In the hot summers of 2006, at the age of 13, I visited a Lifestyle store in Hyderabad for the first time. Having lived in Dar-Es-Salaam Tanzania since 2001, I was ecstatic to do some serious shopping. My mother and sister were beyond enthusiastic and had already started making plans on what type of clothes to buy and what colours. My father, in his usual detached manner, was firm in his decision to buy a formal attire from his favourite brand – Allen Solly. If at all there was a shopping picnic, this would be it. We booked a cab in the Sunday morning and set sail to do some shopping.
Arriving at the store, my family quickly ushered me towards a retail outlet of the name “Pantaloons”. At first I thought that it was a funny name and resisted going into that store. I saw other outlets with the much more attractive names such as Louis Phillipe, Van Heusen, and Allen Solly. But being the youngest member of the family, I had no say in the matter and acquiesced to visit Pantaloons. The range of choices available in Pantaloons blew me away immediately. My mom and sister, in their frenzied zeal, could not decide on where to start and soon could not be found. The occasional shouts from my mom beckoning my sister to check the clothes she picked assured me of their presence.
Standing next to my dad, I observed a flashy multi-coloured jacket to my right. It was predominantly yellow in colour but had patches of green, orange and blue in them. I can’t recollect clearly but I walked up to that dress, removed it from the hanger and strolled to the changing room. When I came out, I surprised my father with the attire on. He looked back and smiled at me and was overjoyed. “You look amazing” he said and walked up to me and kissed me on my forehead.
“Do you want this? “he asked.
“Yes”, I replied.
“Ok. Good. You should always only wear classy”.
That jacket lasted with me for over 4 years and has accompanied me in many happy memories such as wearing it for my 14
th birthday, winning a solo singing competition and walking on a ramp during a fashion show in school.
Looking back at the photographs of these events, I am amazed at how a single dress of Pantaloons can become such a fond part of our memories. Any other dress would have simply passed my attention but the name of Pantaloons still lingers.
Fast forward to 4
th July 2019, I urgently needed a set of formal clothes for a guest lecture in my college IIFT Delhi. My father’s words “Always only wear classy” stayed in my mind when I walked into the mall. And so I entered the Allen Solly outlet.
At the age of 22, I was recruited as an Assistant Sales Engineer in a firm in UAE. I thought all my problems were solved once I got this job. What a naïve thought. The life of a sales engineer can be brutally tough, especially in a foreign land without prior work experience and industry contacts. During the initial weeks, I would walk in the scorching roads of Dubai visiting construction sites to pitch my products (UPS Systems and Industrial Batteries). I witnessed the harshest rejections ever such as “Don’t disturb me”, “I don’t have any interest in you or your product”, “Please don’t call us again”. As a fresher this stung me a lot. “Is this what a sales person goes through?” I thought repeatedly. Needless to say, my performance in the first 2 months in the company was lacklustre.
Perhaps the most challenging aspect was not the rejections but the dwindling self-confidence after repeated failures. I had begun, for the first time in my life, second guessing my abilities. Maybe, I thought, I was not meant to do sales. Was this a sign from the universe? Maybe my passion lies elsewhere. If only I could find it. The daily grind of the sales job exacerbated the issue.
When I spoke with my dad about my professional dilemma, he sympathized with me. But he sternly rejected the notion that I was not worthy to be a top sales engineer and rubbished the idea of “passion”.
“There is no such thing as passion” he said softly but sternly. “You have to build it”. Although a little despondent at the thought of it, I agreed with his point.
Few days later, my father handed me a book that changed my mental paradigm: “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” by Cal Newport. This 2012 book became a bible for me when it comes to skill building. The hypothesis of the book is that there are no pre-existing passions and therefore, chasing after such infatuations is both dangerous to your career and futile. Instead, the author recommends, one must build his/her career capital by practicing the hard activities of the skill/job. In the case of a salesman it is building a tough skin, practicing empathy, developing grit, understanding the human psychology, learning the numbers game and mastering confidence. These skills may seem intangible to the sceptic, but my eventual success ultimately rested on these skills.
Taking baby steps and implementing the strategies, I slowly gained confidence in myself. This had a compounding effect on everyone I had met during my sales call. I could see a visible difference in the way people treated me whether they were CXO’s or middle managers. Whereas I used to get harsh rejections before, I was soon humbled by the numerous positive statements such as “We could not have done this without you”, “We only buy from you”, and “We really like you and your attitude”.
Perhaps in my own way I witnessed the truth of the above book. I challenged myself to do the hard things and master them and I became good enough to not be ignored.