Never give up on your dream

This blog post originally appeared on my Medium account

Recently I realized that in order to have success in my life and achieve my goals of having a successful business is to follow my dreams and not what others say about them.

Why you ask?
Well, I’m both a dreamer and a designer, which means I have a big bag of crazy ideas for startups and business plans that have never seen the day (yes, I know how to write a business plan).

Every now and then I pitch my ideas to the people around me and my family, to see what they have to say about it. That turned out to be a big bummer for me, since almost everyone of them told me to abandon my idea and work for someone else instead for myself. You see, the fear of other people failing has lead me to have this bag of ideas which has not been used so far.

Story time

Let me tell you a bit more about the pitching that I did to my friends and family. I live in a small town named Tetovo in a country with a lot of history, called Macedonia. Starting a business here is not something that people are very fond of, since we have a lot of inspections running and getting started is a bit more complicated. However, people are always willing to try something new or something that is out there in the world, but not here yet. For example, I had this awesome idea of opening a book cafѐ. A place where people can have some coffee and cakes, in an atmosphere with good music so they can read a book. Books would be offered from one big stand which will hold the most interesting books ever. Also, there would be an inspiration corner where you can get some paper and write down stuff that you got as an inspiration while having your coffee (I know I have such moments very often).

Regarding this idea I got discouraged by my family, first and then by some of my friends as well. Luckily, a part of them actually wants to join me and open this thing with me. When I pitched to my parents they said it needs a lot of money we don’t have to invest, how that would be a bad move and inevitably that I would fail epically. A part of my friends were an added bonus to the story. As soon as I pitched them my idea, they started telling me how people will not come and that I will have no clients in a matter of months. The third part were actually my target group, those who understand and would actually like a such place in their city. And they weren’t few.

Summa summarum

I still have my idea with me, the other part of the people that were with me helped me realize that my idea is my and I can make it happen only if I keep to believe in it. Which I do.