i went back in time today. to my first couple of sales assignments. i used to have a bike, wore formal clothes, wore a wind cheater so that my shirt wouldnt get dirty, and did something called 'cold calls'. funny how i never felt ashamed walking into a companies reception and asking for contact details of people i could meet and talk about my business proposition. 8 out of 10 times they would treat me like dirt. the 2 who actually were nice became my clients. there was no other option. sales figures had to be met. now that i think about it, i wasnt really that successful a sales guy in the beginning. it was tough. i hated it. all my friends were moving up in life and i was still stuck in what i thought was a shitty job. it got to the level where a daily drink was a done thing. it got worse when the purpose of the daily drink was to get drunk. there were days when i missed on the drink session, i wouldnt be able to sleep at night.
then ofcourse i started changing jobs. sold CRM solutions, anti viruses, operating systems, firewalls, ms office, ms project, infact the complete range of ms products. then one day i just couldnt handle it anymore. ya i did get influenced by friends, but it was so strong an influence that i quit my job. i still remember that day, i was so fucked in my head and then my boss asked me whether i can do the numbers i had promised. i just looked at him and told him i cant. he asked me what i want to do and i just looked at him and said 'i quit'. i walked out of that office soon after and only went back to get my final settlement. i remember it was in the afternoon and i also remember rajeev calling me gen-generally. he told me that he was heading to a gig venue to do a sound check. i told him to hang on and that i would join him. i did. i later went for the gig and had a blast. told my parents i had quit and they werent too happy about it but they let me be. the drinking continued. a trip to Goa happended with Virat soon after. three months later i was so broke that i couldnt fill petrol in the bike so i started walking. those were the days that rajeev and i really got close. we both didnt have a job. a lot of shit happened in those three months. then one day after shitloads of mind fucking days and night, i started floating my resume around. rajeev and i gave an interview on the same day. we got thru. i ofcourse joined a company which was really really small. rajeev joined one of the top 10 companies in the world. we started working on the same day.
it seems like a long time back but i know that i slogged my ass off in that job. did it for 3 years and since then things have been slowly falling in place (thank God).
why did this come back today. i have no clue but i wish i played those memories back more often, to remind me of the fact that life aint easy, i cant take things for granted. i want to give everything i do my best shot. i want to value what i have. i want to be thankful that i get 3 sometimes 4 or 5 meals a day. i want to be thankful that i have a roof over my head, warm clothes when its cold, good health to be able to do my work. ya there is a lot i am thankful for and i just need to keep the memories of the bad times, fresh.
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