You always remember your first love, your first kiss, your first heartbreak.
First few things that I learnt from my first boss at my first job.
Just after my post graduation, i got my first job at Lakhani India Limited and started a marketing and sales job. The job looked cushy but within three days i was shifted from the head office to the regional office, the job suddenly became more of sales than marketing. Lakhani was struggling in the biggest market of India, New Delhi ( the capital city of India ) and hence some of the management trainees were immediately shifted to New Delhi, paired with some stalwarts from head office and some dealer representatives from New Delhi region.
The combination was a deadly combination, the stalwarts were full of confidence, though it was sort of a demotion for them but as they were connected to the head office, they always knew that their stint over here was going to be short. The freshers like me were full of enthusiasm, not knowing what its going to be, but we were all full of confidence and wanted to prove ourselves to everyone out there in the office, home and friend circle. The lower wrung who came from the dealer fraternity were all scared, but had good relations with the retailers all over the market and were all game to play fair, unfair or whatever.
My journey at Lakhani was for almost 2 1/2 years, I started slow, learnt the ropes, it was pretty difficult in the beginning but it all ended very well and it was a huge experience for me. The biggest factor of my learning and success was my immediate boss, Surinder Bansal. We call him Bansalji, Bansalji was from head office, very close to the owner of Lakhani India, as I said earlier a stalwart in himself, had loads of experience in the footwear industry and was a trusted, intelligent and warm manager at Lakhani India. I am not sure what clicked between us, but he became my mentor and taught me so many things and I am always grateful for him to be there in my life during that time. No one after him, came in my life who would have taught me the tricks of the trade. In-fact I never felt the need, he taught me almost everything.
Few things that I learnt from him while working alongside are listed below, these are really the secret for a strong foundation, I would advice all freshers to follow them and would also advice all managers to follow to create life long mentees.
- There is no substitute to hard work. Hard work not only pays you but it also builds your character. Your hard work contributes to success and also increase your happiness. If you get a reward without much hard work and efforts then this reward will for sure not improve you personally, it will make you over-confident and promote you towards dependency.
2. If you think you are too big for small jobs, maybe you’re too small for big jobs. In its simple philosophy, work is worship. Whatever you do with full dedication you are adding your essence to the world. It is the people’s hackneyed perception that classifies a job as a big or small. Many often, people categorise these jobs in terms of the pay that a person earns. Now, just imagine if everyone is doing the same work — can the world survive ? At my job in Lakhani I had to carry a bag full of shoes and I always used to feel like a porter but a lesson learnt that time today helps me in effectively working with the senior-most and the junior-most, building a one-on-one relationship with all my colleagues.
3. A sense of humour is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done. Humour is the key to success at work. You spend huge chunks of your waking hours at work, so you don’t want it to be a death march. Humour — deftly employed — is a great way to win friends and influence people. You need to be funny, but not snarky (that’s not good for team building) and you can’t offend anyone. Humour is a potent stress buster, its humanising and immediately puts people at ease. Humour creates an upbeat atmosphere that encourages interaction, brainstorming of new ideas, and a feeling that there are few risks in thinking outside the box. All that leads to greater productivity, so be jovial at work. Bansalji used to always lighten up the entire environment with his humour and anecdotes and that one thing always stayed with me, today I apply that in my everyday work and keep the balance.
4. The wind does not break a tree that bends. When life’s strong winds come blowing, bend with them and let go. By bending you will become stronger in new places. By letting go, you will be making room for the new and better. I use to get frustrated when even after putting all my efforts I was taken to task, he always used to calm me down and used to ask me to wait for an opportune time to give it back. This brought a lot of patience in my working style, and helped me in my career.
5. Never eat alone, always break the bread with someone. The companionable effects of breaking bread makes it so easy to bring people together. I was staying away from home and working but Bansalji always used to get his lunch from home and he always used to share his food with me, this helped me in building bonds with him. The bond became so strong that we finally became friends. There was not a single shopping area in delhi where we didn’t eat water balls ( we call them gol gappas in india ). It always used to be work with fun and we cherish those memories today as well.
6. Tough Times Never Last but Tough People Do. Every mountain has a peak. Every valley has its low point. Life has its ups and downs, its peaks and its valleys. No one is up all the time, nor are we down all the time. Problems do end. They do go away. They are all resolved in time. Bansalji always used to say that even Lord Rama had to be in exile for 14 years, then who are you ?Hold on and this too shall pass. Today whenever I am down I always remember what he used to say and look at the positive side and wait for the tide to go down.
7. Talent without discipline is worthless. A lot of people have skills, in fact probably most of us do. But few of us are actually any good at what we do. That’s not because we lack innate ability, but because we lack the discipline to build those skills into something more. During our early times at Lakhani, Bansalji was always punctual and had an everyday routine, whether we had work or not. He always used to reinforce in me that you are talented but you always should have discipline, you should always show-up even if there is no work, consistency is the key and sometimes it makes an average performer talented as well.
8. Never Quit, every expert was once a beginner. It’s easy to get discouraged when you’re trying to learn something new. The fact that everywhere you turn, someone is telling you “you’re doing it wrong” makes this process even tougher. The idea is if you are a beginner, never get weighed down by people with experience and age. At the end of the day everyone is human and in the end the best always wins, you just need to keep moving. In the beginning when I said there were some experienced reps from dealer fraternity, i meant what i am saying now. I always used to get bogged down by them but Bansalji taught me how to be strong, focus on my skills as a manager and learn fast, soon I was doing better than the others and times were different.
9. Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable, than loyalty. There is no bigger virtue than being honest and loyal to your work and alma matter where you are working, money will come and go but that will not make you rich, what will make you rich is your character which can only be defined if you are honest and loyal. Bansalji was the epitome of honesty and loyalty, inspite of all the pains and hurdles while he came to delhi, he stayed loyal to the organisation till the end, it stayed on with me till date.
10. Those who tell the stories rule societies. Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today. Bansalji was a pro at storytelling and thats the very specific reason why we who worked with him, still remember everything that he told us. Tell your stories to the world, they will remember it for years.
The above 10 commandments are very precious if you believe in them, it can change a freshers life as it changed mine or It can lead you to be a leader and mentor just like Bansalji.
The choice is yours to make. Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. So choose wisely
Choose what you believe in and be happy…
Cheers
NG
