Hello! As the post title and graphic above suggests, it is an absolute pleasure to announce that I have turned 23 years old today, on this day, the 22nd of August 2023! But I am not going to just leave it there - I am going to discuss the journey that I took over the last 12 months of my life to get to where I am now.
From going out to London on the train exactly one year ago, to getting introduced to the Volkert and making a start on building a fantasy mapping business empire, to briefly talking about the Social Enterprise Bootcamp at the University of Suffolk, and finally discussing my plans and ambitions for the future, there will be lots of action in this post!
My life journey this past year
The story began on the 22nd of August one year ago, when I was in London on my first ever overnight trip on my own, and I had a really great time exploring the city as usual. Whether it was exploring the streets of Notting Hill (ya know, the ones that you see on fashion blogs), riding London's longest bus route, the X26 to Croydon (which is now part of London's superloop network) after spending some time in Richmond Park, or seeing the Crystal Palace TV mast, there was something fun about my journey every step of the way.
Not long after I returned from that trip, I was reading news articles about people moving out of full-time work and seeking out part-time jobs working three and four-day weeks - especially as wellness prioritisation has become an important element in people's lives since the COVID pandemic. And so, I imagined to myself - if I was able to find a job working 22.5 hours a week, I would have all the time in the world to go exploring different parts of the country. However, with the nature of a cyber-security career involving having to monitor cyber-threats around the clock, I knew that it wasn't going to be easy for me to have a wellness-oriented lifestyle going down that career path.
With that in mind, I was exploring a change of career where I was looking to explore the business administration and marketing world - the IT skills that I have gained from my cyber security degree would also serve me well in those roles, and there were plenty of those roles being advertised part-time on recruitment websites. Back then, I had no aspirations of wanting to start a business in the future - but I felt that doing some business-related work would allow me to learn some new business skills, and give me the experience that would allow me to study for an MBA degree later down the line. Who knows where that would take me - I might even become the chief executive of a big company!
Over the next couple of months, I had applied to around 15 jobs, mostly around the Ipswich area, and sure enough, I had managed to score some job interviews - so I had a feeling that my plan to do some business administration work will eventually succeed. I also thought to myself, that there must be some opportunities where I can become self-employed and have the freedom to do things however I wish...
This brings on to the run-up to the start of my business idea - just before the new year, on the 30th of December 2022, I was sitting on the sea wall in Aldeburgh, enjoying the beautiful sunset and I imagined to myself... how can I create a fantasy mapping business where people can teleport away to different worlds for a while. So in one of my usual meetings with the Careers team at the University of Suffolk on the 3rd of January 2023, I decided to explain my idea, and sure enough - she told me that there are people in the University who can help take my business idea forward and turn it into reality, and decided to pass on my details to the Enterprise team.
Wednesday, the 11th of January marked the first time that I met the Enterprise Manager, Amy Volkert. It was the first time in many months that I had experienced any real sense of peace - I was sitting with her on the third floor of the Waterfront building, chatting about my enthusiasm for fantasy mapping and my ambitions to possibly grow it into a social enterprise.
With Amy taking things very subtly in that session, I had absolutely no idea of what I was about to get into in the coming months - I was just a mystery man to her back then, but at least I knew what I had to do next to move forward with my plan to set up a business. She even encouraged me to start this blog, which I am still running to this day!
As my business idea was in the secondary market research phase, I was still trying to look for some kind of work to try to get by in the meantime. However, the concept of looking for a business-related role got so contentious in my household to the point that it was becoming increasingly difficult for me to find my way into work - culminating in one of the darkest days that I have experienced in my career searching adventure, with my attempts to volunteer at the British Heart Foundation on the 13th of March being met with high levels of hostility.
And when I next met Amy the day after the disaster to discuss my progress on the business idea (there was a graduate jobs event taking place at the University that day), I just let out every single thought that I had... which made me feel so much better as she was really good at understanding all of my problems. That conversation has allowed me to better process what happened and what I would like to focus on in my life going forward - and in the longer term, I have managed to become a better person as a result.
Two weeks on, I got the opportunity to go to an entrepreneurship event in the Atrium building on the 27th of March, which was my first chance that I ever had at explaining my business idea to people beyond the immediate network of the Enterprise team - and I must say, that everybody was really fascinated to see that I was looking to create interesting maps as a business idea.
During the afternoon session, I was introduced to Sunil Oberoi, who at the time, was running a series of workshops on important business concepts that budding entrepreneurs should know. At one point, Sunil was asking whether anyone had a business idea that they were working on, and it was also the first time that I got to speak with Amy's helper (or more like the Enterprise Officer), Hannah Page - she too was really fascinated by my business idea!
