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

Emmanuel, appreciate you joining us today. Before we talk about all of your success, let’s start with a story of failure. Can you open up about a time when you’ve failed?

Starting a business can be a daunting task. You often ask yourself “When do you start?” or “How can I start it?” Along the way, you commit mistakes and end up as a failure. I remember my first few pitches for my business. I sent 100 emails. I got 90 rejections, 7 no responses and 3 maybes. It didn’t stop me. The key for failure is trying to please everybody. Keeping that in mind, I sticked to my mission & vision while putting the things I genuinely like to do in my business instead of what other people will think about it. Honesty and authenticity were my ingredients to success. If you learn how to fail fast, you get to be innovative and to be creative.

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

The Tennis Foodie was born out of my innovative idea to marry the concept of food and tennis in a single platform. My friends would often tell at the beginning that these two topics won’t jive together. Little that they know that these two categories are highly linked to each other. As what kind of food you eat or put in to your system, it can affect your performance in sports like tennis. Professionally, I’m a scientist and a pharmacist. During the day, I manage a group of scientist in the regulatory affairs space. I also have two award winning start-ups – Hinera and Padama. Apart from these, I make myself busy with my passion projects and small businesses. I would say that some of my best qualities would be grit and optimism.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Venturing into the start-up scene can be a daunting task. I remember how difficult it is to get angel investors and VCs that will potentially fund your business. I joined a lot of international competitions to gain traction and to showcase my innovative ideas. Despite the rejections, me and my business partner were able to secure a big project from the leading academic institution in the country. From business development to marketing the project, we made a successful collaboration with the brand. It was a great story of resilience as we didn’t stop improving our services that we offer to ensure that we are at par with the competition and we are cost-effective. Being a very ultracompetitive yet optimistic person, I always believe that if one door closes, 2 or more windows of opportunities open. You just have to properly navigate it and check if that is the right option for you.

Have you ever had to pivot?

There’s a lot of times I had to pivot my business, my career and my life. Sometimes we have that “ideal” way of thinking that everything from Plan A will work. In reality’, it does not happen all the time. One example will be shifting from a tech heavy work to a much more creative and innovative work. Although in the same domain, I get to be more creative and innovative now compared to my previous work. I have the freedom to express what I feel and what I think would be the best for the business. Change can be good as long as we are flexible with it. We don’t have to be fixated with one change as there will be numerous times that you need to evolve physically, emotionally, and mentally. Always welcome change with a smile!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thetennisfoodie.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/emmandamian
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thetennisfoodie
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmanueldamian/
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/damian_emman
• Other: http://pinterest.com/damian_emman