The story of 29-year-old Safiullah Sufi is a bright example of how one can explore the right kind of talent and work for his passion to succeed in life. A below average in academics, Safiullah navigated through bitter challenges to pursue his passion for chocolate making.
His story of facing the odds to do what he always wanted can inspire everyone who is told that he cannot do anything unless he is an ‘A Plus’ student in academics.
After graduating from class 12 in 2009, it took him almost 6 years to finish BCom due to continuous backlogs. He knew he’s not good at academics but he never gave up, neither on studies nor on his passion for chocolate making. The continuous failures that he faced made him more stubborn on not giving up.
While Safiullah was struggling with his studies, he pursued professional chocolate making course from Delhi. Knowing where his heart lies, he started to improve himself. Despite listening to a lot of criticism and suggestions to leave studies midway, Safiullah kept going and pursued postgraduate diploma in business entrepreneurship from Kashmir University and BBA in retailing through IGNOU.
Safiullah says that in Kashmir where every next person is a baker or a restaurant owner, he wanted to spread happiness through handmade chocolates so that he can do what he loves and earns from it as well.
In early 2018, Safiullah finally started his dream project with the name ‘Shalimar Chocolates’ from a small room of his home at Solina, Srinagar. He wanted to start from zero without being completely dependent on his family so he borrowed money from his friends and bought raw material and equipment.
Realising the power of social media and knowing that he does not have any physical outlet, Safiullah created pages on Instagram and Facebook and earned hundreds of followers in a short period of time. It was social media where he started taking orders and began his startup journey. He says that social media helped him to get people to have a look into his work through the content that he uploaded. It also helped him to get first-hand feedback from people and to reach them with a single click.
He wanted to be unique and concentrated on quality and niche products. So he introduced 3D chocolates, flavoured chocolates, dry fruit chocolates, customised chocolates, themed chocolates, and gift chocolates to cater to people of different age groups and taste.
“Usually during Ramadhan season such business run slow but I rather than stopping in Ramadhan introduced chocolates made of dates and other dry fruits which people can enjoy during Iftar time, the product got very popular and soon many retailers wanted to buy from me,” says Safiullah.
From giving away chocolates free to selling them to a handful of friends on a trial basis, Safiullah is now delivering chocolates to many major departmental and retail stores in the Srinagar city.
Safiullah says that the journey has been very bumpy but he managed to sail through and is getting better with each passing day.
He gives credit of his success to the endless prayers of her mother who never stopped believing in him.
His journey is yet another example of the following passion and believing that everyone has a talent and its only matter of time when you discover your talent and start working on it.
