It was just another rainy day sometime in the August of 2015. Except that it wasn’t just another day. A young boy, shortlisted for the first job interview of his life, lay awake in his bed. He was worried about what was to come the very next day. “What will happen in the interview tomorrow? Will I become a nervous wreck? Or will I manage to convince the interviewers to hire me?” A myriad thoughts ran through his head. He wondered what would become of him, for his head was full of dreams about conquering the world, and he could sense that the coming day was going to be long and tiring, but he just hoped that it was going to be worth it.
As the sun shone the next morning, the boy woke up with an impending sense of fear. He went about his morning chores, trying to prepare himself mentally for what lay ahead in the day. As he was going about his usual breakfast comprising of eggs and milk, his father called him into his room. A crisp new shirt, neatly ironed, lay on his father’s table. There was no exchange of words, but the son understood what the father was trying to convey – this was his moment, and it was up to the boy to make the most of it. The boy finished his breakfast, wore the gift that his father had given him, and took off for what was going to be one of the most important moments of his life. He went on to ace the interview, and took his first step into the corporate world.
That day, a Peter England shirt touched a life.
Fast forward to a couple of months later, the boy (yours truly), along with a group of students from his city, decided to go about doing some good in this world. We decided to start education camps for the children of the downtrodden. The road was unclear and challenges aplenty. We did not know where to begin, but we knew where we wanted to go.
After some research, we decided to start the camps in one of the area of our city. We had to gather financial and materialistic assistance, and I suggested we build our portfolio by conducting and documenting our activities. We faced numerous challenges along the way, from finding people who were willing to volunteer and teach on Sundays to parents unwilling to send their children to study because they wanted them to work instead. Despite all of this, we persisted. We used available resources and made the best of what we had. Slowly but surely, we went about documenting all our activities and built our portfolio for potential sponsors. We meticulously captured our activities using photographs and formal reports. We struck gold when we were brought on as partners for an annual International Half Marathon event in our city.
Today, I am pursuing my MBA hundreds of kilometres away from my city, but I can proudly say that the group has now expanded and education camps are run at multiple locations throughout the city.
When I look back, I realise that it is amazing what persistence and dedication can do.
I have come a long way from being a scared young boy who wore his first Peter England shirt that day in the August of 2015.
Influencing lives, the ABG way.