It was a beautiful day. In a beautiful city. And I had not felt more confident.
It was a beautiful day. It was Valentine’s Day. And I had got myself a date. With SPJIMR.
Underslept and yet as fresh as a blossomed flower in the confidence that I have come to chase an ambition, out I stepped into the cab that sped away through the ambient garden city. I was seeing Bangalore for the first time – glossy buildings and its trees aplenty. I had come from the geographically neighbouring culturally faraway Chennai late last night to attend the interview, having scheduled it on Valentine’s Day deliberately.
I decided to see the city before I went to the venue because my reporting time was 2p.m. And I roamed. Give a Calcuttan-Chennaite this weather in March and they will roam. It’s 1:00 p.m. already? I better have lunch. Didn’t that More Megastore I crossed 500 metres ago have a Wow Momo? Sizzler it is.
There really isn’t enough time. And there is no way I can go like this. SPJIMR interview. And she had had to spill momo chutney all over my shirt with a swerve of her handbag. That passer-by. It’s orange now, at least the top right shoulder. And I had just gone 20 km to the Pantaloons in Navalur yesterday to buy this shirt.
I’m running late for the interview and I can’t go like this. With a shirt half orange. At least the left shoulder. I began to freak.
But I’m aspiring to learn to be a manager. These are situations I’ve got to learn to be calm in. Where is the nearest Pantaloons? Come out Google maps.
There you go. 500 metres. Thank God for Pantaloons. I ran.
I needed a blazer anyway. I had just been postponing buying as a way of reprimanding myself for growing too fat for the last one. But this Louis Phillippe one here complements me too well and it’s too late. I grabbed. And again, I ran.
I did attend the interview. It went well. That is why, today, #IamSPJIMR. Thank you ABG.
From Impediments to Ambition
Projects were falling. Everybody murmured in hushed whispers. It had been a failure of leadership. Managers were leaving. Ours had left too.
They were firing too.
I could see the fall in leadership. They hadn’t fired me but I had the constant fear.
I could try changing jobs but I had this bond. I increased working. Enough that I caught my new manager’s eye. I convinced her to let me talk to the client. Once I got the client-facing role, I began the double dose of convincing the client to give us additional responsibility and convincing the team to slowly do more and faster.
The client started praising us. The company started praising us that this was one project less lost. And I started realizing that I should never stop feeding the manager in me.