“Boredom at work sets in soon nowadays. This is probably the reason why IT professionals opening restaurants is on the rise,“ says Ashish D’Abreo (40), on the logic driving him to pursue three diverse professions.
“Boredom at work sets in soon nowadays. This is probably the reason why IT professionals opening restaurants is on the rise,“ says Ashish D’Abreo (40), on the logic driving him to pursue three diverse professions.
When not building brands as a creative director of an ad agency (Origami Creatives), D’Abreo is either blending barista for his artisanal coffee startup (The Flying Squirrel) or delivering dialogues on stage as a freelance theatre artist over weekends.
Mind you, this jack of all trades has met with enough success in each sphere. His 15-year-old ad agency has clients like Chai Point, Caratlane.com and Bluestone.com. After gaining foothold in the online space, his coffee company recently ventured into the offline market with a microroastery café.
The avid coffee drinker has been dabbling in theatre for over a decade. This weekend too, he is performing in a play called `Park’ at Ranga Shankara. “When I was with Rafiki Theatre, I would act in 2-3 productions. Since my plate is full today , I just invest in one production at a time with Sandbox Collective,“ says D’Abreo, an MBA graduate from St Jose ph’s Colle ge of Commerce.
Question is how did a copywriter arrive at this triangle of work in the first place? “Idea was that when we can ideate for other brands, why not our own,“ says D’Abreo, who launched his coffee startup in 2013.Little did he know that the hobby of selling gourmet coffee from his friend’s plantation in Coorg would scale up one day.
D’Abreo traces the roots of his success in being an ad-man. “At my ad agency, we played each other’s roles all the time -be it design, layout, press visits, photoshoots or menial desk work. All streams flowed into each other seamlessly . Brainstorming sessions, where we switched from vodka to jewellery brand in a split second, coached me to juggle efficiently,“ says D’Abreo.
Each chosen profession gets a fair share of his time every day. “My play rehearsals are usually in the morning. By midday, I start looking into the online coffee orders and the micro roastery. Post-lunch, I dedicate time to my creative agency,“ says D’Abreo, who advocates the joint venture entrepreneurship module for those who wish to add professions to their career repertoire.
The father of a six-year-old also lists communication, support from family and time-management as requisites. Of course, travel and cooking often for family add brownie points besides working as his stress-busters.
“One is constantly trying to wear different thinking hats. However, it’s in this challenge that your life runs like a well-oiled machine and becomes interesting. This juggle is nirvana for me,“ he notes.
source: http://www.tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com / ET Tech / Home> Technology News> Latest Technology News> People / by Smita Balram / ET Bureau / March 22nd, 2017
