Mowing Your Green Grass

In March 2020, exactly four months ago, the newspapers covered one subjective article as India came to a standstill. “Coronavirus: India enters 'total lockdown', road, air and rail services to be suspended”, said the headline. The article went on to explain about how such a preventive measure will be the first in history of Independent India and its various implications. Little did we knew at that point of time about how the upcoming period is about to redefine our entire lifestyle and shatter many prejudices which until now have been very much a part of our abstract reality.

The debate over pursuing an entrepreneurial career instead of a steady income white collared job has been existing in our minds for decades but we all hardly ever paid the required attention to ponder over it unless this pandemic struck us. Over the last few months, I could interact with multiple people from different spheres of life, who all are affected owing to the shrinking of the global economy. While there are many who opted out from their jobs to pursue an entrepreneurial journey, few even could manage to grab better job opportunities and switch employers in the meantime. But the most interesting point was that very few (almost none truly) left their entrepreneurial journey and started pursuing their job of interest because of their earning-to-spending ratio getting altered, for worse generally.

The global economy has now started crawling back and therefore things have started moving slowly-but-steadily, towards the light at the end of the tunnel. Keeping in mind this developmental thought, I embarked on my very first interstate travel between Delhi & Gujarat on 14th July 2020 along with my mentor Mr. Ankur Sachdeva in order to get a first-hand experience of how our upgraded manufacturing facility is taking shape. We both were very sceptical about undertaking this travel due to the obvious news of increasing cases everywhere and had done not less than 48 hours of research to know about various health & safety protocols in place. We also learnt about how we needed to change our travel patterns in order to fit into this new way of flying, but to our surprise we found the experience like a soothing breeze, as we could personally experience the way how businesses in the hospitality sector (from airlines to hotels to car rentals) has responded to this new normal.

On 15th July 2020, we were personally satisfied to see & check all the planned upgradations taking place and last-minute Midas-Touches giving shape to our vision of setting-up an industry-first example of business collaboration in India’s wood panel industry. We both kept an open eye to note down all minute details at the shop floor including machineries, workers, new rules/regulations etc. and that’s when this thought struck me really hard. All that glitters can be one well mowed lush green grass looking yellow in the sunshine and not gold?

Later in the evening, Mr. Sachdeva was kind enough to make me understand about a line existing between pursuing an entrepreneurial journey & a job and how with time this line has only become thinner & thinner. In today’s context, specifically in the new normal, this thinner line is at its thinnest thickness ever. As I kept pondering over it during the next few days, I could gradually realise that many people choose to pursue a career not because of their interests in that area but many a time because of various pressure factors viz. family, peers, society etc. affecting directly or indirectly. This community (not all but many) are also the ones who had to jump the ship in order to try out their perseverance in the field of entrepreneurship when the vessel started shaking during this ongoing crisis without really having the required visibility of how to navigate through upstream turbulent waters.

Therefore, from what I could see, learn & experience, it becomes absolutely clear that we all (job holders) should try to learn certain necessary skillsets to survive and thrive. Navigating through tough times is an imperative which not all will understand and definitely not all can manage, especially if you’re not having a bird’s eye view of the business. But as a person pursuing my regular everyday job, I should also try to know a bit more about the larger picture as well and quickly learn all important details as if it’s my own business, because then & only then I’ll be preparing myself for another unforeseen pandemic which can knock our doors tomorrow. The question is ‘Do we all really need a pandemic to make us understand and follow our heart in order to break the shackle of an uninspiring future?’

Each of us can hope to achieve our own audacious dreams, be it in our job or in our entrepreneurial journey if we persist, and learn, and persist. And as Shakespeare wrote it in his famous play The Merchant of Venice, “all that glitters is not gold”. Do you concur?

Notes: The views & opinions expressed above are author’s personal and not be reproduced or reprinted anywhere else without permission.