Many work hard to reach a point of independence and stability, and it’s definitely not easy to turn back on these to venture into uncharted territory.
However, taking on a new path may turn out to be the best decision you could make. This change can either bring you to achieve financial success, lasting recognition, personal happiness, or other unexpected victories.
Marielle Aguilar is a teacher who refused to return to her teaching career in Metro Manila after falling in love with a provincial life in Magallanes, Cavite. However, that decision had left her to think of a new source of income.
Luckily, her family had a five-hectare farm filled with hundreds of fruit-bearing trees. Aguilar took a look at the farm and thought, “What can our farm do for us?”
READ: A taste of the earth: Teacher increases profit from family cacao farm by building a farm-to-cup cafe
As a coffee-lover, the cacao trees immediately caught her attention. Aguilar decided to open a cafe that incorporated her family’s own processed cacao as well as locally-made coffee in Magallanes.
But she was a teacher with absolutely no background in establishing a business, moreso an agribusiness. However, she didn’t see that as a weakness.
After months of preparation, Aguilar opened the Earth’s Cup Coffee and Cacao Farm in September 2022, one that has turned out to be a huge hit to the coffee and non-coffee lovers in Magallanes.
It took half a year for Aguilar to learn how to establish a business and create drinks, like this Sticky Cocoa Latte, for her cafe. (Marielle Aguilar)
As someone who left her stable career and took a leap of faith, here are some encouraging tips Aguilar has for those still in doubt.
Study. “Even if the idea is good, if you do not study, then it will not flourish,” Aguilar said. Prior to opening her cafe, Aguilar spent months studying how to build a business. She didn’t necessarily have to pay for her resources, as she explored online videos and modules from the Technical Education And Skills Development Authority (TESDA). It took her half a year of studying how to establish a business, how to create drinks, and how to market her products before she was confident enough to open her cafe to the public. “I believe everything can be learned,” she said.
Plan. There is a saying that if you do not plan, then you plan to fail. Aguilar is admittedly not a business-minded person, but she does her best to imitate what the Internet says a business-minded person should be, and that includes being a planner. For her, when she had moments of doubts, looking at the plan she made reminds her that her goal is feasible. That encourages her to keep pushing through to achieve her vision.
Cancel the noise. “There is a stigma that when you have an established career, you have these [things] or you have this kind of pay, there are people who would say, ‘Why would you still go into business when you’re already established?” said Aguilar. She said that these people would never understand your reasons, and it is important to learn how to tune out the people who would hold you back from pursuing your new goals. It is more important to listen to your guts, and to believe in yourself.
Do things in silence. Of course, not literal silence. According to Aguilar, this means not announcing your every move to the world, especially before executing any of your plans. Letting the world know of your plans may open you to people questioning the feasibility of it and may end up planting seeds of doubt in your mind.
“From January to September, I worked in silence. Once I opened the cafe, everyone was surprised,” she said. She emphasizes that she held back from announcing what she had been planning to do throughout the year. “Because what if it would fail (sic), but I already announced it,” she explained with a laugh.
Have a support group. Your people can be your closest friends and family members who you can confide in and ask for advice. When Aguilar decided to resign and open a cafe, she contacted the people closest to her to air out her thoughts. “I told them then said “I’m going to resign. Stop me from going back, okay?” she said. Aguilar was encouraged by her people, and when she had moments when business was low, she was reminded by them on why she pursued her new goal and she found herself back on track.
Define your happiness and success. “Some people would define success in having millions or having five cars, and that’s okay,” said Aguilar. “But ask yourself what is happiness and success to you. If being successful for you is seeing your parents, spending time with them, providing for their needs then go for it.”
“And if the business [you have in mind] aligns with that value and that definition, then go ahead. I believe that is the go signal that this will be really good for you,” she added.
Now that Aguilar has experienced creating a business that would benefit her family’s farm and other farms in her community, she believes that more of the youth should choose agriculture or agribusinesses.
“People will not live without vegetables or fruits, so it’s good to have this [kind of] business,” she said. “Plus, it’s relaxing to pick fruits and process it, unlike a corporate career.”
Aguilar has shown that leaving a stable career doesn’t always spell doom as long as you have the drive and ample preparation to pursue a new dream. Like her, who has created a cafe for her family’s farm to benefit from, hopefully you can have a look at your own farm and discover a grand idea on what your farm can lead to.
Photos courtesy of Marielle Aguilar