Growing Bigger than your shoes

It’s been four months I am working with a startup and it may sound a bit clichéd but my learning graph here is going steep. Trust me it’s a different world all together to be in, in one word it’s eccentric.

Eccentricity in itself throws the subject so open that it gets difficult to boil down your experience in bullet form Nevertheless I would like to give it a shot.

What did I get working in a startup?

Taught me to start acknowledging what I can deliver and what does taking ownership of things mean. Learnt to break free of the 9-5 work pattern ‘coz there is no such concept here, when you work with a startup you learn to deliver 24 * 7. Though some days you will hate it (mostly when you get your paycheck) but for the rest of the time it gives you a different sort of high.

Can I prove it?

Its past midnight already and I am writing this post from my office. I am exhausted by day’s work but more importantly I am contended with what I got/learnt today.

What did I learn professionally?

When I write this question, for some reason I find it amusing now coz earlier I could differentiate between my professional and personal life but now everything seems personal and professional or vice versa. So technically, in last four months I have written/drafted so many email templates for customers, teams etc… that I don’t wish to even count at this time needless to say that only few actually got implemented. YES I am still learning/or moderately learnt the skill of writing a good email. This might really sound a very trivial job but trust me it’s not, to know what to convey and most importantly what not to convey is a big exercise in itself. On one day I handle customer queries and on another I design posters, screens, product flow, protocols, processes and what not. In just a span of two months I worked/ or rather learnt how to work on three CRMs already.

Any specific character trait this helped me building?

Sometimes when the expected delivery gap between a query/request and the solution is just a couple of hours and I don’t know how to even start with the problem, and my entire mind is fucked up with the assumed outcome I learnt to manage my stress coz at that time I have no other way but to deliver things on time. You just can afford to loose on any single request from your clients. Another very important thing I learnt is to differentiate between getting things done and getting things done perfectly/correctly. Yes this might sound one and the same thing but it’s NOT. There is a whole lot of difference between the two. The latter requires hell lot of commitment. You got to deliver stuff end to end and not just a part of it and when I say end to end it simply means you are not just responsible for what you are expected to deliver but you also need to make sure others who are working with you do the same. You have to identify all touchpoints by yourself to make sure nothing goes unnoticed. In a startup you are expected to carry your own weight so technically you are your own manager and hence you should either learn to face the brunt of your mistakes or deliver properly. The best part about working in a startup is I discovered a lot about myself, I feel good to say that somedays I am just amazed at my power/capacity of handling things, so its not just professional grooming but personally also I feel growing in leaps and bounds. I learnt to extend my boundaries coz that’s where you are expected to prove your niche.

I also learnt to filter out Priority A and Priority B things in every sphere of my life and hence this helps me leading a clutter free and more streamlined life. The entire perspective changes into getting things done rather than expecting things to be done on time. I have become so open to iterations that setbacks/failures just seem like another thing I need to get done with or find a way out to. No doubt it turns out a bit frustrating at times but when I see the end result it feels worth the effort.

Working in a startup taught me  how to keep my words, there are so many things we commit/say/promise on the fly but in this case most of the time if you say something you are expected to educate your entire team how to take it to completion. So in another words I  learnt how to cut down on gibberish banters which otherwise makes us live our life on assumptions and fake promises to thyself. The best part about working in a startup is I found people who are there by choice which I really missed in my college life or my MNC job. So again I learnt how to save myself from helpless and hollow cribs.

In the end I would like to end this post with a quote by Rabindranath Tagore

“Taking shelter in the dead is death itself, and only taking all the risk of life to the fullest extent is living.”

PS: This is the post I wrote for Startup Garage recently. Check out their workshop details and do give it a shot if it interests you. 

            

 

