Being afraid to start over in your career can be terrifying for someone who doesn’t seem to have a plan in life or is worried about when or where they’ll get their next paycheck in order to survive. For me, that has happened a few times for me so far in my life. I’d like to share what I went through and hopefully to inspire you to start over as many times in your life to find what you are truly passionate about in life to make a career out of it.
After having started at a data entry position at a real estate company and then moving up to become a social media manager, I realized some of the strengths and weaknesses I possessed, but unfortunately, I was unhappy where I was at with the company. While it was a good paying job with benefits, I felt lost and unmotivated to work further, but I still worked there for close to 10 years and worked as hard as I could to prove that I could be a valuable employee to the company. I must admit that the job did provide me with skills that I am using today to help grow my busi
ness, which I will get into later in this blog post. It wasn’t until the person who brought me into the company who decided to leave, which forced me into rethinking my position at the company. I finally decided I needed to move on and pursue my passions for my health and peace of mind. My first start over in my career was finally happening and it was on to a career at a bubble tea shop.
At my next career stop at a bubble tea shop, it was an entirely new environment to me and I was excited, yet nervous at the same time. I was also taking a significant pay cut compared to the last job so I was forced to work even harder and work more hours with a side job of doing food delivery gig apps. When I first stepped into the job, I was met with people much younger than me, a decade for most, which made me humble myself. I found myself learning so much yet making so many mistakes. I was out of my element, but I was excited to see how I can make this a career and create a business of my own. I found myself working a year there and while I learned so much, created so many memories and great relationships, some I still hold today, I realized I couldn’t sustain a living giving the wage. So I decided to start over again, this time it was food delivery, to which I still do today.
I’ve been doing food delivery gig apps like DoorDash, Uber, and GrubHub since 2019, but it wasn’t until 2021 that I decided to pursue it full time in order to make enough to make ends
meet. It has been a flexible job that has allowed me to earn based on how much I work and when I want to work. I’ve been able to pay bills easier than I did with my previous jobs. It has been a true blessing for me to find this as a side hustle and full-time work. However, it comes with its downsides. At times, orders can be sparse and it creates a lot of wear and tear on your car. With the rising gas prices, it has become even more difficult to make enough to make ends meet. While this job has provided me flexibility and an honest wage, I realized I cannot do this forever and it doesn’t provide me the creative outlet that I truly desire and am passionate about. This brings me to my next and hopefully final start over, but maybe not, and that is growing my bubble tea business that focuses on apparel, digital art, blogs, and any other media related to bubble tea/ boba.
I started my business back in July 2020 with the encouragement and help of my fiancé and soon to be wife. She also has her own business as a massage therapist, and she inspired to do my own as well. At first, I was excited to start this endeavor and create something unique that I could call my own. However, that excitement was met with some reservations, bumps in the road, some introspection, and a lot of hard work. For the first 2 years of the business, I had barely done anything for my website except for maybe a few blog posts and some bubble tea reviews. I was nervous and afraid to create anything in fear of it not being any good or simply thinking I wasn’t good enough to produce anything creative. It was only about a month ago that I really started to work on my business, and I created 11 t-shirt designs, some NFT artwork, more blog posts/ideas, and have updated my website since. I feel like this is what I am meant to do and I realized that after having had an urgency set on me of trying to pay for my wedding next year. I feel like I am creating this
business not only for myself, but for my fiancé, who is my inspiration and boba bae, as well as our future family. While I am only beginning and haven’t made any sales yet, I am hopeful for the future and have faith that I will succeed.
If anyone is reading this, I hope you become inspired and gain enough courage to start over from any point in your career where you feel unhappy and unmotivated. While it’s good to have a plan, don’t be afraid to take a leap of faith. Sometimes, it’ll be the best thing you’ll ever do. It was for me. I’ll keep you updated on my progress in life and how my business turns out.
- P.S. I’m sorry if some parts ramble. I am not a writer by nature and only wrote this on the top of my head. This was all unedited. Please comment, like or share, if you'd like to share your story or if you feel the same way. Thank you!
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