How your passion became your business

  

I would say for me it was the other way around. When I was young, I wanted to be a lawyer. I have wanted to know WHY for most things in my life and was called argumentative. Turns out I actually just have a yearning for knowledge.

 

Unfortunately in high school I found it far more important to be popular than be a lawyer, or even get into university… oops. And so I studied a quick 6 month travel and tourism course and hey presto, my 5 year tourism career began.

 

I adored working with people. The clients loved me and my co-workers and I all got on like a house on fire. It was amazing. But I became a very young mom unexpectedly and I could no longer work the long hours required of me with the commute to Sandton daily. And so I left, for a temp assignment.

 

It was at my fathers company, and my mom worked for him. That was it. He had some temp staff in and out but they were the business. It has been around for 5 years when I joined. I understood none of what it did, and  had no clue about the clients. It wasn’t travel, that was for sure. It was boring, and very grown up. So many rules. Added to that, my parents and I had never got along. So it was NOT my dream job and sure was not conducive to a happy work experience for me. But it had been agreed that it was only for 6 months, and so I had this time to find another job, and get the hell out of dodge!

 

So six months came. I had only just started learning what the company did, and we had just won a really nice tender. We needed to recruit, we needed to train and we needed to get the work done. And so began a rollercoaster 20 year journey.

 

I fell in love with what I did. I fell in love with being able to grow people. Invest in them and watch them flourish. Or, tough as it was, I watched people who just weren’t the right fit, get bitter, get angry, and just not be able to leave us quickly enough. Tough lesson. Very very personal for me. But passion is messy. Its fiery. Its tears, and laughter, and fighting, and making up. VCA is my passion. It has consumed me and become my passion. My dad left the business 18 years ago and my mom nearly 4. I have paid money, bled, fought, and sacrificed for this company. And in return its fed me, clothed me, seen two children through school, and its still standing.

 

I am very proud of my journey, and when I actually stop and think about it, I am very proud of me. my passion is my business, and my business is passion.