
Transforming Challenges into Opportunities
Join us in celebrating two years of transformation at Reppatch. From a leap of faith in November 2022, we turned challenges into opportunities, inspiring resilience, gratitude, and growth. Discover how this journey continues to inspire love, patience, and hope.
Greetings my dear followers!
Today, I want to share with you the story of a journey that started in November 2022 and transformed my life. I attended an event 2 years ago in November and resigned from my job the day after this event and founded Reppatch. This sentence may seem brave or crazy to you, but for me, it is a sentence that consists of the harmony of right and wrong decisions, and contains today's great learnings and gratefulness.
There are some journeys, when you set off, you know where the road will lead, but you don't know which detours you will take, what you will see, what you will give up, what you will consume and produce. My entrepreneurial journey has been exactly like this. Being an entrepreneur means taking risks. Reppatch emerged as a result of the risk I took.
Now, I will tell you a part of my story and tell you about my internal upcycling journey that was sparked by Reppatch. It is a story full of surprises, thank you in advance for taking the time to read it.
First Step: Transforming Myself
I will continue with a wonderful quote from Paulo Coelho’s book “The Alchemist”: “When you want something, the entire universe conspires to make your wish come true.”
I tried to keep in mind as much as I could that the entire universe was with me with the choice I made, and although it was difficult at first, Reppatch enabled my inner transformation. Since I was a salesperson in my professional life, impatience and ambition were my biggest catalysts, but this was not the case with my startup… Today, when I celebrated the second anniversary of Reppatch in November, I would like to share with you how I began to look at the misfortunes that happened to me, sometimes at that moment and sometimes over time.
Some misfortunes that happened to me:
I brought a beautiful project from Switzerland. An association said let’s work together, took on the project, had DHA report on it, and my name was not mentioned in any of the news…
Transformation: I brought a newsworthy project from Switzerland to Turkey, and although our names were not mentioned, I knew that the vision of the project belonged to me. I was proud of myself.
I was thought to be a bad person because I did not comply with the money-making strategies of the same association…
Transformation: I easily caused a person to take off their mask and reveal their true thoughts, and after that, I had the courage to choose truth and justice despite all the money being talked about.
All my friends who liked my business idea and wanted to be my partners left me halfway…
Transformation: I did not have to share my seat with the people who were with me to gain fame quickly because they thought my journey was easy.
Some of my friends started to find Nil Karul, who was trying to become an entrepreneur, unbearable and they constantly criticized her…
Transformation: I realized that I was in the arena and learned not to care about the people sitting in the audience seat, in addition, I started to appreciate and enjoy the real moments I lived by saying goodbye to social media, which was full of lies.
The small businesses I met in the sustainability sector told me to think a little smaller and that such a business idea was not very possible…
Transformation: I accepted that my idea and ideals were working correctly and that they were scaring others, not me.
At the events we attended, people first liked the products of Reppatchers (upcycling brands or artists) very much, but then when they learned that the raw material was waste, they left our stand with disgust…
Transformation: It made it easier for me to determine my target audience and market.
We did our first big project and upcycled 2 tons of waste, neither my name nor my start-up was mentioned in the project that was reported everywhere…
Transformation: Despite those who said I should stop thinking big, I realized the project, the fact that our name was not mentioned in the news did not change the fact that we did this project.
Some Reppatchers who wanted to be a part of the Reppatch idea were initially enthusiastic, but then silently left when they realized the magnitude of the work to be done…
Transformation: I did not have to share my seat with people who think that what the universe will offer on a silver platter is just money.
A person who worked as my partner for a few months started to imitate my entire strategy by establishing her own brand…
Transformation: Thanks to the things I taught someone who had no experience and knowledge about business life, she started to do something on her own scale with her own brand and on the contrary, I was grateful for feeding my market.
I was going to start working with a place that I believed could be successful in the sector, but their investors wanted me to close Reppatch so that I could work with them…
Transformation: My brand was seen as a threat by a company worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, I was proud.
Two of our big projects that we were in the final stages of were postponed to next year…
Transformation: I gained time to develop and learn more about myself and my company, and I remembered the motivation of Nil Karul, who was a salesperson, by saying that such things happen in sales.
My ideas were imitated, my investor meetings ended in negativity, I learned about the wrong waste management strategies of big companies, I was upset and got back on my feet stronger…
Transformation: I accepted that I had to work harder every day to do better, that the wrong strategies that companies made; that I was upset about and that tore my heart apart, were all problems that needed to be solved, in other words, opportunities for me, and finally, that I had come up with an idea that inspired small businesses.
What I have explained may seem simple or far from modesty. But as I said, being in the arena is not as easy as it seems and I really cannot be modest about some issues. Each of these items I have listed represents a different fall. My favorite author Brene Brown explains this as follows; as we grow up, our falls are no different than injuring our knees or arms, like our falls in childhood. Our wounds first bleed, then scab over, shed their scabs and heal. Some are faster, some are slower, but eventually they get better… Learning from all the falls and getting back up, especially when you are in the arena, can be a bit difficult. However, my start-up Reppatch, which I celebrated its second anniversary this month, taught me this and first transformed me internally. The concept of internal upcycling is actually like upcycling itself. It represents moving from your current situation to something better, to something more advanced.
While these setbacks were happening to me, I experienced so much and learned so much that today I have nothing to say but “I am so glad”…
In addition to the setbacks, the proud moments I experienced are priceless… For example, thanks to the association I mentioned, we went to a child protection institution one day and taught upcycling to more than 40 children, we danced together and had fun. That day was one of the most valuable days that reminded me why I do this job. Some of the doors I knocked on had such positive and emotional responses, that work area of mine witnessed me crying from happiness at least one time a week.
My corner of work at home filled with flowers, happiness, and hope… I am so happy and grateful for having a dream and a mountain to climb. I respect Reppatch for doing a job that feeds my soul and for teaching me more love and kindness every day.
Recently, my cousin said, "I wish Reppatch will sit and talk with us." This is exactly how some people in my circle and family approach my start up, I am grateful that everyone who thought of my bad before my good left my life one by one and that there are people who wish my startup would sit next to us and have coffee with us like a human being.
We popped the Prosecco I bought from Switzerland to pop when we got investment in January because we were doing our first big project. I learned that unfulfilled dreams shouldn't prevent us from celebrating the ones that did come true.
And then in June I bought a Prosecco from Switzerland again to celebrate Reppach's next big project. Reppatch's big projects are postponed until next year, but it was a great excuse to celebrate November, Reppatch's second anniversary. But it turns out that this Prosecco is not popped, so we celebrated without popping and wishing good wishes. I loved our Prosecco tradition, what intentions causes what realities!
Another tradition of ours is to celebrate Reppatch's anniversary for a month, because we work tirelessly to transform November, which has become a consumer addict with Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales...
Reppatch is the seeds that grow patience, love and hope, thank goodness you exist my dear Reppatch. The impact you will create is priceless, the impact you have already created on me is so great that I am very excited to see what you will do for the world.