My childhood is filled with frequent postings my dad received while serving in the army. From humble beginnings to have comfortably settled down in life makes me appreciate the tenacity and determination my parents have. Those postings led to me having to switch many schools during my early childhood. The parts that I do remember were tough. I am told that I initially went with the flow and wait for the next posting. Eventually though I learnt that I could make connections through my love for Noddy that I could share with anyone my age even without knowing their name. In fact, my journey begins with our final posting to Secunderabad in '99.
In primary school, I had one best friend – Arjun. He showed me first hand what 'success' means and can buy in an civilian life. The whole family was amazingly generous with their affection, time and money. They even took me on an all expense trip to J&K. They only knew my parents by name and maybe met them a handful of times before they decided on the trip. This brings us to one of my first regrets in life. This made me recall why I refused the trip they graciously invited me to - a circuit tour of Europe. I was jealous of their wealth not in a malicious way but in an immature childish way as you can imagine from a 14 year old. It was then that I vowed to carve out my own path. To ensure I can be financial independent as well as support my parents through their golden years. It was then that I began to understand the value of money, albeit still at a very nascent stage. I began saving the pocket money that I got to buy the newly launched Cheetos with ‘pokemon tazos’. I quickly realised that some were far more rare than others. The pokemon craze was real and some 17 year olds had more disposable income than me. I would buy as many of these Cheetos as possible and begin trading and collecting the rare items from by friends. I would then sell some (not all) of the most prized items to the older teenagers. Thinking back I got lucky that the internet was not mainstream and that a lot of these rare items just happened to be rare in our general area. That was my first lesson in making lemonade from lemons.
After further exploration that was higher secondary education at FIITJEE, I realised engineering is not what I want from life. Funny enough, the first day made me realise this. I could never connect with the subjects. It seemed like they had warped subjects like Physics and Chemistry which I found through the Discovery channel as a kid and turned it into the most drab drivel I had ever experienced. My parents leveled with me and made sure I understood the meaning of seeing things through to the end. I sunk my teeth into it and did whatever I had to be done. A lesson I cherish to this day. It was at the end of 12th grade that I realised how competitive the future ahead of me was. At this point is when I decided that I need to buck up and jump right into the deep end that is adulthood. I vowed that I would keep my grades up in whichever college I got into. What I learnt here was that hindsight makes us regret at times and melancholic at others. However the take away should always be of learning and not regret.
The 1st year of my under graduation was bitter sweet. I found it difficult to come out of my shell and made the mistake of just making friends with my partner at the time. This taught me the important lesson that is the separation between Church and state. In the 2nd year is when I forced myself to participate in management fests and found my love for designing rounds in fests. In the 3rd year I had the opportunity to organise fests and head events, in the process I made some good friends with seniors. They were some of the brightest minds in their batch and had great placements like Goldman Sachs and Northern Trust among other reputable MNCs. After some time passed, I got a chance to ask them what their jobs entailed. I realised no matter the sector it is all about operations at this stage in our careers. In fact drilling down further I learnt its about gaining expertise in an extremely niche process which often cannot translate to opportunities at other companies. After this realization I decided my main goal was to gain real hands experience and explore and understand what various industries might look like in 2, 4 and even 6 years down the line. I bound my time and worked on myself till I landed a job at a start-up. Faced many of the usual suspects in this sort of environment. Be it how to deal with informal workplace infrastructures or at times assignments lost in translation. I learnt that if I continue to provide value beyond my job role then overcoming most of these challenges comes within my grasp.
At the 2nd startup I struggled with convincing potential investors for a short while, our team then found a workaround: We were able to use 'anti selling' where many competitors were struggling to distinguish and differentiate themselves. This worked especially well with the younger demographic (24-28). In the financial space investors have time and again been bombarded and saturated with overly positive assurances about the assets and tools of investments. We took a different route, we ensured that not only did we genuinely answers all queries a prospective investor might have but more importantly, we emphasised the risk and negatives of that particular type of investment. Often leading to a segue about how they should take their time, take a step back and reassess their thoughts. If this is something they really want. Not only did this build trust but also helped us convert many prospects.
To pivot back to marketing after my brief stint in finance was the toughest and scariest decision of my life. Yet here I am loving every second through the pain, stress, networks and friendships that have fostered.
-TAPMI
