We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alpa Patel. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alpa below.

Hi Alpa, thanks for joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

My life’s purpose I realized at a later stage in life, at age of 40. I had a beautiful dream and these words come to me in a dream when I was 29, penniless and living back with my parents at their motel in Arlington, TX. I woke up with this dream which I quickly went to computer and released out of my dream into a word document. It was a poem that spang outside of me, through my fingers as they were flying off the keyboard. I typed this:

The Dream

Let’s dream as one.
Food
Health
Prosperity
In the homes of all.
Love
Peace
Unity
In the hearts of all.

On my 40th birthday, I was digging in my computer and emails searching for a document and this dream surfaced. I paused and sat with this for a minute or two. It hit me – this poem is my true life’s purpose – to work towards serving this dream. I felt that if 1B people lived in the world I dreamt up, we would be able to eradicate poverty off our planet. This is my life’s purpose – to bring it to everyone on the planet and share the most ambitious dream so all of us can have a better life.

I came to design a movement, I call 1+1, a call-to-action or one movement from corporations to individuals who are all working towards realizing this dream by investing 1% of our earnings to any of the 17 Global Goals set forth by United Nations as part of the sustainable development goals they want to realize by 2030.

I am igniting the spark for 1+1 by giving 1% of our earnings to non profit organizations who are operating at scale and with lowest costs and highest quality of operations to invest in. I am personally committing to Goal #1 – No Poverty.

I feel like I can, we can achieve this goal by 2030 with we all work together as one and dream together, then act by all of us investing 1% into the bottom 1B people struggling for their next meal. I say the word invest because if there is no poverty, these 1B people will enter the market and entrepreneurs will benefit tremendously from this.

More on UN’s 17 global goals here in this video:

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got into hospitality design industry because my dad couldn’t afford a designer at his economy motel. I realized 50% of hotels in US are economy and they don’t have access to design. Another 20-30% are midscale and they also can’t really afford a quality designer to design their hotels, motels, restaurants, etc.

At 9th House, our mission is to make design accessible and affordable for all. I love being able to innovate in my industry and make design affordable for all. This helps the businesses become more profitable and gives guests a great experience so everyone wins.

What I’m most proud of is the impact we all get to make in lives of our clients, the guests and social impact work we aspire to do which is work to bring 1+1 to the world and invest in eradicating poverty and illiteracy around the world. 9th House is our platform to do impactful work be it for our clients, guests, our local community and the world.

Main thing i want people to know about us and our brand, 9th House is that we can choose to operate from abundance and all do well by doing good.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I started my company with $0. In fact, I started with negative (debt) from marriage that was ending in 2016. I had a fulltime job where i worked as a printing sales rep selling printing through cold=calling and building up my book of business. I was struggling but using my superpower of building relationships, I surrounded myself with great CEOs and mentors like Larry Armstrong, one of my cheerleaders who supported me by mentoring and advising me and later investing in me so I can work to realize my dream of launching a hospitality design firm. In Sept 2018, with his investment, I quit my job and launched my company formally.

But the road wasn’t this easy. I struggled for nearly two years knocking on every door I could. I didn’t get support of my family to pursue my own business and given I was getting out of a divorce, my father and brother wanted me to keep working my lowly and miserable printing sales job which I hated with a passion. I only worked there because I was helping my ex-husband for nearly 8 years fulfill his dreams of owning a print shop which later he realized wasn’t his dream after all. eight years of experience in printing sales led me to only such opportunities which I felt like I was cheating on myself because I didn’t believe in power of print as the best medium for businesses given everything was going digital. Anyhow, in Sept 2017 or so, I hit every brick wall possible. I was struggling, living paycheck-to-paycheck and chipping away. I felt like I hit rock bottom. I write the check to close down the corporation and I even put a stamp on it and addressed it. I was walking over to the outgoing mailbox and was about to drop the envelope in the mail when If divine inspiration came to me…I realized at that moment before I was ready to drop the envelope in outgoing mailbox, I hate my job and consequently, I hated my life. It felt so meaningless and I was making no impact in the world.

I immediately tore apart the envelope and check inside and threw it in the trash. I made a firm resolution to myself that day that I will keep going, no matter what until I reach success or victory in making this business a success and become financially so independent and feel empowered. I struggled for last 7 years working to make 9th House a success . I have been through a roller coaster ride and put blood, sweat and tears into this company and proved to myself how resilient I am. I will not stop until I fall flat on my face and then I will dust off and try again. Such is my state of being now.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The biggest lesson I had to unlearn is lacking faith and trust in myself. I lacked self realization or truly knowing who I am, what my capabilities are knowing who I truly am. I had to unlearn and disassociate myself from negative self talk I had done most of my life. I had like no faith or belief in myself. I grew up feeling very much insecure and lacked a strong sense of self. It stemmed from childhood experiences and trauma and biggest learning lesson was to believe in myself and have my faith as my anchor.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.1plus1.org
• Instagram: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XTBYMfZyrM
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alpapatel6
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moonshotseeker/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@weare9thhouse