PART A
“Clothes don’t make a man, but clothes have got many a man a good job”
The story dates back to my engineering days in IIT Madras. Placement season was going on in full swing and all of us were anxious to bag our first jobs and enter the corporate world. But, to start this off we had to shop for our first suits. We very well knew how important a first impression is and how it can impact our conversion chances if we made a bad impression the moment we walk into the interview room.
Growing up, I always used to look at my father, my role model buying Louis Philippe shirts with awe. Something about the brand always made me look at it as something premium, as something which the other people look up to and as something which oozes confidence into the person wearing it. Hence, the decision was made, my first suit had to be a Louis Phillipe!
After hours of trying on suits while face timing my parents continuously for their inputs, I finally selected the one. A dark blue, pinstriped suit. Confident of my purchase I headed back to my hostel to prepare for the upcoming interviews lined up the next day. I was still anxious though since it was to be my first experience of wearing a suit.
All suited up the next day, I head on to my interview room. Nervous and worried about what might happen on the other side of the door, I walked with whatever confidence I had in me. All the while I tried to picture my father in his Louis Philippe shirts as I tried to build up the confidence inside me. The moment I walk in, the interviewer exclaims, “That’s a smart suit young man! Good Morning! Please have a seat.”. This was an amazing start to my interview with my confidence oozing back into me all thanks to my Louis Phillipe suit helping me to make the right first impression. And yes, I did convert that interview!
This story is very close to my heart and is the story because of which I still hold Louis Philippe as a brand to cherish. Louis Philippe was with me when I was taking on the first big step into my corporate life.
PART B
Life never is a smooth sailing and is never meant to be. Hurdles and complications along the way make people do mistakes and that is what teaches us how to make and own our decisions. One of the biggest challenges I had faced was right during the time I had entered my first job.
I was hired for a sales and marketing role. Having almost negligible experience and knowledge in the same, it was a difficult start for my first steps out in the corporate world. I was not able to deliver the results and nor was I able to make any headways into my improvement. It was a very impacting time as I felt like a complete failure thinking I am not meant to succeed in this role.
But, my manager was not a kind of person to give up so easily. He talked me up, gave me the directions and pushed me to try. This was not only inspiring but also very motivating and I took it up as a challenge, a chance to prove my mettle. I slogged through the hours to learn and implement strategies for sales and marketing, I consulted my leadership team for their inputs and tried to leverage my improvement on their experiences. I was open to criticism at every step and endeavoured to put them into practice for further improvements.
Finally, my month end numbers were calculated, and I had finally breached my nonperformance barriers. Charged with confidence in my abilities, I got ready for my next set of updated targets, determined to achieve them and not afraid to fail This set up a very important life learning lesson for me that nothing is impossible if you are ready to try and fail but never ready to give up. The fruits are there for the taking, you just have to keep moving on.
#LouisPhilippe #IIMRaipur #ABGLPWooMe