When everyone around you has an opinion about your life, choosing your own path takes real courage. I learned this the hard way when I decided to trade my economics degree for a career in coffee making.
Why I Chose Coffee Over a Corporate Career
Back in 2016, I walked across the stage at the University of Management and Economics with my bachelor’s degree in hand. My classmates were celebrating and discussing job interviews at prominent banks like ABA and ACLEDA. But I had a different dream.
Since my first year at university, I’d been quietly dreaming about opening a small coffee shop. Four years of studying economics didn’t change that feeling in my gut. If anything, it made it stronger.
When People Question Your Choices
After graduation, I made a decision that surprised everyone. Instead of sending out job applications, I enrolled at COFICO, a vocational training school, to study coffee brewing. For two whole years.
You should have seen my classmates’ faces.
“Why would you waste your economics degree on making coffee?” they asked. “Banks are hiring right now. This doesn’t make sense.”
I just smiled and said, “I love this choice.”
Looking back, that moment taught me something important: you don’t owe anyone an explanation for your dreams. Your life is yours to live, not theirs.
My First Coffee Shop: Dream to Reality to Failure
By mid-2021, I did it. I opened my first small coffee shop. Everything I’d been working toward for five years was finally real.
Then 2023 hit, and the business failed.
I’m not going to lie—it was crushing. I felt embarrassed every time I ran into friends. The financial loss hurt, but the shame hurt more. I kept replaying every mistake in my head, wondering what people were saying behind my back.
But here’s what failure taught me: you can either let it destroy you, or you can let it teach you.
Learning from Mistakes: The Comeback
Instead of giving up, I decided to get smarter. I broke down everything that went wrong with my first shop. What didn’t work? Why didn’t it work? What could I do differently?
I enrolled in a short entrepreneurship course at CamEd Business School. Not because I had to, but because I wanted to understand business better. I needed to know not just how to make great coffee, but how to run a successful coffee shop.
That investment in myself changed everything.
The Press Day Coffee: Second Time’s the Charm
In mid-2023, I opened my doors again. This time, I called it The Press Day Coffee.
The difference? I wasn’t the same person who failed two years earlier. I had knowledge. I had experience. I had learned from my mistakes.
Since then, business has been running smoothly. Every morning when I unlock the door, I remember why I started this journey. Not for the approval of my economics professors. Not to impress my former classmates. But because this is what makes me happy.
What Living for Yourself Really Means
Here’s what I’ve learned about building a life on your own terms:
- Your goals should come from your heart, not from other people’s mouths. When I said I wanted to make coffee instead of working at a bank, people thought I was crazy. But their version of success wasn’t mine.
- Every choice you make is yours to own. When my first shop failed, I couldn’t blame anyone else. That was hard to accept, but it was also freeing. My mistakes became my lessons, not someone else’s “I told you so” moment.
- Your energy is limited—spend it wisely. I wasted so much mental energy worrying about what people thought of me. That energy could have been used to make my business better, to learn faster, to grow stronger.
- Growth happens when you focus on yourself, not on others. I stopped comparing my journey to my classmates’ careers. Their path was theirs. Mine was mine. Once I accepted that, everything became clearer.
Final Thoughts: Your Life Is Your Story
If you’re reading this and feeling stuck between what you want and what others expect from you, I get it. The pressure is real. The judgment is real. The fear of failure is very real.
But so is the regret of never trying.
I could be working at a bank right now, wearing a suit, making my parents’ friends nod approvingly. Instead, I’m making coffee, building something with my own hands, and learning every single day.
Some people still don’t understand my choice. That’s okay. This life is mine to live, not theirs to approve.
What’s your coffee shop? What’s that thing you keep dreaming about but are too afraid to try? Maybe it’s time to stop living for everyone else and start living for yourself.
After all, it’s your story to write.
