How to Keep Your Spark Alive
The organic baby and toddler food company Happy Family is now a beloved and hugely successful brand, but keeping the idea alive for founder Shazi Visram wasn’t easy. In this keynote at last year’s Net Impact Conference, Shazi shared just how hard it was to get there. She also shared the ingredients for keeping an idea alive.
“When you have this idea,” Shazi told the audience, “you think, wow, is this real? Is it possible that nobody has done this yet? Is it possible that I'm the first? And you start doing your research, and your idea starts turning into this energy, this creative force in you. And it becomes this spark, this ember. And I think what the key is in the beginning stages, is to keep that spark alive.”
Shazi says that "a million people are going to tell you you can't do what you want to do." You have to create an armor against the word no, she says, so you can keep the spark alive until you get a yes. Then the spark will blaze.
Through her story, she shared four ingredients to keep the spark going.
1. Know your role models. Shazi's parents were her role models when she was founding her company. They grew up with dirt floors and knew if they brought her to America, she could have a bigger dream.
2. Have a purpose. She wanted to start a company that would do something good for the world in every way.
3. Have a strong mission. “Make it very clear,” she encouraged the audience. “Make sure everybody lives it and breathes it. Having a strong mission is what keeps people at your side when times get tough.”
4. Feed your soul with what you do. Her business has been about creating abundance and giving back since day one, she says, not just making a profit. (In the case of Happy Family, they give to Project Peanut Butter.)
Those are her tips, but her stories are even better. Watch the video and see for yourself! And see what's on tap for this year's conference, too.
