"Just try!"

These apple beauties are the nicest ones from the orchard this year.

At a lunch break during the last wedding fair I worked at, I conversed with a friendly caterer. Her dream is to have a decorating business of her own, but she is biding her time until her kids are older.  

"I don't understand why people don't follow their dreams," she said, clearly confident of her direction in life.  I pondered that, as someone who is living my dream, knowing that I had dreamed of a card business for a long time before it happened.  I had a revelation.

"Yes, it's true that you have to make efforts to make things happen instead of just daydreaming about them," I mused. "But I think one of the key elements is that you also need the right people around you."  At least, that is what happened in my case.

I had many supportive friends throughout the years who encouraged my business plans, and I consider them an important part of moving the process forward inside of me. I scoped out stores, I made some example cards, thought of a business name, and even went to a business advisor. But the truth is, I am not a business person, although I am continually learning a great deal! Yet it seemed that there was an insurmountable wall between me and making things happen.

It was not until a tall farmer-cum-theologian with an economics degree took my life and my heart by storm, that I found not only a friend and the love of a lifetime, but also my biggest support, my most enthusiastic fan, a business strategist who believes in me and my gift, and a sparring-companion who gladly sees opportunities.

"Just try," he says easily, as I come up with ideas that I feel unconfident about. We all need the eternal optimist to give us space and wings when we are uncertain about how our dreams will take off.

He helped me through the hurdles of learning to digitalize my drawings, encouraged my first test set of cards, helped me find print houses, encouraged the getting of proper artistic tools, and helped me write a working business plan. I could not have come to this point without his staunch support and his skills in strategy and economics.

Along the way, this dear man became my husband.  I became a farmer's wife, which has lent a whole new dimension to my life that surprises me.  If you ever wonder why my instagram has fields, flowers and apple trees once in a while, now you know! We are now a team, not only in business, but in life as well.

NorsuArt officially came into being in December of 2016 with the help of a start-up grant from the government. It has enabled me to work on new designs, productize, market, and find retailers. I have been given the opportunity to join a new chapter in the school of life; call it Entrepreneur 1.0, if you like. 

I hope that as the years progress, NorsuArt and my artistic sense will continually develop and expand, even as life and its spheres do also. But even at this stage, I can be grateful for all that has happened, and all that is yet to be.  I can test different processes, try new products, learn my limits and even make a few (okay, many) necessary mistakes. One of the key reasons I can do this, is that I have the logical and kind support of a man who says without qualm, "Just try."

I hope you will stay tuned for the continuing journey of NorsuArt. And I hope you will also "just try" when you wonder if you have the courage to spread your creative wings.