I will never forget my first job opportunity as a new entrepreneur. A combination of excitement and terror, a feeling that I can only compare to that “chuckle” noise the roller coaster makes, as it pulls up to that point just before the first fall. During that “chuckle” the seat shakes, the heart is pounding – and the excitement is at its’ peak.
And then – well… then it starts, screaming out of joy and fear, a sense of being crazy on one hand, while on the other absolute freedom!
From the very first moment I decided to be an independent business owner I am experiencing the “roller coaster effect” to this very day.
And back to where it all began – well, I am a textile designer, and at that point an export marketing manager for a textile mill, a combination that will be the foundation to all my future business ideas and actions.
A friend and colleague from Turkey contacted me and said:”Michael, I just purchased 15 looms… But I don’t know what to do with them…”. This sentence was the opening shot for my entrepreneurship, as I immediately had an idea and replied “Don’t worry – lets meet and see how I can help you” – I was on a plane to Istanbul within a couple of days.
This meeting developed into 10 interior fabric collections woven on these looms, exhibited 6 months later at an international trade show – my friends’ first.
Turkey became my first market where I employed an agent, was interviewed for a local interior magazine, and had a number of mills as clients all weaving designs tailor made for them, and became an influential figure at the Turkish textile design scene.
Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle…