Life beyond Internet

! Was surprised by the substantiation that Life without Internet and online world sucks sometimes! It creates such a vacuum and makes you wonder what else is up with you? Had no work today or rather I’ll put it as failed to create enough work today (Yea that’s what you do sometimes when you work in a startup and I wondered what else I could do to spend the rest of the day. Thought of going to some place but the addiction of getting everything just on a mouse click builds so much inertia that you end up just refreshing your FB page hoping that something nice will come up on its own right there. Calling up long lost friends also looks like a big exercise coz then you will have to start from scratch explaining your life till date to proceed further with any other conversation. That’s really taxing in your already bored state. And anyways phone conversations are the worst thing to kill your time with (even though refreshing FB page is lamer). Tried changing my chat status to “Bored” as well (yea that’s what generally we do in this virtual world of online presence, convey our state with status updates!) but somehow that too failed to kill my boredom. Reading a book...I am already tired of content otherwise, watching a movie really that screen again! I think I just miss those schooldays when your life was filled with so much of work even without Internet (yea I belong to pre-internet era :-)), those geography, history and science projects and that uncle scrooge addiction. Nancy Drew used to be my ultimate hero and the painting sessions a nightmare. Evenings with your girl friends and the constant fear of missing your evening games in the park if you failed to complete your homework on time. Mild flirts sometimes with a new guy (boy) in the gang and also teasing your best friend with the ugliest guy in the society. OK I sound Old now. I should stop. But in case you feel like writing do drop in couple of suggestions as to how you prefer to spend time NOW when bored! I might learn something good for me as well.

Crisis

When In crisis look for Empathy, that’s the most healthy channel for your outburst!

Also remember Empathy is step sister of Sympathy.

Disillusionment

Assumptions I believe have an immense power to lead you to a disillusioned life. Most of the times we thrive, fight and struggle to live our assumptions coz they appear to be in sync with our goals or desires but one stroke of reality can smash them to pieces.

Question is till when we can afford to vie for these assumptions coz the wait period to see them turn into reality is a very tenacious process with an undefined life cycle. Everything can’t be confirmed from day one and hence we tend to live with a set of self-defined conviction rules to take our assumptions forth, but there has to be some amount of clear checkpoints also along the course to testify the realism of our assumptions.

Now the bigger  question is are we disciplined enough and ready yet to accept those checkpoints which might direct us to stop the chase or are we happy to live a disillusioned life till we face bigger disappointments and realize we are already out of time!

 

The Dressing Room!

Fortunately or Unfortunately I couldn’t see the World Cup Final as I was travelling but I managed to experience the dressing room aura.. No of course not of players as they were busy playing but of our fellow audience gasped by the air of speculations for the World Cup winner.

Away from the stadium, big screens, TV or any other source to watch the match each one of my fellow traveler was cursing Railways for such a pathetic and underdeveloped services (Though I was travelling in Gareeb Rath).

Would like to quote some of their disgruntled dialogues

“Are yaar yey railway ko aaj toh kuch special karaana chaiyey tha!bengali me hi dikha dete match..”

Suddenly three of them got call at the same time..

“oho changa ji!bowling kar rahe hai?......saale srilanka toss kaise jeet gaye” “kya…awaaz nahi aa rahe ….kya?jeet gaye..are haan kon jeeta toss!” “Thank God we are bowling! India wins when they chase”

And the rest of us were just gazing them even after overhearing the conversation, wanted an assurance of what exactly is happening. So an announcement was made in the corridor that we lost the toss. Some of us started losing hope then and there only and some took it in a stride and continued with our discussions on National and International problems gripping India. After a span of 15 minutes somebody again got a call and got a score update. “Are yaar yey SriLanka toh accha khel rahe hai”

On this one old lady replied “Kya pata duniya kyun itni paagal hota hai matchoo per sab khareeda hua hota hai” Two of us nodded in unison and the journey continued.. “OHO Badiya bhai..run rate toh kaboo me hai, aise he khelenge toh jeet jaaenge hum” “Meri taraf se sab ko chai agar aglee ball per wicket gira toh”

All of us knew nobody is getting tea for sure but still we waited for the next ball update. I was watching a movie on my laptop when an Uncle came to me and asked if he can see the match on this, I humbly said no as I don’t have a plugin. Disappointed uncle: Are…tum logo ko jarurat nahi padte kya net ke? Me: Uncle office me toh hota hai DU: Hann lekin travelling ke time per koi emergency aa gaye toh? Emergency..blah!I could feel his pain of being away from the screen. So I decided to keep mum.

Just when Sri Lankans were batting for the final five overs and Power Play had started “Are yey kya naya natak hai PowerPlay ka,pata nahi jee kya kya naye rules laaagu kar dete hai…Humare zaamane me toh aisa kuch nahi hota tha” “Mujhe lagta hai aaj Sachin ka shatak lagega..””Haan lagana he padega usko” “Kya Bharosa jee ?munch munch…..chai chai chai..bhaiya ek chai dena..chai chai chai..” “Uncle score kya hua” “Phone he laga raha hoon bête” “Mama chips mama chips mammmmmma chips”……”kitna…kitna…kitnaaaaaaaa 274/6 ohoo khatam ho gaya na ab toh…..” “Are… 274 hai score”…there was a moment of silence..Not that we dint believe in our team’s capability but the idea of loosing looked a little too much..

