All that matters is….determination

Back in Jan’2003, I had it all, I had graduated with decent marks in B’Com from Bangalore University, I was working as an Staff Accountant in one of the Big 5 Consulting Firms (yes, it used to be the Big 5 then), I was earning a decent sum of money (as much as a 2.5 yr work exp graduate would earn in those days), in a nutshell life was good.

And then on 30-Jan-2003, I was called by my Manager into his cubicle. He gently broke the news that the new firm which had taken over mine had come up with new rules regarding graduates. We all had to compulsorily take up the Chartered Accountancy course and clear the same if we wanted to continue working. That sentence pretty much spelt the death knell for me as far as my job was concerned. I took 5 mins, thought through the issue and conveyed my decision to my Manager, I would quit. Cut to end of day, 30-Jan-2003, I walked out of the office of my first employer for the last time.

There I was, on my Kinetic Honda, without a job, not knowing what I was going to do from the next day onwards, both my parents retired and living off their retirement savings, my only source of income run dry.

To say that the next few days were terrible would be an understatement. Words cannot describe the despair that I went through at that point in time. As if this weren’t enough, none of my colleagues from my first job even bothered to call me, check on what I was doing, send me a mail, nothing. I am quite sure all of them were not so busy that they completely forgot that I even existed. As if losing a job weren’t enough, it was almost like I had lost almost every single friend that I ever had, given the amount of time, energy and efforts that I had expended in keeping these friendships active over the last 2.5 yrs.

Cut to 2013, I have just completed my 7^th year of professional experience after my MBA at IIM Indore. I am now happily married with a 2 yr old daughter. My parents still live off their retirement savings, but at least now they are not worried about what I am going to do with my life. So what changed? How did I cope with those first few weeks of Feb-2003? What kept me going?

Looking back today, I guess (or actually I am sure) that the only thing that kept me going was sheer grit and determination. The fact that I was 23 yrs old, of prime age to be earning and supporting my parents as an only child, the motivation that I had the rest of my life to do something useful with it, these are the things that kept me going. While my parents were a pillar of support (both financially and just in terms of being there), the fact remains that this was one battle which I had to fight all alone. Of the very few people who were with me at that time, one cousin and two childhood friends were sturdy rocks whom I could lean upon. They provided me with that occasional outlet when I could actually discuss my fears, tribulations, misgivings with them. They patiently listened to me and kept motivating me by telling me that I had ‘it’ in me to come over this situation successfully.

Those few months in early 2003, I really and truly learnt that all that matters is how determined you are to succeed, how much do you really want all that you have dreamt about. If there is enough determination, then a person will figure out the best way to achieve all that he wants to, no two ways about it.

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