From a humble and colorless beginning, Mel Xu built her path to the success story that she is today. She was living on a diet of Campbell soup. A mistake in the candle formula assisted with her success.
Mel Xu had a colorless beginning in China where every individual wore the same clothing and colors. The government kept all people within the same social class providing all basic needs. At the age of 12, Mel was sent to a boarding school where she became involved in a government project to train the future Chinese diplomats. Years later, the program was closed and Mel was transferred to work in a factory at another town. It was at this job, she met her husband. Her year at the factory was very uneventful and boring. Mel and her husband, a geo-physicist, applied for a U.S. visa. They were approved for visas after two years of waiting. After arriving in the U.S., Mel got a job with an export company that primarily exported medical equipment to China. In her new colorful environment, people and colors kept her mind brainstorming. Her daily visits to Bloomingdale sparked an interest in design she had held since childhood. Brainstorming with her husband and friend, they developed a list of items they could develop or improve to a business concept. Of the four items on the list, there was one that catapulted their success, candles. Although she experienced a series of failures at trade shows, a timely trade show at the beginning of the Christmas holidays sales brought Mel and her group their first order. Months later, Mel went to a trade show in North Carolina, which was also a disaster. Her candles did not sell as expected but this failure did not diminish Mel’s spirit to succeed.
Using the last of her earnings from the New York trade show, Mel decided to visit the Frankfurt, Germany trade show. One thing at the show that caught Mel’s attention was the fragrance and colors of the candles. She decided to test this variation at home. With their funding gone, the menu of the day was Campbell soup. One day after dinner, she noticed the can shape and size, which made her think it might work as a holder for their candles. When mixing the products to create the candle, they accidentally left one product out.his missing product gave the candle a different look which was the beginning of success. By bringing the German fragrance idea and expanding the fragrance selection, she changed her current product to make it better. Mel’s first customer was Bloomingdale., the place that opened her eyes to the different designs and colors. She then sold to Nordstrom and then to a retail store where the average person shops- Target.
The title of the blog “Candle Light” expresses the idea of enlightening and hard work in pursuit of success. Mel pursued her dream thru hard work and persistence as well as not giving up during the low time. She chose to move forward at any cost. Her entrepreneurial spirit and belief in her work propelled her forward as well as making one mistake in the process that ultimately opened the door success.
On a daily pursuit for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, a person can be inspired and change a common product. By looking at what’s already out there and changing it to your needs or the needs of others will give a different vision and perspective on life. Your senses of sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste need to be opened, observant and ready to capture the present and that of what is to come. This will give the person the opportunity and advantage to jump on a vision and or dream that they already had, have or a new one. Everyday you need to learn something new, enhance, change an existing product.
I pursue wisdom, knowledge and understanding on a weekly basis looking at what I can affect in my surroundings and work. By so doing I can either adapt to the situation=process, move away from the situation-process or change the situation-process. This pursuit of wisdom, knowledge and understanding led me to develop a medical, veterinary and preventive medicine program for communities in Central America that will start in the year 2018. Participants of the program are the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture, municipalities and townships of various countries in Central America, U.S. Embassies at these countries and U.S. Army medical personnel. This program is geared to assist the population with problems in medical, veterinary and preventive medicine issues, by by working with the same population or area for three (3) to five (5) year.