Second Innings: Munni badnaam huii…”Haan Bol Sachin aa gaya…” everybody roared with claps and hope… “Kya ……kya Shewag OUT..” “Maine toh kaha tha paise khaaye hai” So the excitement mellowed down a little..”Are Sachin hee jita sakta hai aaj toh or koi nahi..!” “SACHIN OUT” Trust me everybody had lost hope for a second. “Haar gaye hum”..”Hum haar gaye jee” “Kuch nahi rakha hai is khel me ab” “Ab toh Yuvraj he baccha sakta hai” So everybody got back to their seats and thought of taking a nap instead. I took mine Munni badnaam hui….munni badnaam hui..”Haan bol Gambhir ke 97….badiya badiya..yehi ek khilaadi accha hai..” “maine toh pehle he kahaa tha sab paisa khaate hai” “Maine 2 laks laagaye he jee aaj ke match me” munch..munch..slurppppppppp “Tension se sir kharab ho raha hai”..”haan aaj toh kharaboo lage hai jee” But then supposedly we got back in game again and there was an atmosphere of hope jubiliation and tea bets again. Finally when we reached a situation where 7 was required of 11 balls people wanted to just get out of the train and dance infact some of us sported to celebrate then and there only with a cell phone playing and a Sardaar uncle dancing to its tune…. “HUM JEET GAYEEEEEEE…..”

Entire boggie was up and celebrating the win, phones ringing incessantly for once I got scared as I was worried some of us might jump out of the moving train in the moment of this utmost madness but fortunately we reached Ahmedabad ..everyone got down had tea at the station with Famous groundnuts and OMG what a feeling it was. Random people hugging each other, crying, screaming and just happy.. Somebody lost their bets some won but nevertheless everyone was happy and proud to be the part of this win.

I had heard quite many times this game has a huge impact on Indians for the first time I felt it... BRAVO…

Mantra!

Happened to be a part of very intriguing conversation with a friend, where I was asked to define mantra of my life. Considering it as one of those clichéd philosophical discussions where I’ll have to put everything I think or believe in under a scanner and give him a concise answer I ignored the question and changed my chat status from Available to Invisible.(of course net disconnect was my obvious refuge) But the question unfortunately again got stuck in my ever restless mind (which my other set of friends consider nothing but effect of trivial job I keep looking for unlike their big MNCs ones) So left with no choice but to think, these are the few things that popped in my mind.. 1. To learn (Bullshit! that can’t be my mantra, of course I do want to learn a lot many things but m not doing stuff JUST to learn) 2. To experiment (Yes, that’s thrilling to hear but would I be experimenting at the same rate the way I do now, considering the loads amount of desired and undesired responsibilities age brings with it ) 3. To help (Damn! Who cares after a point? And this comes after I had made an unsuccessful attempt to help some NGOs with my business insights(however little I have currently) ) 4. To create (Yes, that’s something I really enjoy but Gosh everything I think of is already there and has been created, is recreating the created ones going to count) 5. To earn (Yes for now it does give a sense of confidence and happiness but is that it is that what I want...) 6. To lead (I won’t mind if I manage to do something that somebody would like to follow me, considering it can’t happen overnight and it will come unless I shake my comfort zone every now and then and prove my worth) To travel, To Read, To Run (not literally of course)...I happened to think about a lot of other things but nothing seemed satisfactory and hence I left the thought process then and there. I think like everything else mantra for life also evolves with time .One shouldn’t stop keeping a check on the choices which one makes from time to time and feel sad, happy or contended about. For now I shortlisted Learn to Create as my mantra let’s see how long does it lasts for.

Education

While I spent couple of weeks away from the office and the normal discussions on career, growth, strategy, etc. what I realized all this while is Education simply doesn’t mean knowing what you plan to learn but I think the major aspect of Education is what you choose to unlearn while striving to learn things. At least most of the things which I find are quite realistic, practical and easy to implement in my day to day life are the ones I never paid any fees for/or gotten up early to attend lectures of.

Yes courses did channelize my thought process and they did sharpen my approach at micro level but at macro level it’s always things which I learnt while I was pursuing courses, job, socializing etc.. helped.

So I believe Learning and Unlearning both should be given due consideration while we define our growth.