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Name: Pratima Aravabhoomi
Business: Craft Street Design Co.
Industry: Consumer Goods
Location: Cupertino, California, U.S.
Reason for starting: I was stuck in a bad arranged marriage. The problems with my husband had become increasingly unmanageable. There was this one day, all I remember is walking into the kitchen, with a bottle of bleach in my hand and wanting to end my life. Things had gotten to be too much for me. As I stood there contemplating suicide, I happened to glance at my kitchen wall and see the words “the darkest hour is before dawn.” At that moment, I thought: “This really is my darkest hour. But this ends here. I will make my own dawn.” I quit my marriage. I changed my life.
I truly believe If not for those five words on my kitchen wall, I might have ended my life. And because of how incredibly helpful this quote was for me in my darkest times, I started to collect inspirational quotes. I started to use them as reminders, as focus points, as inspiration to achieve my dreams on a daily basis.
Related: Read about another female entrepreneur here.
How do you define success? Success is being all that you can be.
Biggest Success: Since deciding to start over, I’ve achieved many of my goals (lost 50 lbs, got a masters in design, consulted for Apple, and have a wonderful family). Inspirational words have made a huge difference in my life. Ever since, I’ve been intrigued by the way such simple words could have such a huge impact on my life. So I began researching and found many scientific studies that supported my theory that just surrounding yourself with positive words has an enormously positive effect on you. That’s why I started Craft Street Design Co. and started on a mission to empower others to accomplish their goals and be happy. Today, we conduct experiments to figure out which words have the biggest inspirational effect in order to use only the best words to create our beautiful works of art. We use the science behind words to produce art that inspires.
Related: Getting Started: The Origins of Female Inspiration
What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it? My top challenge is maintaining consistency. Consistency in producing content, marketing activity, pitching to the press etc. I use daily tracking and form new habits to address this problem.
Who is your most important role model? Leonardo Da Vinci. He chased every curiosity till the end. He combined art and science to understand his interests instead of categorizing subjects.
[box_light]Website http://craftstreetdesignco.com/
Twitter https://twitter.com/craftstrtdesign
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/craftstrtdesign[/box_light]
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Edited by The Story Exchange