Part II: Better Together!

This blog, on their anniversary, is to remember my brother and Sara because on September 13, 2014 they joined their lives together. Their story is pretty sweet. They met while dancing salsa together. They always joked about Sara only being Pedro's dance partner. The dancing sparkled much more interest in each other and before everyone knew it they were dating! A beautiful couple! However; Sara had to move to Florida to complete her Doctorate studies. While apart, they continued dating and being committed to each other. After a long year of doing long distance, my brother applied to thousands of jobs in Florida to follow the love of his life. He did not want to be away from Sara. The rest is history. They are from different countries, they have different religions and cultures, but the love that they have for each other makes them be special and magical.

Together they are better!

My mom and I went to celebrate their big day in Ankara. The whole day was just a blur to me, it just happened way too fast but the details remain in my mind. We all woke up really early to get our hair done. By we,  I mean my mom, Sara and her sister. With so many stylists, the end result was me looking a little Asian and my mom of having curly hair. But that was not a big deal as we were there only for my brother and sister in law. Sara had a beautiful braid and her make up looked flawless (see above). I could not be happier of being her sister in law. She is someone I look up to. She has dedicated so much time in her studies. She is powerful, beautiful, kind, loving and also sweet. To tell the truth, we have not hanged out as much as I would like, but the times when I get to be with both of them, I try to enjoy to the fullest.

I did not take as many pictures as I would have liked but it was okay because I enjoyed the night. I don't know what part was my favorite. Just being part of it all was a blessing. My dad was not able to attend, but he was supporting my brother. They talked to each other and I could feel the love and support that they had in a proud-fatherly kind of way. Some of the things I remember were the entrance of the Bride and Groom to the venue. Tons of little colored papered exploded to welcome them. My brother was getting to meet all his extended family and supporters. Everyone was just so happy. So many of their friends also came from the States to support them. I got to see the cultural differences first hand. Sara was getting gold coins pinned and her sister Dulce was right by her side showing her support.  My brother gave a little speech and Turkish and by the looks of it, everyone loved it. The whole event was just so emotional and so full of happiness. The music was different for my taste, but it did it's job--it  got everyone moving and off their seats. Everyone was engaged and having fun. I loved being part of their special moment and ask God to keep blessing them in every way! I could keep describing all that happened but I'll just show a few shots below from a magical night.

Getting ready for Pedro and Sara's big day--or having someone get me ready for their Big day!

At the hotel in Ankara with some of our friends from Oklahoma while the Bride and Groom get ready!

Fatherly support Always!! Sara's dad was so, so kind!

I wanted a picture with only Sara and her family, but this is all I found. This is our new family in Turkey! We were welcoming everyone. I want to shout out to Dulce and Sara's mom. They were so hospitable to me and my mom and brother the whole time!  We did not speak the same language but we understood each other and they really made us feel at home!

This picture has so much in one image. Sara's dad and sister in the back. Sara so happy and my brother smiling. The happiness was so vibrant and so strong!!

Speech by the newlyweds!

First dance on the floor!

Final pictures after party!

Looking back--walking forward!

I always plan. I like to think ahead and to have everything set up before starting. That is why starting my own business has proven a little more complicated than I thought. You always hear from people that failing is an inevitable aspect of any business. I am trying to understand that concept a little better. As I was jogging the other day, I thought about Nikola Tesla. All the inventions that he came up with but that he did not patent and were taken by Thomas Edison. Tesla was a thinker, Edison was a businessman. I think about what I want to do. I want to do both. I wish I was more like the people who start building and having new inventions all the time. Oftentimes, I think “That idea is not worth it, why bother.” The why bother is nothing more than a roadblock. It stops me from starting and from actually completing something.

Ever since I was little I remember having a plan. I would come up with these ingenious strategies to make money and I would share these plans with my sister. The plan always involved me telling her what to do, her believing it was a good idea, trying to do it, and then us obtaining a few quarters for the job. When she was 8, I had this awesome idea of cleaning windows for our neighbors and getting a quarter per window. Take into account our community was forty houses. On the first house my sister introduced herself while I watched from another house. She would say what our services were, then call me out. I would be embarrassed for her blowing my cover, but would come out and tell the people what it was we were selling at the time. As we grew older and went to middle school and high school the idea of selling stuff seemed less appealing to me as we were forced to sell door-to-door for orchestra fundraisers. I did not enjoy that because it was like a chore. In college all the door-to-door stopped. Now, a mere 3 years after graduating with an engineering degree, I’m looking at entrepreneurship closely. I decided to start small and decided to begin by making wooden letters. See below for a few designs:

I made a spreadsheet with all the calculations, even had a shop name: Silverpearl

I also gave my sister a sample to help me show our potential costumers how it would look.

