Drawing in Business With Sweet Temptations

A new small-business series, Trading Places will take a look at entrepreneurs who have successfully transitioned from working in the corporate world to founding their own business. If you have such a story you'd like to share, please email me.

Eric Nelson had always led a very conservative lifestyle: he did everything society and his family expected of him. From high school, he went on to college and then grad school, where he received a master's degree in economics; he then began working for the Telecom Industry Association. There he served as the vice president of international affairs, a position in which he handled quite a bit of responsibility, traveled the world and each month secured a comfortable income.

But by 45, Nelson had reached a turning point. "I began to feel like time was marching on and I wasn't really doing what I was meant to be doing," he says. At that point, Nelson decided he could either continue along the path he was going or he could take the jump and dive into pursuing a career as an artist, something he had always been passionate about.

Finally, he went for the latter.

"It was a challenging decision to make, but I decided that you only live once and I needed to do this just so I wouldn't have any regrets later in life."

In July 2006, Nelson, now 51, combined his love of painting with something most people love -- chocolate -- and opened up Artfully Chocolate, a sweets shop which also serves as a venue for his artwork, in Alexandria, Va. Sure, the chocolates have been a hit, but in the time the store's been open, Nelson has also sold more than 50 of his paintings.

Previous job: Vice president of international affairs for a telecommunications firm

Now: Founder and owner of Artfully Chocolate