My parents founded their printing company in the same year I was born. There is therefore a special coincidence in my life: my age is also the number of years our family business has been operating. In many ways, I grew up alongside the company. Stories about how my parents started the business, the challenges they faced, and how the company gradually became established have always been part of my childhood memories. Business was present in everyday conversations at home, and perhaps because of this, entrepreneurship has always felt like a natural part of my life.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce from RMIT, my ambition to become an entrepreneur became even clearer. When discussing my future with my family, my mom encouraged me not simply to take over their company, but to find my own direction within an industry where our family already had many years of experience.
While my parents’ company specialises in printing and book production, I chose to move into packaging design and manufacturing, a field that was new enough for me to explore independently, yet closely connected to my family’s expertise. In an unexpected way, instead of joining my parents’ company directly, I built my own business and eventually became a business partner of the family company.
Throughout this journey, I have built the company, developed new ideas, faced uncertainty, and gradually shaped the kind of business I want to create. While building on the foundation established by the previous generation, I have brought my own perspective and developed a new direction for our generation.
My time at RMIT also played an important role in shaping this journey. One subject that left a lasting impression on me was Leadership, which introduced me to different approaches to leading and working with people. Those lessons later became part of the foundation on which I developed my own leadership style.
RMIT also contributed in another unexpected way: some of my first customers came through relationships I had built within the RMIT community.
Of course, having a family background in business did not make building a new company easy. I still had to learn how to find customers, manage employees, control cash flow, build internal processes, and make difficult decisions. Whenever I face challenges, however, I have the opportunity to discuss them with the first generation of entrepreneurs in my family, my parents.
Their experience gives me another perspective, but perhaps the most valuable thing they have given me is not the answer. It is the freedom to choose my own answer. They allow me to make decisions that may be right or wrong, to learn from them, and to gradually develop my own management style.
For me, being the second generation does not mean following exactly the same path as the first. It means building upon the experience, values, and foundation they created while adding something of our own.
And one day, if a third generation chooses to continue this journey, I hope to give them a strong enough foundation to choose their own direction, just as my parents gave me the freedom to choose mine.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce from RMIT, my ambition to become an entrepreneur became even clearer. When discussing my future with my family, my mom encouraged me not simply to take over their company, but to find my own direction within an industry where our family already had many years of experience.
While my parents’ company specialises in printing and book production, I chose to move into packaging design and manufacturing, a field that was new enough for me to explore independently, yet closely connected to my family’s expertise. In an unexpected way, instead of joining my parents’ company directly, I built my own business and eventually became a business partner of the family company.
Throughout this journey, I have built the company, developed new ideas, faced uncertainty, and gradually shaped the kind of business I want to create. While building on the foundation established by the previous generation, I have brought my own perspective and developed a new direction for our generation.
My time at RMIT also played an important role in shaping this journey. One subject that left a lasting impression on me was Leadership, which introduced me to different approaches to leading and working with people. Those lessons later became part of the foundation on which I developed my own leadership style.
RMIT also contributed in another unexpected way: some of my first customers came through relationships I had built within the RMIT community.
Of course, having a family background in business did not make building a new company easy. I still had to learn how to find customers, manage employees, control cash flow, build internal processes, and make difficult decisions. Whenever I face challenges, however, I have the opportunity to discuss them with the first generation of entrepreneurs in my family, my parents.
Their experience gives me another perspective, but perhaps the most valuable thing they have given me is not the answer. It is the freedom to choose my own answer. They allow me to make decisions that may be right or wrong, to learn from them, and to gradually develop my own management style.
For me, being the second generation does not mean following exactly the same path as the first. It means building upon the experience, values, and foundation they created while adding something of our own.
And one day, if a third generation chooses to continue this journey, I hope to give them a strong enough foundation to choose their own direction, just as my parents gave me the freedom to choose mine.
