to keep doing what you do). I avoided this "networking aspect" for the longest time and was literally amazed when people started sharing my content and spoke about it in the nicest ways without being asked the favor. It's incredible.
3. Never give up and try to embrace the journey
There are many days when I feel beyond exhausted as the workload isn't the one you face in a 35-hour corporate job. Whenever I have one of those days, I make a cup of tea, do another yoga session and just go to sleep. Normally, this already helps me immensely to overcome the "temporary" down. I wake up the next morning, open my "I am thankful for journal", note three things and feel ready to tackle this new day which is full of opportunities. I don't write a journal daily as I just don't want to handle too many routines every day. Instead, I keep this journal on my working desk and open it every time I feel like I need some "perspective" and need to "reconfigure my mind to gratefulness". Here, I recommend you to experiment with whatever works best for you.
4. Constantly Optimize
When you start, you won't know the answers to every question. Many entrepreneurial decisions have to be taken in uncertainty. Therefore, it is very important to also be flexible. Try something, continue to analyze it, and if it doesn't work, don't hold on to it, just change whatever parameter needs to be changed in the equation. This is, for example, highly visible in my current social media content. I am still discovering how to create the most value to wonderful human beings like you. Therefore, I constantly test new formats, neglect them if they don't work - without any hard feelings; no matter how much effort I had put into it beforehand. And this rules applies to everything I do in my business:
I never hesitate to test something --> I analyze it's performance --> I improve it, if possible --> I (re-)test --> & I let go of it, if it doesn't work as planned and instead (re-)focus my attention to something new with a higher chance for success.
5. Keep healthy routines
As mentioned before, I truly believe in routines and structured processes but not too many. A routine isn't a routine if it can't be executed long-term. Therefore, I think it's also healthy to limit yourself on routines that are crucial to you. My routines, which all have standard times and processes, are the following:
- Deliver meaningful content over any social media channel daily (it can be pinterest, instagram, facebook, tiktok or youtube, any channel counts); min. 1 post per day is my golden rule, as this is a crucial piece in the puzzle to grow for me right now.
- Practice Yoga to relax my mind and build physical strength daily! I usually do this in the morning after my of coffee or Matcha and before I "officially" start my day. Besides, I enjoy to work as much as possible. However, right now, it is impossible timewise on top of my Yoga routine . But I target 3-4 times per week for a video workout or a run in the park.
Interested in more insights on how I set my mindset to "success", then take a look at my DIY Motivation Wall Project for example. It's not only a wonderful wall decoration but also the best reminder for your virtues.
I hope you enjoyed this story about how I got to where I currently am. If you are in a similar position, if you have a dream that you have wanted to turn into reality for super long or if you are just curious to hear more about my story, let me know. I would be beyond happy if I could support your business or answer a question which will bring you forward. Either write me directly through the comments or shoot me a Message via Instagram or Facebook.
xx, Karo
