Born and raised in Malta, Gozo, Annalise Buttigieg is a 20 year old businesswoman, using her infectious positive energy to bring the masses to a new opportunity for financial success. Annalise is leading by example that you don’t have to follow societal norms to achieve happiness, success and wealth. Today she’s here with us to share her journey forging her own path in entrepreneurship and her best advice for anyone trying to go against the grain to become their own boss.
Annalise, let’s start at the beginning of your journey. What first inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
Ever since I was young I was exposed to entrepreneurship. I would see these successful business people on TV or in movies, or see my dad work on his business as he was also a business owner, and I used to feel so attracted and inspired towards that industry. It’s like entrepreneurship was calling me.
Sounds like you had the entrepreneurial spirit from a very young age! Annalise, tell us about the business that you have today. What is the concept and how are you helping people?
The concept is to inspire and bless as many lives as possible to reach their goals and dreams, because everyone deserves to live their life how they want to.
My business helps people by showing them how to build an online income through trading, investing and marketing. In this day and age, digital entrepreneurship is extremely prevalent and having an additional source of income is a must. It’s becoming the new norm that people have some sort of income that they can generate through their phone.
That’s amazing! Let’s talk about your plans for the future. What are your personal goals?
I plan to help my parents retire before 65. I imagine coming home one day and seeing them relaxing, watching a movie or swimming in the pool. That would make me so happy. I am also working towards reaching my monthly income goal. Before I started entrepreneurship, I was always blessing lives. I always brought positivity, happiness, craziness and fun wherever I went. In fact when someone new stepped into my life, they always showed me through their actions or told me through their words that I made their life so much better because of my energy. That’s why what I do today is normal for me, it comes naturally because I’ve been doing it since I was born. That’s why one of my goals is to continue blessing as many lives as possible! This year I want to bless 10 million lives!
Going your own way and becoming an entrepreneur must have been difficult. What kind of adversities did you face growing up and growing your business?
A challenge I faced growing up was having people around me telling me that I have to go to school, get a degree and work a 9 to 5 job until I’m 65. I never understood that concept; you have one life, and I want to live it how I saw fit. In fact when I graduated highschool in July 2019, in Malta it’s called sixth form, I was only 18 and didn’t know what to do with my life. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to go to University. So I just followed what people around me told me and went to university. But because it was never what I wanted, I wasn’t happy there so I dropped out in January 2020 at 18. Then people around me told me, if you don’t want to go to school you need to get a job. I did that but left after 1 week because it wasn’t what I wanted, it’s what other people wanted. I was lost, confused and God’s plan was still in the works. People used to call me lazy because they thought I didn’t want to work but it wasn’t true, I just hadn’t figured out what I wanted with my life and what my purpose was. There were people in my life who did not support my mindset, my thoughts and my dreams. I always used to think differently than people around me; I was always so different and never fitted in with most of my friends because of this. For example if I had an idea to do something or be something, some people would tell me” you’re crazy”,”you can’t do that, it’s impossible’ or laugh at me. So that really didn’t help me early on. I was part of the 1 percent already when I was growing up.
Growing my business I experienced similar challenges. When I started all of this most people didn’t support me. In fact I didn’t even tell my parents what I was doing because I was scared to see their reactions, but when they found out, they supported me 100%. But some said “you’re going to quit”,”this is not for you”,”you’re too young”, “you aren’t strong enough and don’t have the potential to build something like this at 19 years old”. Some of these were close people, and some were on the internet. I had to cut some people out of my life when I started doing this because for once, I was doing something I loved and they didn’t like it. These people just didn’t have the same mindset and energy as me, it was time for them to go.
Doing something like this at a young age in Malta isn’t normal here, seems weird and crazy for most people who are Maltese. So when I started all of this, I started to get hate, which is completely normal to get, and I still do till this day. I just don’t get why they wouldn’t like seeing someone chasing their dreams. But I understand now that not everyone will support what you do.
Thank you for sharing your journey with us, Annalise. In closing please share your best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.
- Never surround yourself with people who bring you down and don’t support you. Their energies rub off on you and it won’t help you. Have people that want you to do better and be better.
- When you want to do something you have never done before, go for it! Take that risk and step out of your comfort zone. What’s the worst that can happen?
- Have a vision! If you don’t have the vision of where you want to be next year or 5 years from now, it will be almost impossible to go far because you’re just going around in circles. So have vision and be consistent with it! I swear by consistency with everything, because if you keep doing it long enough, it will happen. And when you focus on your vision and times get tough, take advice from people who have experience in entrepreneurship not people who don’t.