Then, on the 17th of April, everything about the fantasy map idea changed. The University's Alumni Relations team was running Connection Week - a series of events intended to bring back University graduates together, and one of the events that they were running were campus tours. And as you are about to find out in this short excerpt detailing my experiences at Connection Week, I must say that the environment and ambiance that surrounded this series of events was really pleasant.
On that day I was taken around campus by the Development Director, Alice Hardaker, and as I was wandering around the Atrium building with her, I happened to spot some of my old students who were now working as IT technicians, doing some troubleshooting work in one of the cyber security computer rooms - and they happened to be reading my blogs.
As I was explaining to the technicians about what I would like to achieve out of my business idea, Alice became really fascinated about my ambitions to work on a fantasy continent, and she wanted me to send my blog over to the Alumni team. And the fun didn't stop there - as I was leading her around the Health and Wellbeing area of the University, I was chatting about how I wanted to create a wellness-oriented experience out of the fantasy map idea. No wonder why I wanted to send her there - maybe the Health and Wellbeing colleagues might be a good place to do market research, huh?
Things continued spiralling out of control with the business idea from there (but in a positive meaning), as I went to the Alumni Reunion on the 21st of April, and my plans to work on the Youtubia project and document it on this blog quickly gained traction among the rest of the Alumni staff. There were also plenty of Business graduates around and I was having great fun trying to discuss the Youtubia project, and how fantasy mapping and travel tied in with each other with the group.
The Enterprise Manager then returned to the chat on the 24th of April to discuss my plans to undertake primary market research, and along the way, there was another interesting development - she was showing me some children's fantasy map books, and I was wondering to myself... what if my fantasy mapping empire can inspire children to become entrepreneurs, and build their own fantasy mapping empires when they grow up?
Then Amy decided to throw a curveball on the 16th of May, when herself and Hannah were running Pitches and Pizzas on the fifth floor of the university's James Hehir building. Well guess what, the Volkert had plenty of secrets to reveal about her past life - such as her past experiences running some vintage fashion stalls around the Brick Lane area of London, and most notably, her conversation in Spanish with a guest who was looking to start a Latin social space in Ipswich.
But the real reason for this curveball was that I got to speak with the founder of Alarming Ladders, an indie games studio, about my business idea, which gave me a really promising outlook in terms of I should take the idea forward. One of the suggestions that I got from presenting my idea was using 3D printing equipment to make and sell realistic-looking fantasy maps - sign me up for that please!
And more great news followed a week after on the 23rd of May, as Amy was able to hook me up with a publishing company in Stowmarket called Softwood, and they told me that they are constantly on the lookout for fantasy map designers who are able to create maps of different styles to be published in books. With the work that I have done on the Somerville project (and another project that I have going on right now as the birthday graphic at the top of the page suggests), I hope that sometime in the future I will be able to do some work with them and maybe attract other businesses to my idea!
But the real icing on the cake on the leadup to my birthday was the Make a Difference Boot Camp - I had such an incredible time there talking to a wide range of participants about my idea, and I got so much hands-on experience on a wide range of topics, from building business model canvasses and marketing plans, to financial planning and ultimately, pitching my business idea to a panel of judges.
Collage of the things that I have done at the Make a Difference Boot Camp
It also allowed me to discover my love for writing about event experiences - at one point, my posts about the Bootcamp made me famous in the Volkert family, in addition to gaining huge amounts of attention from other staff across the University as well. Consequently, I have started to write about other business-related events that are happening in the University, such as the Innovation Labs celebration event, as well as the FSB networking event.
Where will things go from here, now that I am 23?
There are quite a lot of things going on in my life right now. Looking at my ambitions to become a freelance writer, I have discovered a writers' club in the library in Bury St Edmunds that I hope to go to every now and again - I believe that it would be a great place for me to go and network with other aspiring freelance writers, and it could potentially give me an opportunity to discover a passion for writing about other things too. Hopefully looking forward to sneaking something in on this blog about my experiences there in the not too distant future!
Going back to the fantasy maps (because that's what this blog is about), I am currently focused on building a portfolio of fantasy maps that I hope to attract some business with (so do keep checking back on the portfolio website and this blog for new works), and I am also still trying to figure out how I will attract my first customers, as I am in the process of preparing the business plan for this idea.
I hope that sometime in 2024, I will have registered a business on Companies House or set myself up as a freelancer with HMRC and have begun attracting my first customers to the business! And I also have some big travel adventures planned in the next several years, should my business be successful enough to pay my wages.
Anyways, I hope you've enjoyed this journal diary documenting what I have done in the last year, and I would like to thank everyone in the University and beyond for all the support and encouragement to make all of these experiences happen. I hope that the next 12 months will be even better than before!
Signing off now,
Jakub
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