I have been asked several questions during all these years related to my start-up – how it’s like to run a team, handle clients, be in a start-up mode always, suffer the frequent set-backs or to have your own set-up, etc.
It’s always easy to answer such questions. Mostly because, you have a first-hand experience and all that you need to do is put it in words. But yesterday, while chatting with one of my clients, I was asked: “Anamika, after 5 years of your startup journey, do you think you have arrived?”
The question left be baffled. First, because I wasn’t expecting it and secondly because I was clueless about what could be the possible answer to such a question. To me, since I had understood the word ‘Arrived’, I have used it in many of my copy assignments for various clients, describing a certain kind of people. To me, it means someone who owns everything he has wished for (to a certain level) in terms of materialistic things, has led a seen and done it all kind of lifestyle, achieved success, fame, respect and a status in the society. For me, I had none.
So I did a quick calculation in my head of the definition I knew and realized I haven’t.
So as an answer to his question, I said I haven’t but deep inside me, the way I know me and perceive myself, I realized I had. I had started a venture I was least aware of and went ahead with it for 5 long years. I learned what no institute, no degree would ever have taught me, I won the confidence of my family in what I had begun, and to top it all, I was ready to do it again, with my new venture in line.
I have seen people talking to me at a different level, perceiving my knowledge way beyond I possess, respecting me for things I never knew were worth it and beyond everything accepting me with little success I had achieved and ignoring my failures with all due respect. I have always tried to justify all of it by working on myself. This journey of 5 years have made me reach a point from where I see myself as a better person with a confident and ready-to-do-it-again and again attitude without any self-doubt.
So yes, I have arrived a point from where I can work towards finally arriving a place in my life, from where I can nod YES.
Keep Striving. Keep Arriving.
Loads of wishes to everyone! And Yes, A very Happy Lohri!
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asha chaudhry
🙂 this is such a neat topic to write about.
i remember a few months ago sushrut posted something on fb – saying i’m 24 and i still haven’t acquired this, this, this.
i remember commenting, i’m 42 and still haven’t acquired the stuff you’ve listed down!
“to have arrived” is so so subjective. and a continuous process i reckon.
back in 2002 i worked on a green tea account. my brief, “asha i met this very evolved man, CXO, who doesn’t offer you coffee but only green tea (a pot sits at his desk all day long). he’s arrived. that is your target audience.” so in this case, moving on from the sophistication of filter coffee meant you had arrived! yes, the power of the designation, etc etc was all indicated. but since you are from advtg, i wanted to use this as an example of “having arrived”.
have i arrived? i’ve managed to stay away from the big bad agency life of advertising and the metros now for nearly 8 years. i live a quiet life in goa. i potter around in my garden. i do yoga & zumba. i chase baby crabs on the beach with my 7 year old. and i run india’s most vibrant startup community. i have arrived. and so have YOU.
Puneet Nirogam Aggarwal
Our blissful state is what matters. Great Read, Anamika.
The learnings hold more value, and never depreciate.
Your Arrival is your Happiness. Period.
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
The DAY you start out on your own, you BEGIN your journey of Arrival.
Let me say this simply – in the journey of an Entrepreneur, the LONGER AND FARTHER you travel, the SURER you have ARRIVED….
Anamika Joshi
Very true. I am grateful for being asked such a question, or else I would have never pondered over it. Thanks for appreciating!
Anamika Joshi
The first line is the crux of my entire article! Thanks for reading it Alok ji and sharing your views…
Anamika Joshi
That’s such a beautiful comment!! Every time I read something like this written by you, I feel like telling you again: Please do write more for rodinhooders.. you are such a gifted writer!
asha chaudhry
hahahaha! i know. i haven’t shared any of my stories on trhs 🙂
asha chaudhry
anamika – i woke up remembering this post today. i have no clue why. but when i wake up thinking about a post i share it first thing 🙂
you’re on your second startup anamika. and knock wood you’re doing well with your first brand onboard. no doubt, there is much more to be learnt. but i think you’ve arrived in your own way 🙂
Anamika Joshi
Every time you share an article, I re-read it all over again and realize that one always needs someone to remind what you used to be once upon a time. I used to share and now I don’t… Thanks again for sharing and making me feel kicked about writing again and sharing some of my recent experiences!!!
And I hope I arrive in my own definition very soon!