I opened an Instagram account on the shop, made a logo (Rafael came up with a clever design) and opened an Etsy account for the new shop. However, I only had 2 people show interest in buying. One guy said he would love his name made but then never bought the product. Another friend asked me about the business 3 months later, but by that time I had forgotten about the shop. I told her I was not in business anymore.

If I could re-do something again. I would continue with my first business. I want to have a chance to say. What wooden letters would you like me to make for you? What is your color of preference? Leave a comment if you are interested.

What makes a business successful? You have to believe in your business. Costumers might not fly to you right away. I waited for a while and after not getting attention, I stopped paying attention to my own business. I am not proud of that. I am taking baby steps. I am trying to learn from the options that haven’t worked. I always play in my mind those words I told my friend. I am not making letters anymore. I don’t want to give up on myself. I want to keep trying. That is why I thought about starting again. I have realized that there is a lot of people that have tons of ideas but they don’t know where to start. They do not have a prototype or they don’t know if their idea has already been made or who their potential costumers are.  Of course I talked to Rafael first.

"Tell me what the company will be about" He said curiously as he cleaned the kitchen island. I looked at him and said:

 "It’s a company about ideas"

I did not have a business plan. Just an idea in my mind. “It is maybe like a consulting service for people who want to make their ideas come to life.”

He stopped cleaning, looked me in the eye and said: “Have I ever showed you the business plan for D2G?” I had not seen his plan so he showed me a power-point and it had a process flow of all the services his business would provide. It was much more extensive than what I had in mind and much better than I had imagined. But it was exactly what I was thinking but with a good draft in place.

Since then I have been working on a lot of things. I want to be a doer and I do realize that there is so much that I don’t yet know! I want to start this business. I need to sharpen our business plan. I have started with the logo, but not yet a webpage. I want to be better than last time. I don't want to make all  these accounts and then just think that the business is going to run itself. Some parts have already lined up for us:

A friend of Rafael already does some of the prototypes for a company here in Austin. We met about 3 weeks ago and are planning on partnering up. The side of the company that I would take would be in charge of marketing and distribution. I have talked to a lot of people about this. My parents included. They have experience and they are very smart. My dad’s advice: start with someone you can rely. That is you. Do not try to rely on a lawyer or a patent officer yet. Stay small first to build your reputation. Everything sounds great theoretically. I am still working on a plan. Working out the details. There is so much to do. I want to get our business plan beyond a powerpoint. I want to talk to people and make deals. I am not the type of person that does that, but I feel that is what it might take to get support from those small businesses. I realize that I am no expert. I am looking into going to business school. I am studying for the GRE. I know classes don’t make you an entrepreneur, but I want to fill up some gaps. I need to make connections. There is still a lot of work to do. The first step: take one idea through the whole process. I will talk about that process and about my first two ideas on the next blog.

Until then. Please pray for me. I will keep working hard and learning as I go! 

Part I: Lavender sparkles in Ankara

This one is a throwback. I am not sure if throwbacks exists in blogs. I do not care to find out if it is socially acceptable to do it. I am going to do this because this event was special. This event happened when I was in Turkey.  A fall wedding. My older brother's wedding, when I took two weeks off and traveled to Ankara to meet my new extended family. A time of stress because everything was changing at a very fast pace. New culture, new people, new food, new friendships, new traditions. All new for me and for them. I wrote about their Love day and took pictures of a lot of details. Then I showed it to my brother's now wife. She said:  "These pictures look very professional, it looks like you are doing blog" I laughed at her response. "It should be a blog!" She insisted. I first brushed her idea off, but in the back of my mind I was thinking about it. Maybe I could blog. Maybe I should write and tell people what I think. Maybe this could be a way to remember. All right. This blog, planted a seed in my mind. With all that said, this first entry is about the details before the wedding and my outlook on how things were. We start with a conversation with my boyfriend. We'll call him Rafael. He is across the world from me and I send him my take on the city of Ankara.

