You Cannot Avoid Your Destiny & Mine Is Green Entrepreneurship

Those who know me well joke saying that I was born to be a green business woman, and I think they might be right. Green entrepreneurship found me.

It is destiny’s calling…

The entrepreneurial bug bit me when I was very young, I was merely 6 or 7 when I started my first business, and of course at the time, i didn’t even recognise it as such, but now I have to admit it was a very fun and profitable enterprise.

At that age, I loved to craft jewellery using glass beads (and I still do). I made necklaces, bracelets, anklets, I could spend hours and hours in the lazy summer afternoons creating new combinations.

I would keep a few and give away a good amount as presents to my family and friends, but I was a prolific crafter and I always had plenty of “stock” left over which was the seed for my lucrative side-hustle.

Don’t Believe Me? Let Me Explain…

In case you are wondering what I did with the money, well…I was just a little girl and I did not understand much about finances so I just used the cash to satisfy my obsession at the time: ice-cream!!

A Few Years Went By…

And I started developing a passion for nature and the environment. I was a teenager by now, and my interest was so deep that I became obsessed with building and running a recycling plant when I grew up.

Imagine a 15-year-old wanting a recycling plant!

I remember getting many weird looks and comments about how unusual I was but honestly I couldn’t care less. I have always been unusual and anyway I was too busy converting everyone around to the doctrine of the 3R’s: reduce, reuse and recycle. And my next biggest worry was convincing my parents to let me join Greenpeace and spend my vacations protecting the oceans in their emblem ship the “Rainbow Warrior”.

As I became an adult, life took over and drove me in other directions. I never got to build that recycling plant, nor did I sail in the Rainbow Warrior (which was for the best because, as I discovered years later, I suffered from a serious case of sea sickness). But I did, in fact, join Greenpeace as soon as I turned 18, and I have been an active environmentalist ever since, trying to live the best I can according to my beliefs.

Do you believe in destiny?

I am not sure if it was destiny, or the universe, or my own dreams waking up and knocking on my door, but the fact is that after a 30 year long detour, the chance came up to have another go at my young dreams.

So, about a year ago, I decided to leave my comfortable career in the corporate world to do something more meaningful in my life.

And yes, this time around, I am a more seasoned, educated and pragmatic adult, who is convinced that we can make a difference if we put our mind to it.

But the big question still remains: How can I get more meaning out of my life?

After months of reflection, soul searching and a few panic attacks for thinking that I had made the wrong decision and ruining my future, I had some kind of epiphany.

I wanted to do more, I wanted to achieve more impact than I was currently doing with just my individual contributions, and I wanted to help solve problems. So what better than entrepreneurship to achieve all that? Oh yes, of course, green entrepreneurship. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…

There is Another Way

For decades, we were made to believe that there is only one way: the myth of eternal economic growth, and we were told that to achieve that goal, we had to sacrifice nature and use up all our resources.

In my eyes, one of the biggest problems has always been that the environment ends up losing every battle against the economy.

Thankfully, now we know better, many of us don’t believe those lies any longer, and we are aware that the economy does not have to be the enemy. On the contrary, our best chances for a real sustainable future will come when the environment, society and economy work together, permitting us to prosper and live in harmony with nature.

That is when I decided that the way to bring meaning to my life while helping solve a big problem was through green entrepreneurship.

And here I am now, envisioning my future business, working day in and out to make sure it is eco-friendly and socially but also economically sustainable. Green entrepreneurship took me on a truly exciting journey and there is still more to explore.

Of course, I want to make money and achieve financial independence with it, but there is so much more to my dream. 

What I Really Want…

It is to see how my work leaves a positive mark and has a much bigger impact than what I do today with buying second-hand, reusing glass jars or upcycling jeans. Don’t get me wrong, every little thing counts, and I will, of course, continue doing them.

How does that sound for a plan? Shocking, utopian, hard work? Probably all of them but if you decide to stay with me, you will get to hear all about it!

For starters, here you can learn more about what I am considering to make my startup sustainable. Let me know what you think about it and join the green entrepreneurship movement with me!

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