You will not know what you are good at unless you try it. Stop Thinking, Start Acting!!
In my first management role, I helped the company register a 3x growth with 41% hike in revenue, by monetizing the existing data and resources, and introduced them in 2 new verticals. Not big numbers? Well, these are 1-year start when I freshly switched my profile from a Full Stack Developer to a Business Developer.
The perk of being in a Start-up is that you get to try out multiple roles, for me, it has ranged from Project Manager to Business Developer, to Business Strategist and from hearing peers’ poor jokes to planning their personal growth.
Success is the result of HUNGER!!
As a software developer I got recruited in a top IT MNC, 3 months went by pretty smooth. Everything happened in proper sequence; Got JAVA, no bench, worked for one of the biggest clients, great project and amazing peers.
Not long before I realized that technology updates are like Prince Robert’s wife, there is gonna be a new one around the corner every couple of month.
I proactively learning new languages starting with Ext JS and went on to learn Angular JS, Ember JS, Node JS and Mongo DB (of course JAVA that was my core) to a point where I took training sessions within the company.
Oh did I forget to mention that I also developed a POC (proof of concept) project with a 4 member team, to 6 months later give a presentation to a UK client who later awarded us and funded the project. I made official contribution to the Internal Knowledge Repository, which was appreciated by peers globally, which helped me become a consultant developer for 3 internal Ember JS projects.
But probably there was more to life. The growth was slow, I needed more exposure, more power, more opportunity.
No Deal is bigger than your inner feeling !!
With 1.8 years of experience, I got my first opportunity to switch with a hike of 250% (yes, yes Indian developers are cheap) at full stack developer profile in Johannesburg (SA) and with a lucrative opportunity of travel US for understanding clients needs.
Somewhere it didn’t feel right, I loved coding but I was also fairly good at leading teams, gathering requirement, management and understanding the audience.
I respectfully declined the offer to understand what I really wanted to do, with a world full of opportunities.
Reality hitting Hard!
Here I stood for the first time in my life with nothing in hand. I had already quit the job in one of the biggest IT company, I declined the offer letter of a dream job (for me) and I made a blunder in the exam for which I spent 5 months preparing.
The most disturbing part was to not realize the what I really wanted to do, what is my interest. Meanwhile, I was already helping Tech-based companies acquire clients and generate revenues. It did make me feel good to see the companies follow right ethics and grow by providing value to their clients.
After wasting 2 months I decided to change the strategy from thinking to taking action.
Realizing how fast the world is moving!!
I got the exposure of billion-dollar startups making a global impact like Wittyfeed, Appointy, Paytm, Flipkart, and Ola. It became blatantly clear to me that my next target is to work in global market.
The realization led me to an Interview at a 2-year-old startup for Business Developer position with a contract of 1 year, the role was to acquire global clients and grow the company. 3 rounds, 3 hours and the position was mine . “Yes, the game was ON”.
Grabbing it by the balls!!
I worked rigorously, in 3 months I was also handling Project Management, in next 3 months Business Strategy was added, in next 2 months, I was overlooking support, sales, and marketing as well.
You must be thinking that I took it way too fast and should have given it more time to absorb the role, so did my parents. But ask the founder who enjoyed 3x growth at 41% revenue growth, he might have a different story to say. I was tireless, highly motivated, wanted to try too many things and a startup was just the right platform.
The grapes do taste sweet !!
What a ride it was, in the 1 year I was generated 116 global leads, converted 78, and delivered 28 projects successfully. More importantly, in a survey, my Client Happiness Index stands at 75% and my Team Happiness Index was astonishingly high at 98% . I knew I have found my domain.
But I think my true achievement stands neither at 67% conversion rate nor at 75% happiness index, rather it is the fact that I was able to help set right processes, grow the company in 2 new verticals, find ways of monetizing the existing data and resources, and help the team stay motivated towards the goal.
The Journey Began!!
I started giving consultancy to multiple companies majorly across 5 countries. Interacting with the people and traveling to places across the globe definitely opened my horizon.
Every morning I would wake up to read about the success story of my clients and their messages thanking me for the services.
YES I have found my domain but the HUNGER is not yet satisfied.
I ain’t tired and I ain’t stopping !!
6 Learnings of my journey!!
- If you are looking for starting a new venture and consulting friends for it, only 5% of all the people you meet would be serious about doing something. So don’t waste your time start already.
- Experiment while you can. If you haven’t found your strength, just try new challenges and say YES to everything that comes your way.
- Leadership is about making new leaders.
- Be the king of one rather than Jack of all.
- To be successful you need to be pro-active and keep learning.
- Always have big dream but break it into small actions.
- Never be satisfied.
The world is too big, the problems are too many, opportunities are endless. Focus on solving real problems do something truly great.
Everything is Possible !!
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