First email to Rafael—

My love.... How's it going?? I've been switched on time!! I don’t think I like this new schedule too much!! Most the time I'm ok but sometimes I'm just so sleepy!! We've been meeting a lot of pple and doing a lot of little errands with Sara and Pedro just before the wedding. We also went to a mall they have. Ankara is so pretty! Their arquitecture is so modern!! There is an entrance to the city—Very majestic! And all the buildings are separated so there's a lot of space followed by green space! Sara's sister Dülce is so sweet!! She reminds me of my sister a lot! She's just always so enthusiastic and helpful and fun to be around. Pedro, my older brother, is a little stressed out :( He does take some of his stress on me--or at least it feels that way. A lot of things I do bother him a lot. The pressure here (or altitude?) caused my nose to be a little congested and yesterday while we were at the mall I told them I'd go to the restroom and be back. My nose started to bleed so I stayed longer but not too long as I didn't want to worry them. Well, I came back, naturally, with a piece of tissue paper covering my nose. Pedro looked at me like I should have stopped myself from bleeding! “Haven't you ever had a nose bleed?” He said while rolling his eyes. “You should grab your nose at the top to stop it.” He added exasperated. He was just so bothered by me, my love. My mom says he's just be kind of nervous right before the wedding. I'm going to try and be more supportive. Anyways, besides that I've been good. Seriously Sara's family have been so nice! They are so kind. Sara’s mom had a feast for us when we came and everything is natural and yummy. We also had a breakfast for kings with fig jam, bread, cheese (their cheese is amazing!! Really soft and creamy) eggs, pepper sauce made from scratch, grilled sandwich and tea! Every meal is finished with hot tea or Turkish coffee. I’ll send you pictures next time.

Te amo,

-A

Rafael's email to me:

Good morning Amor! Sounds like you are having busy and full days there in Turkey, how is your nose now?  I think your mom is right, Pedro is about to get married in about 5 days and is his first time meeting Sara's entire family. I could see that being a little stressful, but most likely he will calm down the more things are settled and prepared for the big day!  I made a chart for what I plan to do while you're away. You'll be happy to know that selling the furniture is on that list, haha.  I tried to get this regimen started where I ran a little in the mornings, but I actually think I may need to go to the doctor because my big toe on each foot feel like there may be some injury to them. Weird right?  We'll see. Thank you for the farm basket I will pick it up in about an hour, I'm cooking tonight!  There is room in the fridge, haha.  Tonight I will go to my first neighborhood watch meeting.  

My response:

 I didn't know they had neighborhood watch meetings! I've seen the signs but didn't think neighbors actually met! Say hello to Katy and Milady as well, if you see them!! With joking out of the way, do tell me how the meetings go! Here's how the restrooms look: kind of a futuristic style, since most the tubes are hidden in the wall and shelves are also hanged on the wall:

Very glad to hear that you will exercise in the mornings!! I do enjoy doing that (: Very nice amor!! Also glad to hear those couches are going away soon. I love you mi amor. My soul came back to me when I heard your voice!! I was so glad you picked up the phone because I was 초금 (a little) worried, I hadn’t heard from you in a while. You are so sweet, my love. Being here makes me realize how much I love you. How much I enjoy all our times together!! I've been learning some words here and there. For sure know how to say some basic things!! Sometimes I just want to say things in Korean!! I want to be like juice 주새요 (give me)! Then I remember I study Korean weekly and not Turkish. Funny thing: 내 (yes) means what in Turkish! Sometimes I get a little frustrated because I just want to say so many things but need a translator to do it, either Dülce or Sara, so things take longer to be said. Which is ok, we have time. But it does bring memories about first moving to the US. Not all of those memories are good :/ It’s hard to make friends when you can't speak, when you can’t have an inside joke. I know this is temporary. So all is fine. Sara’s family is awesome; I really like Dülce; I want to be like her. She's so fashionable, enthusiastic and wakes up so early to help get more things for the wedding. Rafael, there are many details and things to decide. It's like a training class for me :)  jajjaajaja! Here are a few things I have learned so far: They've got to choose four songs--for the entrance, first dance, throwing the bouquet, and one more. Dülce picked the bouquet. 

See below: 

Sara got her dress in Florida, it has a tail and a beautiful floral design: 

This morning we put a billion stickers on some gifts to say thanks--teşekkür Ederiz!! And the inside has dried lavender, which smells delicious!

The wedding rings will be picked up today. They choose a photographer to take their pictures before the ceremony.  I thought was odd because I thought the groom could not see the bride until the ceremony! I know they are not your traditional catholic couple. Well, as you know Sara is not catholic. I like to see how they make things work out for them! And actually I guess it makes sense to have the photo-shoot before the party!!

Pedro has already seen the dress!! I'd say definitely not traditional!

I hope you liked the update! Sometimes I feel I could be a photographer on the side because I am a very visual person! So there it goes! I'm being a reporter from Turkey--Today we've been helping with wedding details!! Only a couple of days until the wedding! I will share some videos and pictures also!! I’m so excited for their big day and so happy to be here!

Take care!

Love you lots.

Note: Part II will have the actual wedding day!! Coming up August 15, 2015!

Jay-Oh-Bee

I was going to start a blog today, but then I did not want to publish it because the blogger account I made was linked to my name so it would not have been anonymous--I should have thought of that. I would have had to think about what was appropriate to put out. Alright. All fixed. Still my first blog. Just editing before publishing out. I had to make a new account. This is my first blog. About life and what I'm doing. Where I think I want to go. Nothing too specific so far. Would like to hear any thoughts. 

