Written by: Niharika Chapagain - 25006, Grade IX
Posted on: 02 December, 2021
Growing up in a middle class family, Nadia Anderson was familiar with the world and its cruelty. She was a sweet, simple girl and her family consisted of her father, Bill Anderson, her grandfather Alec, her mother Janet, her brother Neil, and her sister Ava. Her father worked as a doctor in the city however with his salary they barely could handle the financial condition of the house. So, her grandfather also used to work in his own clinic. He was a herbalist and many people used to come to the clinic for herbal medicines. Nadia grew up seeing her grandfather work hard and make medicines which had severely inspired her to do something similar in the future. One day, she had asked her grandfather about what he always wanted because till then, he had always worked for their family. Alec, her grandfather, had replied smiling, “I want my princess Nadia to be famous and people must appreciate your work. You must do what you like and accomplish success with patience, knowledge and hard-work. Promise that you’ll make this dream come true.”
Nadia still has this strong memory of her promising her grandfather about making his dream come true. She wanted to follow his path and make his herbal medicines famous, since that was what she always liked to do. Since she was very young at that time, that promise that she had made with her grandfather, became her ultimate goal and her reason to live. She wanted to be a businessperson, and promote her grandfather’s medicines. So, to fulfill her dream, she went to a college in the city to study MBA, and stayed in the college dorm. However, when she returned home after completing her studies, everything changed. Her father couldn’t recognize her, his own daughter, Nadia! And then, suddenly he fainted. Everyone took him to the hospital and the doctor revealed the fact that their father had Alzhimer’s and it was already stage 5. This explained why in the past their father used to forget to do many things. Bill, their father, had the responsibility of taking care of the whole house but since his health condition was not stable, the doctor had advised him not to work.
This situation resulted in the three siblings taking care of the financial responsibilities of the whole house. However, fate had different plans. Their grandfather passed away in such a critical situation, and their ungrateful sister Ava, eloped with her boyfriend despite knowing the situation of the house. She had abandoned her responsibilities and chosen herself instead of her family. Seeing her selfishness, Janet, the sibling’s mother, disowned Ava, and told everyone to forget about her. With everything going on, the treatment of her father, the funeral of her grandfather, the situation going on with her sister, and no source of income in the house, her dream and the new journey she wanted to start, were shattered into pieces. But when one day, Neil, her elder brother, graduated from the university, they got to know that the project he had done in the university, was loved by the professors and they had guaranteed him a job, and an apartment for their family to live in the UK. In some months, Nadia and her family left their home, but the promise she had made to her grandfather was eating her up from inside since she was not able to fulfill it. She had to leave her home, but the promise and her and her grandfather’s memories were still alive. So, she promised to herself, to never let her late grandfather down. After they reached their apartment, she had mentioned about starting a business start-up in front of her parents and her brother thinking they would support her. But who knew, their reply would be “Business is not meant for you.” Hearing that, Nadia had felt that her family didn't care about her choices, but, she thought, could she really blame her family for saying that?
Looking at their current situation going on with their family, their decision was understandable since her brother was working hard day by day to help their family financially and in that condition, opening a business start-up would be impossible for them with no capital to spend. She understood her family’s decision and worked in a company to save some money to start her business. When she had some amount of money she decided to quit her work and open her own company but when her parents heard about that, they forced her into a marriage thinking she would forget about her dream after settling down. She didn’t want to marry until she became successful and fulfilled her dream, so she told her family that she would only step into that house after she achieves something in her life. Then, she met her two friends from university, and told them about starting her business but they disagreed since she only had some amount of money which was not enough to start a business. Nadia was not broken but instead accepted the challenge and used her creativity and knowledge and organized a program using the money she had saved. She promoted the program through radio, posters and invited some investors personally.
In the program, she served herbal tea, which her grandfather used to make using some herbs and everyone liked the tea and at the end of the day, she even got an investor but since Nadia didn’t have experience, or any contacts with other companies, there was less chance of having profit. So, the investor agreed to invest in her company on the condition that if the profit amount is less than the estimated amount, the company would be his and she would have to return the amount invested with interest to the investor. After reaching up to this point, Nadia couldn’t back off. She had no choice but to accept the deal. When she got the investor, her two university friends joined her and soon they came up with a company name, and a logo design for her company. The company’s name was ‘Alec Herbs Inc.’ She had named it after her grandfather Alec since it was his dream that she was fulfilling. The company was soon opened and it became quite famous after some months. However an investor of her company deceived her and her company faced so much loss that she completely went bankrupt. She had no one to seek favor with and the investor who had invested in her company before, refused to support her and asked for his money with interest. She was lost but still hadn’t given up.
Since she was quite famous in the town, the news spread very quickly throughout the town and the media had started questioning her about the incident. Deciding to tell the truth, she conducted a conference with the media, and told the truth about the investor deceiving her. When she was about to leave, finishing the conference, to think of some solution, she was met with her family who had tears in their eyes that were filled with guilt. They apologized for not understanding her choices, and her dreams, and helped her with the financial problems of her company realizing that to her, her dream was way more important than her life. Soon, everything fell into place, and Nadia continued to do her business making sure not to repeat the same mistake again. She used her knowledge and gave her whole time towards her business. She was pleased knowing that now her family was there to support her in every step of her life, and Nadia couldn’t be more happier than ever since she had fulfilled her promise and she wished her grandfather was looking at her from somewhere far away, feeling happy and proud of her granddaughter.
“ Never dream about success, but work for it with patience, perseverance, understanding and diligence.”
- Nadia Anderson
