7 years : time for a pat on the back

7 years : time for a pat on the back

This day, in '99, Vivek started his career with ITC at Bangalore. I complete mine on 5th July. I'm not sure why I'm writing this but on my ride back home today, I was just contemplating on what it has taken us to reach here and what lies ahead. Sometimes, when things go well, you take them for granted. 7 years is probably not a big accomplishment to write about, maybe it is. For you know, before we realize, it would be time to plan for retirement and calculate pension funds.

The vision of success will always be farfetched based on what you perceive as one. The parameters change with time but despite that V's career graph has been interesting to me - came with it unpredictable moves and risks. Its time to reminisce some of the decisive moments that catapulted the growth.

When everything was going exceptionally well for him at US, he decided to give it all up and move back to India. I wondered why? He has a way with words and reasoning that is convincing so long he is talking ..always has been that way :) "A house in the suburbs with white picket fence, a '93 Honda/Toyota to drive, a nomadic life with a consulting job, shopping in Walmart, aspirations for green card, 2 yearly ritual of traveling back home to visit eager parents and kids born in the US is not what my idea of a life is. I feel stifled with no growth path. Make your money and get out.", he said then and still maintains.
I found my answer recently through this post -
Time to quit? Seth writes beautifully it is time to get out when you start feeling comfortable. Which is exactly what happened then!

Calling it quits is perhaps the most difficult decision to make when you don't have to prove yourself anymore and feel secured. But then you've also hit the glass ceiling then!

Fostering relationships : I've known a very few people who would volunteer for a cut in their pay package to keep the team spirit alive. Again, I thought to myself "who does that? Why be so philanthropic?" Time just proves that I'm not mature and don't see the big picture. I've heard this often from him, "Businesses are built on people. And they need to be happy and passionate about what they do. That is the business of business. After a period, its not how much you know, its who you know." So I said to myself, "Well, its all about the relationships, stupid!"

Passion : Money matters. But its not always about the money. When passion takes precedence, everything else does not matter. My disenchantment with corporate life is no secret. So it remains a mystery how one can be so passionate about work all the time. Perhaps, freedom and authority is part of the answer. But it didn't come on a platter. For me, it has been nothing more than job - a means to get a paycheck every month. It goes way beyond that for him. And amazingly none of this has ever interfered with personal life. Call it work-life balance or whatever!


The journey continues...

Categories: work, career, relationship, passion