A Journey To The Mountains Brought Out The Entrepreneur In Me

Sometimes, during the journey of your life, you meet something or someone, who then becomes a part of your destiny. So much so that it defines the rest of your journey. I guess it was exactly about a year ago that I met Mandalas, which are deeply-spiritual art forms and I knew that they will play a much larger role in my life.

And yet again, the above statement also somewhat contradicts my nature, for I’m the last person who’d settle at something. I’ve been an explorer and thanks to awesome support and understanding from my parents, despite coming from humble origins of a small town in UP, they always pushed me to keep discovering.

Always Independent

I always had a strong independent streak which helped me to constantly challenge my comfort zones. As soon as I finished my school, I decided to move out of my home and learn to live independently, thus moving to Delhi to complete my graduation. I also realised the importance of being financially independent and started dealing with stocks. While it did help me to make my first dollars, I also decided to pursue a full-time job immediately after completing my graduation. And since I loved interacting with people, I decided to join the training department of a large company.

But then, I guess I founded it too disciplined to hold my free nature and I decided to call it quits within the first 8 months. I then moved to my other love - writing - to pursue my career. For the next few months, I slowly built my writing repertoire and worked for some large private, as well as public sector organisations, working on compiling their corporate communication, training manuals and brochures.

And it was during these days that I also started taking short travel breaks. While it started with going out to common tourist places, my inner explorer kept pushing me to go out to little-known places, as for me, it’s the journey that counts, not the destination!

How The Mountains Changed Me

After hopping around to various parts of India, I found my true calling at the Himalayas and I started visiting little-known settlements within the Himalayan region, often staying for days altogether, spending time with the locals and understanding what drives them. It was as if, I was trying to go deeper inside myself - to find what makes me, what inspires me. This took me to Dharamshala and it was here that my Mandalas met me!

 
Mandala designs on ideapads by Appy Designs
 

As I started studying them, I started feeling a certain level of peace within me. I started closely reading the patterns, the science behind these art forms and I started working on my own Mandalas. Every time I wished to make them, I pondered within me for the intuition, and then this intuition guided me to work on multiple geometric patterns and put these forms together. It was after a long time that I had found a right medium to express and magnify my inner inspirations.

And then, as the dots usually connect, I shared this art with some of my friends and they loved the work.

The Birth Of An Entrepreneur

I still remember that evening when I was travelling in a bus, going to my hometown from Delhi when a thought struck me, “If these Mandalas can inspire me so much, why can’t they become my medium, a way to spread this inspiration and happiness to all those around me as well?” I immediately reached out to one of my friends, who’s also a business mentor, and shared the idea with him. He too literally jumped at the possibilities.

And so was born Appy Designs. Inspired by a thought to create meaningful and attractive art forms on some cool merchandise, which can then ideally become a conduit for me to spread the positive powers of these Mandala designs to as many people as possible.

Laptop skins by Appy Designs
 

But then, I wish the execution was as easy as the ideation! It took us almost 5 months to finally find the right quality of merchandise, build the required portfolio of designs, identify and negotiate with required vendors, inspect and approve the required quality of materials and finally have the product ready to market. We also took some time to get our site ready - so that it can carry forward a right brand persona.

Finally, Appy Designs was launched in November 2017 and since then, we have been blessed with lots of positive product reviews and increase in the product range. Other than selling the products online, we also started exploring offline options such as Flea Markets, corporate pop-up stores and others.

This journey to inspire and spread Appiness – has just begun!

And I guess, the strongest thing I’ve learnt so far is to just keep walking. When you’re bold enough to challenge your own current situations and endeavour to move towards a higher purpose, I guess situations automatically make way for you. All you need is trust in that magic!

Be Appy!

This personal narrative is written by Apeksha Vaish, Founder of Appy Designs. Her story is a part of our ‘Women Entrepreneurs’ series. Apeksha was our guest moderator for the Art & Craft community wherein she helped answer the questions by community members, shared her experiences and her inspiring journey. Come, be a part of the SHEROES community and connect with like-minded women.