How I became a Sales Guy!!!

The journey started about 16 years ago when I passed my 10th exams with great difficulty and obtained just about passing marks in Physics, Chemistry and Maths, since those subjects were and are still like “Taare Zameen Par” kind of devils for me…My parents and myself never knew if I would ever do anything in life…Well the results came…I managed to pass and not only surprised my parents, friends but myself too…Well that clarified one thing that my teachers were also as intelligent as me else I wouldnt have passed for sure…The fact is that I even didnt know what I wrote in the exams …

Then came the message from the Princi (Principal) who gracefully invited my parents to tell them that I have been given Commerce owing to my credentials in the Xth exams leaving no much options for my parents…Quite interestingly I got almost all my friends in the Commerce section since they were all on par with me in the intellect required to be an engineer or a doctor

Well it was the first time after 15 years of life (birth till 10th standard) I felt so relieved since Maths and Science were going to be history for me…uff what a torture it was to learn that greek and latin subjects (Maths and science)

The life changed for me when I entered class XIth…I had all new subjects like Commerce, economics, accounts (only plus and minus calculations … Our professor Mr. Pandey entered the classroom and started blabbering his usual speech on economics and stuff…all was going above my head but this time I wasnt worried at all since I knew that one could just by heart these subjects and pass the exams easily…Well during one of the classroom sessions Pandey Sir asked me to get up and answer the question and I stood in the classroom like an idiot without even knowing what topic was being taught in the class…Well he complemented me saying that I would “NEVER PASS IN ECONOMICS”…

I accepted his complement gracefully and went his home next day to join his SPECIAL tuition classes to make sure that I prove him wrong (that I would “NEVER PASS IN ECONOMICS”) coz I knew that the tuition fees (Guru Dakshina) was paid not to learn the subject but to guarantee me passing marks in the subject .

SO XIth got over and I managed to pass easily in all the subjects but all this while (XIth standard) I had realised that I could excel in Commerce if I paid good attention to the subjects coz it wasn’t at all difficult since there was not logic required in any of these subjects…

I was promoted to class XIIth and this time I had made up my mind that I would change the history and do something that would make my parents and everybody proud of me…I started taking my subjects seriously for the first time and gradually developed interest in almost all of them especially Economics….Soon the year got over and Board exams came and this time I was a confident man..To everyones surprise I not only passed my XIIth (Board) exams with 83% but got 2nd rank in the college and and and“BECAME ALL INDIA TOPPER IN ECONOMICS IN 2000 BATCH”securing 96% in the subject…Noone knew how it happened except me because I knew that I got it all after a lot of hardwork and dedication and this time I was PROUD since I had tasted Success and Victory for the first time….I finally proved Mr. Pandey wrong (that I would “NEVER PASS IN ECONOMICS”)….But let me honestly confess that he was the happiest man in the world and also the man behind my success (MY IDEAL) since all this happened because of his blessings and learnings I took from him during this 1 year (XIIth)…

LIFE CHANGED FOR ME FOREVER AFTER….

I was now a topper..hmmm topper…it was time to celebrate…My princi sent an invitation to all the students and their parents who had secured highest marks in individual subjects…Incidentally my father got transferred to a new location and we had to move immediately after my Board exams…We had no choice but to give a miss to this ocassion which would have made my parents proud for the first time…But yes I could for the first time feel their happiness and contentment after they saw my results.

Schooling was over and the big question was what next??? I had no one from my family from a Commerce background to counsel me on best career choices…It was time for me to go back to Pandey Sir and seek his guidance…He advised me to try for admission in Sri ram college (SRCC) or Stephens since according to him I could have easily got admission in any of the colleges based on the merit. I went home and discussed his advice with my parents who were neither for nor against this option coz they did not know the future.

I was utterly butterly confused…Then came the relatives who would never be happy to see someones child doing well in career…They said that I am going to spoil my life after doing BA (Economics hons) coz according to them there was no career in commerce, coz they only knew about engineering, medical and felt that other options would take me nowhere, thus adding to my woes…

I was on the cross roads of my life and the achievement looked so small then, that I did not know if it was worth putting so much efforts, to land in vain…

The time was passing and I had little time at hand to decide on things…I finally decided to apply in Stephens and Sri Ram college and then came the biggest jerk, that the forms were sold and I had to miss a year if I were to try again in any of these colleges…To me this was perhaps the biggest mistake of my life and I still regret the same in some corner of my heart…

All this while I was clear that at any cost I wouldnt go for a B.com coz i knew for sure that there was no career after doing B.Com or M.com since these degress would either make me a Teacher or an Accountant…and I had never dreamt to be either of these….

It was high time that I decided on the next step since there was pressure from parents and all other corners since some friends started preparing for CA, others joined BBA and stuff…

Now the life took the biggest “U” turn…Guess what…May be you would never be able to guess it….

I joined a degree programme called BMIT (Bachelor of Management and Information technology) which was offered by Garhwal University and was a culmination of both management and IT…How I got into it was becoz my brother was aleady pursuing this programme in Dehradun in the college where I decided to take the admission…He was a brilliant student, so he could easily convince his director to offer me admisison for this programme and the director agreed to grant me admission for this programme…Well the other reason why I felt that choosing this programme wouldn’t be a bad choice for the reason that it was a culmination of management subjects (commerce, business, accounts) which I studied during class XIth and XIIth; and IT, which I was fairly good at since I had studied it too from VIth till XIIth…I took the admission thinking that may be I could try for a software engineer position after this programme…

Imagine the risks I was taking all this while with my career, praying that I don’t hit a dead end after coming a long way, fighting against all odds that were endless during the journey in the early stages of my career…

Rohit

To be continued…