Hard work….

This is meant to be a 2 part post. The first part is about how I got to where I am today. The second part is to try and really let it out on a few people who contradict everything which will be written in this post.

Before you get far on my post – why don’t you give this gal a visit and read her excellent post!

Right, so let me take you back a couple of generations.

My paternal grandad (and the family) live in a fort “city” off the west coast of India. When they moved to the coastal town (which is the birth place of my dad) in the 1940s, grandad worked for the local government but also moonlighted (and didn’t command a salary) as an administrative person at the local college. Through the years he sweat his socks off and built a legacy for our family. He raised my uncles, aunts and my dad on that one wage. He also contributed big time in the day to day dealings within our town, and as a result earned a lot of respect from all communities. The state of affairs is such now that you have to step into our town in India (it’s a fairly big town), and have to mention my late granddads name, and anyone – and I mean anyone will correctly direct you to our house.

My Maternal grandad is the same. He is a huge philanthropist without being a rich guy…. well, he is rich at heart. This is a guy who in his late 70’s and early 80’s organised and collected almost 10,000 pounds (as in the currency!) from within our community to build 10 new houses and a HUUUGEEE water tank for his little village. The houses were meant for those families who lost their houses during a landslide, and the water tank provides water for teh village. The rain water is collected in the tank, and then filtered and supplied to the houses in teh village. In his early life, he worked hard, and provided not only for his family (7 brothers and sisters), but helped other people too. His philosophy is that when one hand gives, the other hand should not know.

My folks are the same. Mom was a teacher. I don’t know how to appreciate teachers. Words definitely cannot be enough. A teacher is the one who has made you what you are today, and their hard work and effort is often unappreciated. However, they don’t stand about looking for compliments; they just carry on – educating the next batch. Hence, I will not even attempt to describe how hard my mom worked professionally and also raising the 3 of us (all boys). She is also the rock of her family, and the respect which she gets from her own siblings and relatives says enough about what this lady has done for our family.

My dad was a TV mechanic in his 20’s, but on the death of his older brother (and main bread earner) in India, he moved to the Middle East to try and earn and provide for his family. He now is the assistant financial controller for the UK operations for a bank which stands in the top 600 banks in the world. Again, not only did he work hard for us, but he also provided and still does as far as possible for his family – because that’s what you do.

Which now brings me to Me, and why I really wanted to write this post. I make it known, and I guess known well – I am an underachiever. Speak to any of my teachers throughout my educational life, they will tell you of the promise and of the disappointments. Ask the coaches about the cuts I missed, because I just didn’t cut the mustard at times – it wasn’t ability, it never seemed to be my day. But that changed. That definitely changed in 2003. The trigger? Well…. it was something so simple…. so damn simple!

I have always made friends very easily, but I count only 3 of them as special or close friends (Yes Malz, you are one of them ). My “close” group of friends at university and I were working on a mini project which we had to present as a group of 6 at the end. As usual, I worked hard and made sure the software code worked, and tested the software, and made sure everyone knew their lines for the presentation. When we walked out of the presentation, I walked out with the lowest marks (65% against 90% for 3 of the other 5). I was close to tears, and tried to justify my effort to the lecturer (who was having none of it), while the others were busy celebrating already. It was the trigger to turn away from those friends, but I guess to also realise what was always preached to me. I may not be book smart, but I had the ability to always be in the top of the bunch when it was down to the practical tasks. I turned my university life over for the next year and a bit, and eventually raised my grades to a new level by the end of the course.

I took that work ethic into my first job, and although I was never appreciated or rewarded for my efforts, I had the belief in myself. I had an aim which I wanted to achieve and I was willing to fight to get it. I moved jobs, to climb the next rung on the ladder. Within 6 months,  I was given a task to help revive one of our clients. Lets just say – that turned out well….. very very well. This year, I have effectively been promoted twice for raising the level of work and effort which I put in, for producing results which were not expected of me, for setting a benchmark which others follow, and for raising the bar to encourage others to achieve. I don’t do this because I am a workaholic. I do it because I have a dream to achieve. Achieve like my parents…. achieve like my grandparents. I want to achieve for myself. Just as Princess Pointful mentioned in her post – Ambition and intelligence are not the same thing. But what good is either if you are not willing to exploit either?

This post is an appreciation to all those who helped me achieve my 5 year goal which I set myself when I left university. It makes me very happy to admit – I have achieved this first goal in under 4 years (3 years and 10 months to be precise). This post is aimed at all those who continuously believe in my abilities – my 2 bosses, my directors who find me capable enough to tackle the trickiest clients. This post is directed to all those hours spent in my final year of university when I slept for not more than 3 hours a night for atleast 6 months; to those moments when I decided within myself – never again will I underachieve.

This posts goes out to those who I have helped during this journey, to those who believed enough in me to understand my opinions, and took on board my advice.

More than anything – this post is directed to all those of you who wonder how I do what I do, and how I got where I am now – if you really want something in life…. then maybe it’s time that you got your act together, made a vow to achieve, and then chased that dream.

This is just the beginning…….

(Sorry……. it’s an addiction…. but it is my motto, my catch phrase…. it’s what drives me….. YES I CAN!)