SO I GUESS YOU ARE HERE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT ME...
Who am I? Well, I'm still trying to figure that one out...
My name is Ali. I've always been a type A. I come from a very interesting past & family life (I'll be sure to spare you all the nitty gritty details) which I now know highly attributes to the way I live my life.
My name is Ali. I've always been a type A. I come from a very interesting past & family life (I'll be sure to spare you all the nitty gritty details) which I now know highly attributes to the way I live my life.
EARLY YEARS.
Ever since I was very young I learned to be independent. My only brother, 2 years younger, was born with a heart defect that lead to 3 open heart surgeries before he learned to walk, and a fourth at the age of 16. One of his surgeries caused a minor stroke which led to learning difficulties throughout his childhood and early adolescence. Giving extra care to my brother due to his medical issues, keeping jobs and caring for their parents was a constant struggle for my mother and father, so I learned early on to become individually motivated. I developed a passionate, competitive drive to try and succeed in everything I thought in my mind it will help with life's problems. So I focused on getting good grades, as well as developing my interests - art, music, and design, to name a few.
HOW ROUTE ONE WAS BORN.
Paying my way through college, I made sure to get the highest paid job on campus - working at the famous "underage" bar as a beer tub girl. Making $100-300 a night was enough to pay my rent, and I was satisfied. But the problem was, after one-too-many citations the bar was forced to shut down. Thirsty Turtle was out of commission.
Applying graphic design experience from the old "MySpace" days, together with a friend we created the idea of a "Turtle Survivor" jersey pretty much on a whim. I was always very good with social media promotions and decided to take on the roll of marketing the design as well.
Initially thinking we would maybe order 30 of the design, we ended up getting about 600 pre-order sales in just a few weeks. It was absolutely insane because nothing like that had ever happened to me before. But for some reason, as I was making business decision after business decision - it made sense. This is what I wanted to keep doing. So I stuck with it, and named my website "RouteOneApparel.com".
Applying graphic design experience from the old "MySpace" days, together with a friend we created the idea of a "Turtle Survivor" jersey pretty much on a whim. I was always very good with social media promotions and decided to take on the roll of marketing the design as well.
Initially thinking we would maybe order 30 of the design, we ended up getting about 600 pre-order sales in just a few weeks. It was absolutely insane because nothing like that had ever happened to me before. But for some reason, as I was making business decision after business decision - it made sense. This is what I wanted to keep doing. So I stuck with it, and named my website "RouteOneApparel.com".
WHAT WOULD YOU BE DOING IF YOU DIDN'T HAVE ROUTE ONE?
My mom always wanted me to get a job in Finance. That's probably what I would be doing, but I would have never been happy at a desk job.
SO WHAT'S THE TAKEAWAY HERE?
There were, and are, SO MANY times in my life where I just wanted to say "I'm done" and just walk away from something that didn't seem to work. But you keep moving. DO NOT GIVE UP! If you don't take no as an answer, soon you will start hearing more YES!
Other advice: Always be a good person to your core. Learn from others, and be a giving person. I've learned that the best way to grow yourself and your passions in life is to be an observer of the world.
And lastly... EMBRACE YOUR WEIRDNESS! You will not accomplish ANYTHING substantial in life if you just go with the status quo. Who says you need to work for a corporation out of college? Who says that you need to work a 9-5 job? Use your time wisely, understand what your skills are and DO SOMETHING. Something different.
Remember: The World Is Yours.
Other advice: Always be a good person to your core. Learn from others, and be a giving person. I've learned that the best way to grow yourself and your passions in life is to be an observer of the world.
And lastly... EMBRACE YOUR WEIRDNESS! You will not accomplish ANYTHING substantial in life if you just go with the status quo. Who says you need to work for a corporation out of college? Who says that you need to work a 9-5 job? Use your time wisely, understand what your skills are and DO SOMETHING. Something different.
Remember: The World Is Yours.