Problem when running Thunderbird from app launcher

I'm having an issue with Thunderbird. I created a shortcut in the app launcher but when I start Thunderbird from there it doesn't download any email and the folders are empty. It works fine when launching from the terminal. I think the problem is from where the command is executed. Thunderbird is under ~/Applications/Thunderbird and I usually cd up to its location then run thunderbird. The other day by mistake I run it from home instead of going in the folder first (i.e. ./Applications/Thunderbird/thunderbird) and got the same issue of the launcher: application unable to download any emails and empty folders. Is there a way to set up the shortcut in the app launcher to execute thunderbird as if I were in its folder?