Axel Rafael Galanton Noriega is the creator of a company based in Lima called Delichef, specializing in artistic confectionery, a wide variety of foods and breads. An entrepreneurship that was born four years ago but began to take shape inside him when he was on vacation in Mexico and saw the incredible range of opportunities for creative cuisine outside his country. It was then that he decided that it wouldn’t take long for him to find the right place to make his passion for cooking his true profession. The vision was realized one year later, the chosen place: Peru. 

Noriega faced multiple obstacles and difficulties during this process, although what was most difficult for him was undoubtedly feeling at home as a foreigner. “Anyone would think that if the economic issues are resolved, one is already integrated. It’s partly true, although those of us who emigrate always carry the responsibility of collaborating with our family, so solving the financial situation is not so fast either. But integrating is something else, we also need help with that, because our business can prosper, but without the help I received from IOM, with its training programs and the seed capital, I think it would have been more difficult for me to integrate”. 

For Axel, it was this help that allowed him to organize his ideas and focus on what was truly important: interacting with the new community to which he now belonged. He used the IOM training to meet this challenge. He felt strengthened by the sessions of mentoring for professional and personal development, which enabled important advances that served to promote his entrepreneurship. “Since the first mentoring sessions, I have experienced a feeling of peace, which I knew very well where it came from: for the first time I was aware that it is not what happens to us, but how we deal with what happens to us. Also, to feel that things do not happen only to us. Often, when you start a business, you may feel overwhelmed by events, but the truth is that just as we learn marketing strategies or economics to develop a business, in the same way, we must learn to free ourselves from the thoughts that don’t serve us, and use those that make us feel passion for what we do as gasoline. This is the only way we can move forward.” 

For this young Venezuelan entrepreneur, the key pillars at the center of his young company will guide his path forward. “I realized that I needed to focus and organize my ideas, which, although they were correct, did not follow a work pattern, something necessary although there is a lot of creativity at stake. Another thing that I began to conquer is giving myself a space to start learning, no matter what because what I get is time for myself and nurturing my creativity. Many times, we get so stuck in our business that we feel we are lost, but if we stop, look around, get some air and continue, everything improves. And finally, I am learning to develop patience and to understand that achievements are not always immediate, but if you do your best, they always come.”