uma hapsari

Climbing Back

Uma Hapsari, founder of Indonesian shoe brand Amazara, was introduced to the idea of entrepreneurship early in her childhood when her parents decided to open a small store in a traditional market. They would bring her to the store after she returned from school – and this simple routine became the foundation of her work ethic today.

Of course, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Uma and her brand. The biggest turning point in her life happened through failure. In 2019, Amazara was one step away from bankruptcy and when Uma’s presence as a leader was needed the most, she wasn’t able to perform well as she was going through a rough divorce. But that episode eventually taught her to understand herself better.

Being a womanpreneur and a single mother, Uma really wants to show her daughter the things that her parents also showed her throughout her childhood, mainly that you can be a woman, a mother, a meaningful significant other – all the while being in a leadership position.

Also back in 2019, a publisher contacted her about writing how she started and scaledup Amazara in such a short period of time. So, she wrote down her story, of how she started and grew her business. It was a typical success story. But when she found herself hitting rock bottom a year later, she stopped for a while, then thought long and hard about actually embracing and learning from her mistakes and failures instead of focusing on the success stories. That was when she decided to write about the ups and downs of her entrepreneurial journey in her book In My Own Shoes.

That being said, she has been postponing writing the next chapter for over a year now. There is a whole new journey that she would love to share, about how she bounced back even higher and what lessons she has learnt from the experience. “I believe this would help many other entrepreneurs like me, to figure their own ways to climb back up after a fall when they don’t know how,” said Uma in closing.