It was the year 2008, lowest point in my life, still remember vividly. I am coming back home and my world is falling apart, had started my own HR firm in partnership with friends in 2007, not taken a job after doing really well in my MBA. And, now our firm was about to get shut down. I had topped Entrepreneurship in my final semester, came second in class in marketing in second semester, was wired to believe that I would do well as an entrepreneur. But nobody had anticipated that recession would hit Indian shores, robbing us of our jobs. There were no jobs in the market and the whole hiring scenario had come to a standstill, our business was to go kaput! 

I have always been a fearless and persistent guy, most required qualities for personal and professional success as per my perspective and in fact for success in general, however one sees it. Back in 1998, had gone in merchant navy, underwent necessary training, and got real disciplined for the domain. But my agent ran away with my money, putting me in a limbo. Nineteen of us were in touch with each other then, never got placed on a ship, lost the money our parents had invested and most importantly precious time. A few in my batch had sold lands and come from rural areas. We wasted three years, hoping to get placed with the right company. That kind of damage kind of breaks you from inside especially when people around you try to put the blame on you.  

Then I cleared the entrance for hotel management and got placed in IHM, packed my bags and left Mumbai. That again was a horrible experience wherein we were getting ragged to the core, most girls and many guys left college, went back to their respective home towns. It was a batch with only two girls in our class. One can only imagine what was happening. I stood against it, fought to the core, just not the type who likes things that are unfair and immoral. I got singled out for a while as everybody else was too scared to join me. A lot of them later on joined in when they felt I was doing the right thing by standing up against what was atrocious. Maybe they later got the courage to do so. But the whole system there was a mess, not conducive to studies. So, I quit college, didn’t want to waste more of my parents hard earned money and my precious time. I later finished my graduation, took up jobs and did my MBA with a lot of focused approach. And then I become an entrepreneur only to land in the recession scenario! 

Realization had hit! No matter what life will keep throwing, you will have to come out of all possible dreadful scenarios. Human spirit is meant to fight! 

I started wondering, I am genuinely trying hard, fighting hard, then what is going wrong? I started to dissect everything in my life and understood a few things. You have to make the right decisions, do what you like, get the right skill sets, hone your skill sets and be of value. Two things primarily helped me to reboot-  

No 1) I had been unknowingly doing this since I was a kid of 9 or 10 years of age. I used to read a lot, used to go to the school library and read. It started with comics like Tinkle and soon I graduated to a lot of informative stuff. I still invest time, effort and money on learning new things. 

No 2) There is a small story here– At 15, I was hanging out with a friend of mine, putting potatoes in fire to eat them later when they are really burnt (this was before globalization hit us with malls, multiplexes, hangout places etc). My friend tells me that he is really sad about his grades since a couple of days and then he shares his mom’s advice- Do not to worry! Any of the two things are good, getting good grades or getting a skill set outside of school that gets you ahead, keep learning! It struck me, stayed with me.  

I started dissecting my skill sets, focused on honing them and learning more in that direction.