In 2004, my first year in the chocolate business after leaving the Four Seasons Hotel, I read a quote by William Feather that changed my life. The quote read as follows, “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” I was so moved by its simplistic message that I copied it onto a yellow sticky note and stuck in on my telephone so that whenever I received a sales rejection I would be inspired to pick up the phone and try again. What I didn’t realize at the time was that this quote would become the definition of my entrepreneurial spirit.
One of the most important things I have had to learn on my journey was the true definition of success. When I first started I would call success just picking up the phone and making the call. After a while I called success creating a product that people enjoyed. Later on in my career success was getting my product into a National retailer. From then success became hiring a team of Princesses to help me sell my chocolates. This year felt even more successful because I was able to fulfill my dream of going to Paris and train with one of the World’s most amazing Chocolatiers.
Every day I wake up feeling I have been blessed and enjoy what I do and what I have come to realize, that is the definition of success. I owe my happiness to all the people around me that have lifted my spirit and stood behind me holding up the quote that once was just a sticky note on my phone encouraging me to hang on. This month, I had the honor of being published in November 2010 Chatelaine magazine as Ms. Chatelaine and I want to say thank you to all the people who have joined me in what originally started as my dream but has become a part of all of us. Rose, Constantine, Lena, Les, Garnie, Lyndsay, Brooke, Alley, Laurie, Bernie, my boyfriend Flavio and my wonderful children Fynn and Piper, I couldn’t have done all this without you!
Hello Princesses of Piglets
I discovered your chocolate bars sometime last year while doing my shopping at Save On Foods. I was intrigued by the fanciful packaging and so I bought a couple of bars to try out.
And as the saying goes, “I was as happy as a pig in p…”.
My family consists of several chocolate devotees and I knew that should I be able to put together a gift package of your chocolate varieties it would be the hit of the Christmas season for 2009.
I contacted your email address and was lucky enough to become acquainted with your Piglet Princess Lyndsey who is a “swine” super star.
At the time of my quest your company was not in the online retail business but Miss L. was able to help me out anyway.
She informed me about all the great products you currently had and we decided on the “hat box” gift set which was to be sent to both friends and family.
She not only provided information and pricing but also went to the trouble to research the best way to have my choices delivered to addresses in Victoria. It was important to me to ensure that the gifts arrived as close as possible to Christmas and be given to a “live” person.
Miss L. checked into delivery systems and found one that would work for me and would ensure not only that the gifts arrived safely and in the time frame I desired but also arrived at a time of day when they would be certain to be delivered to a “live” person so that they did not end in some faraway kingdom for pickup which could prove very difficult, especially at this time of year.
The Hat Boxes were a hit. The families that received them raved on and on about the gift and felt that it was one of the best Christmas gifts they had been given for some time.
Words like fantastic, delicious, scrumptious, unique, innovative, charming, fun and just downright yummy were some of the adjectives used to describe their packages.
I was most pleased to see that you have now gone mainstream and offer products via your website to the general public and I wish you all the success that you deserve.
I will of course be ordering more Hat Boxes for friends and family and I have absolute faith in the product and delivery system that will ensure that my Christmas gifts are once again worthy of the many superlatives that they received last year.
I thank all of you for your collective work in making this possible for me to do.
I especially want to thank Miss Piglet Supremo Lyndsey for her past help and look forward to working with her again this year.
Keep up the great work
Sincerely
Patricia Carter
Ladner
Greetings Fellow Blogger, I am commenting from Bendigo, Australia. Thanks so much for the thoughtful content. It helped me a lot with my school internet research essay
Greeting back, I am glad my jibberish helps!
Cheers,
Shelley