Today I wanted to share my story of how I came to start the Citrine Group. Ever since I was very young I wanted my own business. In primary school I used to draw Christmas cards and sell them to classmates. After many years in corporate Australia as a Product Manager, at the end of a gruelling contract I had choices to make.
Another corporate gig or my dream…
Fear had always crippled me from achieving my passion. I have two children to support and the fear of failing and taking them with me was overwhelming but the niggle in my stomach to pursue my dream wouldn’t leave.
I really felt I had something to offer businesses but being in corporate for so long I struggled to identify what that was. I’m really good at my job but I didn’t know how to translate that into my own business that the wider community would want.
Ultimately, I really believed it was now or never and I jumped into self-employment.
For the first year of my business I consulted with businesses helping with things like operations and setting up new businesses, but it wasn’t my passion. I was on the way, but it wasn’t quite right.
My lightbulb moment came when I became aware some immigration visa applicants needed business plans.
In my early twenties I travelled for 2 years like a lot of Australians do and the part that changed my life forever was backpacking through Africa from South Africa up to Kenya. We caught trains and busses with the locals and hitched rides in the back of utes.
I was the only white person to visit a village in the mountains known as the “upcountry” between Mombasa and Nairobi. I saw firsthand how brutal life can be and understood how lucky I am and how different the world is from Australia. In my mind, the world was just a mildly different version of home. How wrong I was…
What I learned was that it was imperative people had the security of groups. If you were on your own, you could die from starving to death if you were sick and you would be very exposed to violence which was rampant.
There was no welfare system or medical system. There seemed to be no justice system and life was only valuable if a person had money. If you were African with no money, you had no value and life wasn’t really valued because death was so common.
Every mother I spoke to had lost at least one child. I saw families in this village distraught because their crops had failed whilst their neighbours had flourished for no apparent reason. How would they eat?
I met kids who were orphaned because their parents had died of Aids. I saw the corruption of an election where opposing parties would cause conflict between groups so that there would be bloodshed and death to ensure their victory. I saw extensive corruption and bribery with the police force. So many times, the police would see a “mzungu” (white person) and told me I had to pay them money for no apparent reason. My African friends had been arrested, they told me, for no apparent reason and up to 20 people would be locked in a cell the size of a broom closet for days with no charge.
How lucky I am to be Australian.
So, when I heard about immigration visas needing business plans I realised I had something to offer. I know firsthand how hard it is to go to a country that is COMPLETELY different. Then there’s the issue of not speaking the language and being apart from family and friends. The systems are different, the streets are different, the culture is different. Nothing is familiar. Everything is strange and overwhelming.
To move to another country is gutsy and tough. I came home to Melbourne like I always do because I don’t have the guts to live anywhere else (plus it’s the most liveable city on earth).
What I learned is that I can do what I love to do, write business plans and help people settle into Australia and contribute.
When I have purpose in my work, helping other people, I feel passionate. I also see a lot of people, like me, in Australia, trying to make a life for themselves creating their own business and security for the future but now knowing where to start or how to determine if they have a viable business idea.
I know how to do that! I’m good at it. I’ve helped corporate Australia make plenty of money over the years. It’s the same process just on a smaller scale.
I changed the angle of my business and it has been an amazing transformation and I’m so lucky.
I do what I love to do, I’m good at it and I’m helping. On top of that I landed a job teaching business at Holmesglen Institute. The joy just keeps on going…