Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.
– John Lennon
You know that classic question they ask at interviews – where do you see yourself 10 years from now? It would always stump me. Kaash life main itni clarity hoti! I would escape them by giving “good” answers as taught by the institute preparing us for our MBA entrance exams. “Head of a Marketing Function” – I would blurt out mechanically. Ten years later, I am on my own.
About to co-start a content marketing firm.
And transitioning into this journey has had its share of ups and downs.
Let me ask you a question. Are you working in a corporate? Then you have must have faced this at least once (and note them particularly on Friday evenings over drinks) “Chal yaar, ab kuch apna start karte hain!”
Start-up seems to seem to be the buzzword. Everyone wants to try their hand at one. Not for me. Entrepreneurs fascinated me from childhood. How does someone create an empire from one dream? What joy to see that dream taking shape in front of you! I would read stories of how one man challenged the textile industry, another woman gave millions like her employment with a collective of the humble papads and simply love it!
But Salary, as they say, is an addiction. And in ten years the addiction grows to an extent that it engulfs you. Yet, somewhere down my heart that little ray of hope remained. Yes, I wanted to do this.
I found my calling – storytelling. Brand Stories, anecdotes from my life (that left others laughing), Children s Stories. What joy it was to take the audience on a joyride. Only to have them longing for more at the end of it!
Of course, it wasn’t easy. I would try ten things, fail at eight but get two which I could build on further. Next step was taking up free-lance projects with my job. Which meant moonlighting after office post tucking my little one off to bed. Which also meant my “office hours” were so late that clients would have slept off by then. But yes that gave me confidence. That I could handle orders. I could deliver on time. All my life I had only prepared briefs. It was now time to understand them!
Small drops of orders started trickling in that gave me the hope of doing this on a full-time basis. And then came the day I decided to take the final plunge.
Honestly, that day was easy. You know when does it hit hard? When you actually hit that “exit” button in the HR system.
And yes that was only the beginning. No SMS beeps of salary at the month-end, gulping your lunch all alone (which more often than not is veggies rolled in a chapatti to save time with a cabbie as company), typing alone for hours, battling everything from the registration, website, long waits at the reception, unanswered calls, Sundays spent slogging away at a deadline –yet it was and will continuously remain fun. For both – my partner and I.
Guess because we are pouring our hearts in everything we do.
The repeat orders, the positive replies, the references, payments coming in – the little kicks as our baby takes its first steps!
Aah! Exciting times ahead.