Prince Siddhartha

We have mentioned before that nobody knows for sure when and where tea was first discovered. One of the most popular legends is of a Chinese King by the name of Shen Nong who is said to have discovered tea around 2737 B.C. More information about this legend can be found in the article titled Shen Nong - The Father of Tea. There is another legend that has spread throughout the Orient and traveling wherever tea and Buddhism went, gaining a large following in Japan. This legend is important to the Buddhist version of tea’s discovery because of its important to Zen Buddhist religious practice.

The legend says that a Prince with an Indian name called Siddhartha Gautama made a pilgrimage to China. To prove his faith he vowed never to sleep, not even in years, but one day when he felt really fatigued he fell into a deep sleep. When the Prince Siddhartha woke from his dream he was so ashamed at having broken his vow that he tore off his eyelids and threw them into the ground. His eyelids took root and from them a bush of green tea leaves sprouted. Prince Siddhartha started eating these leaves and it helped with his meditation and alleviated his weariness so he recommended it to his followers.

According to Indian tea origin theorists, tea was introduced to China by Prince Siddhartha in 519 B.C. However, tea had already been a part of China’s culture for at least one thousand years before Prince Siddhartha’s birth. It seems like the true origin of tea will remain unknown for the time being. Even though the legends of the origin of tea are wonderful in essence, they seem to hold some myth in them.

Join me in my next article as I explore the facts that allow us to determine the true origins of tea.

Before I talk about tea, it’s only fair that the first article is devoted to Bullen Tea, the company, and how it all got started. Like many entrepreneurs, I am constantly searching for that next big idea. The idea for Bullen Tea came for reasons that had little to do with tea, the actual product I was going to be selling, and a lot to do with web programming and design. My goal was simple: to develop a website from top to bottom from where I could learn how web programming and e-commerce really works so I would be able to do the same thing again and again if I wanted to. That goal hasn’t changed. What has changed is my love for tea.

Antonio Bullen - Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Bullen Tea started in my bedroom in Panama, my home country. I moved to the United States at the age of 21 and I always thought I would make millions of dollars out of the software I had saved on floppy disks and CDs. Because I was doing all of the web programming, customer service and inventory logistics myself, Bullen Tea took years to get up and going, and I was working on it every time I could. As soon as I immigrated I started working long hours for other companies that would eventually teach me many valuable lessons I have applied at Bullen Tea. I was saving a little bit here and there from every paycheck so I could invest it on my business ideas. Between a full time job and college classes, I barely had enough time to devote to Bullen Tea. Nothing was moving fast so I decided something had to give and I quit school. Things didn’t work out the way I wanted. The money wasn’t there and yes… it was partly because of the low paying jobs I was doing. It was enough to pay my personal bills, but not to sustain my little baby company. I realized quiting school was not the right decision. I needed to have a plan B in case Bullen Tea didn’t work and as long as I was working low paying jobs, there would be no Bullen Tea.

After much humiliation and struggling, I went back to college and traded my little fast car for something with better gas millage and cheaper maintenance. I’m still going to school. I’m studying International Business at San Diego State University and I’m having fun doing it. The difference I’ve seen in myself from going to classes now and before is that I really want to learn this time around. I’m actually going to school for the right reasons!

I’ve learn some valuable lessons from working on Bullen Tea and I keep them in mind so that I don’t like to make the same mistakes twice. Bullen Tea is growing and soon it will become the company I have envisioned for so many years now. Right now my job is to build by acquiring as much knowledge as possible. That’s the reason why I created this newsletter section. I want to be able to tell you about what I’ve learned. You can read more about my life at www.antoniobullen.com. Thank you for stopping by.