At some point in everyone’s career, we have looked on with envy at someone who is clearly enjoying their job because they really love it. You review your own daily grind and feel, what if I quit my job in a few months and start building that Etsy shop for selling anime-themed products? Admit it, you have thought along those lines more often than you would care to admit.

Today, my guest on the Indian Innovators podcast is Manoj Deshmukh. He is a software engineer and my classmate from PICT. A few years ago he quit his highly successful software executive job and got serious about his hobby - making custom fountain pens. Since then he has had amazing success, as fountain-pen lovers all over the world have found his website and have been ordering pens from him, so much so that his current backlog for pen delivery is about 2 years. Yes, that’s right - if you order a pen from his website today, he can only deliver it to you about 2 years from now.

The cliché “follow your passion” is absolutely brought alive by Manoj. He makes each pen by hand, making one pen a day. He researches ink delivery mechanisms, designs his own, and experiments with new wood and acrylic materials. His finished products are quite stunning and very comfortable to write with.

Watch our interview and find out how he finally gave up his day job and turned to make his hobby his daily addiction. You can order his pens at fosforpens.com

Manoj Deshmukh - Artisanal fountain-pen maker