An Everyday Working Man Chasing His Dreams: William Haeflinger

Note from Kimanzi: If you have taken action on your dreams and would like to share your story with the world, email me at kimanzi@talesofwork.com

Will and Chaka

When I met William Haeflinger about seven years ago he was a busy man. In addition to having a wife and two kids, he was working three jobs to pay the bills! We met through a mutual friend shortly after I started my bread service. I needed to hire someone and my friend couldn’t say anything but good things about Will, so I gave him a call.

He was hesitant about being self-employed but eventually decided to come on board. During my ten years of having this bread business I’ve gone through a few people, Will has been there and done a good job from day one! When it came time for me to move onto working for one guy, he took over the business and made it his own.

 

As I’ve written about before, our group has always talked about getting out

Will's ribs

of this work, the problem was all we did is talk. Last year was when my friend Chaka and I decided to take action, for Will he still had to figure out what his passion was. Being a single dad he does all the cooking and he’s really good at it, this in part lead to him discovering his passion for BBQ.

He has been doing research and in the last few months is when he has taken tremendous steps towards his passion. As we’ve all talked about our dreams, we all have had doubt as to whether we really could chase our dreams. The beauty of having a group like this is that we inspire, encourage and motivates each other.

I think it took Will a while before he could really see the possibilities but now that he has, its full steam ahead! This picture is from sample packs that he was making for customers. He has a mass taste-testing at the end of this month, moving one more step closer to his dream.

Will’s plan is to keep his day job while doing his passion on the weekends, transitioning slowly until his passion can fully support him. Hearing him as he made the sample packs and talk about his taste-testing was what inspired me to write about the honeymoon stage of your dreams, he’s there right now.

It’s never going to be easy but it will be worth it

As you start to chase your dreams it is a honeymoon, you have nothing but joy and excitement. Then you hit that first bump and your confidence is shaken but you still have that joy so you keep going. As you move forward things start to get a little more difficult, and you start losing a little bit of that joy.

Then a big bump, you can’t get a permit for your restaurant, you lose a major customer, this is where most people give up or start making excuses as to why they can’t push forward. I was there, Chaka was there, Will was there. It doesn’t even have to be something negative, it can be positive and still hold you back.

Right now at my day job I’m in the ideal position, I’m down to about thirty-two hours a week, working four days a week. This has been the best it has been in ten years, at this point it’s very tempting to just stick around here but I know it’s not my calling.

Good or bad, some things will happen that will fill you with doubt, you have to keep your eyes on the prize and remember “why” you’re on this path. It’s never going to be easy but it will be worth it when you can get up in the morning and realize that your day will be spent living out your passion.

Don’t lose focus of why you’re chasing your dreams!

P.S. Even if you don’t live in Wisconsin, make sure you go and “like” Will’s Facebook page, you get weekly tips about BBQ and you can keep up to date on his progress, you can find the page here

P.S.S. This is an interview I shot with Will at his taste-testing, the first step in chasing his dreams: