I am a lawyer. As a student, I was outstanding, so many thought I will become a judge, or a senator, or a justice of the Supreme Court. When I went into law practice, I did very well (still does with the very few cases I have retained). My motto was to win. I hated losing, and for the most part, I won. It was an exception for me to lose a case.
But I was not happy.
As a child, I had wanted to go into business. But my mother, who was ironically Chinese, did not like to go into business. She told me that if I wanted to go into business, that I should just do it when I became of age. I wanted to go into business a long time ago, but I had no experience and no capital. And my field was quite different. Of course you need law for business, but for an unexperienced lawyer to go into business, it seemed like a sure recipe for failure. And remember, I did not want to fail.
After more than 20 years of litigation, my luck changed. I had become annulled from my first husband in the interim (that is for another post), and in 2012, I remarried. I got married to a man who grew up in business. Particularly, his field was baking, but after we got married, he experimented with a lot of things. I told him one day: "You are always experimenting. Give me something I can sell."
That was the beginning, because shortly after that, he gave me a piece of soap. I did not want to use it at first because I did not know what it was like, but he insisted. So I did. And I loved it! It was the first organic, all-natural soap that I have ever used because quite frankly, I could not afford organic products. They are expensive. But since then, not only was I using them, I was selling them as well.
And so here I am today. I am still a lawyer, by God's grace, but now I am also CEO of our manufacturing company, Maia Gianna Organic Mfg. We have also opened an all-natural salon which promotes all-natural hair and body care, consistent with the principles of Maia Gianna. And guess what? While I am happy to win cases, I am happier with every day that our business grows.
In the end, I can only say that life is not counted by how many victories you make. It is counted by how much of your dreams you have pursued and realized. I realized that no matter how much you have achieved in life, you will never be truly happy unless you follow your dreams.