I am at a point in my life where I want to change. I am trying to think big here. I am trying to think outside the box and think of things that no one has thought about before. Which might be hard in a world with more than seven billion people. But just as unique as we all are in how we look, I think it is possible to do what I am trying to do.

I want to think about what to do with my life. I want to have a career. I am tired of the eight to five jay-oh-bee.  I am tired of sitting in a desk for so many hours only looking at numbers. Believe me! I like numbers. But not that much. Not as much as wanting to risk my health to look at them! I have started to have back pains. I have been to the chiropractor and I am only twenty-three. Do I want that at my age? Definitely not! I am tired of fake Korean politeness. I do not see a future in this Company for myself. I don't see my future self happy managing a group of people that are not satisfied about what they are doing. This is why I find myself today thinking of doing something different with my life.

 What is my ideal Job? I don't know if there is a name for what I want to do. So I will start with a list of what my ideal job would have.

 1) I want a job where in the summers I get to ride my bike places. I want to be able to move and pedal and feel the sun in my skin! I want to be able to stop at a cafe for a Dirty-Chai. 

2) I want flexible hours. I want to be able to start working at 6 am if I decide to wake up early that day. Other days I would like to start working at 9. 

3) I want to meet people. I want to be more social. I want to not be stuck at my computer all the time. I want to have actual conversations with people. I want to share ideas with them. I want to have co-workers that I call friends. I want to inspire others.

4) I want to travel: I want to go to India. I want to go to China, I want to go to Brazil. 

5) I want to help people. I am the kind of person that comprehends other people. I reach out and try to step in their shoes to see their version of the story. It is very difficult for me to choose sides when I see two people arguing. I see both sides. I see where they are coming from.

6) Sometimes I want to sing. Sometimes I want to go to the park and Sing my soul out. Sing to the Lord. I want to teach others about God. I want to live scripture. I am tired of going to mass and not living scripture to its fullest. 

7) I want to design things. I want to take people's ideas and make them a reality. I want to think with them, I want to dream with them. I want to learn from them.

8) I want to plan less and do more. 

9) I want to spend more time with my family. 

That's all I want.

So let me try to put all my wants in one job!

We could start by owning my own business. Being the owner of the company that we are going to start.

The company is an Idea company. What does this mean? I will start writing down ideas (7). Any ideas on specific parts to make. I would like to make things for people. To make their lives easier (5).

 I would like to use my imagination to come up with things. Not always complicated things. It could start with simple things that anyone needs. Like a hand stretcher. I always have trouble stretching my hand and ask my boyfriend for help. A rubber band product (that does not stick to your skin) could be helpful to help people stretch their hands.

 I would like to use CAD to design those things we are coming up with. I say we because I know that some days I might not know what to design. That's were other people will come in. Someone in the world is having a problem doing something. 

We might not be able to speak directly...but I'll bike to a cafe (1), order a Dirty-chai and hear them out through skype. Everyone is accepted! People from everywhere in the world. All ages, genders and races (3)! As long as they are passionate about their ideas!! And for the people that live nearby, we could meet face-to-face. But only in small groups. We'll start small first. Get the hang of things...then grow into bigger groups.

 We will need someone to recruit thinkers. We will need a marketing person to show Austin who we are. We'll make it local first. We need passionate people. I will hear you out. Sometimes we will help, sometimes we won't help. The idea has to be worth it. Scratch that. Sometimes we'll try your idea even if I don't think it's the best (8). Because I want to be less judgmental and let's face it: Some other people might think it is a great idea. 

Sometimes I'll work until late hours. Flexible time but putting enough hours to accomplish our goals and to make those ideas into real life. (2)

Same for those who work with us. You'll have a flexible schedule. You'll have a volunteer day to help the organization of your choice. My choice will be related to my faith. I am tired of people not talking about God. (6) You can voice out and share who you want to help!

Some days, we'll take a break. Some days we'll take a free day and go to the park and sing (6).  Some days I'll take off for a week or two to visit my family (9). Sometimes I'll work from Oklahoma. Sometimes I'll work from home. But I'll always come back to Austin to be with my love.

We will sell those products/ideas we come up with and have collected (we need a selling group, but not so big...because our ideas are so great that the products sell themselves). A percentage of the profit will go back to you for sharing the idea [however, we will own that idea...patent it! (still not sure about this)] 

We will also have a costumer department. Because we will like to hear from you. We would like your feedback on how to do better.

So what is your ideal job and dreams and aspirations? What are you hoping for? I am thinking of taking baby steps. Will keep yall updated!