Confidence is the key: Riya Bambhaniya
My yearning to make it big in life marked the beginning of my MBBS prep. Well, my marks weren’t as determined as my aspirations and I couldn’t get into a college of my choice. It was too late to give entrances in any other field, I had no option but to take a gap year against my will.
From having it all planned to not knowing my next move, life changed overnight. Nothing was in accordance to what I had envisioned, and that’s when my Dad’s boss advised me to join an interior designing course. My creative mind was on-board instantly.
My choices at that point were looked down upon, I was tagged as the label of ‘uncertainty’. However, I decided to take the plunge. After graduating I started out as an intern and caved my way into one of Mumbai’s biggest interior designing firms ‘Talathi Panthaki’. I got a lot of exposure into how the industry operates and worked with a lot of clients.
8 years into this field I was well settled, earning a decent pay, my clients were extremely happy, the people that were doubting my career choices in the very start were commending my success now; life was going great, but there was a dent in me.
I didn’t want to limit myself to being a mere employee in a top notch firm, my goals were beyond that. And that’s when I decided to bid an Adieu to my job. I started my studio- Riya’s Makers Studio. While my job at Talathi Panthaki gave me a lot of exposure to designing, it was only after I started my own studio when I actually got to know that the plight of acquiring potential clients wasn’t easy.
I appeared to be way younger than my age, which raised questions like ‘You don’t look thirty, are you sure you can handle this?; Do you have enough experience? ; my capabilities were doubted yet again. Looking younger than their age is a dream to many, but in my case it clearly turned out to be a bane.
Just like any other story my coin had two sides as well; I got in touch with clients who were rather exhilarated to work with young talent, and that paved the way for my brand. ‘Quality over quantity’ has always been our motto and the rest is history.
It’s a big move for us as we are shifting into a new workspace. Everything I envisaged, is finally turning into reality, nothing of which would’ve been possible if I lacked self belief. It is indeed true that ‘ sometimes, confidence can move mountains, strength and skills can’t”.