(Disclaimer – I have changed the names of the non-fic characters to hide their identity 😉 😀 )
“Life me pin maarne wale chahiye…
Insaan bohot aage jata hai.” 😉
(There should be people in life to provoke you, you will end up doing amazing things.)
I consider this guy to be very lucky for me. He is the most cunning, mean, conservative and double faced guy I have ever seen. But deep down in my heart, I am grateful that I got to know this guy.
In my sophomore year I started a part time business of web designing. I wasn’t an expert at coding or designing, it was a business that was mainly based on outsourcing model. Rather I was good at customer acquisition and content creation. And this guy (Gupta ji) was in my college and happened to be a coder-designer. He approached me one day and asked if I would help him write some content for a website he was developing for his client (he was from hindi medium school with poor pathetic English but highly over-smart).
I gladly said yes, then he asked me how much I would charge him for this?? I said that he was a good friend and I enjoy writing copy so I may do it for free. He said that’s great, as he was hoping for the same. But he promised me to design something or code for my projects as a return favor. I agreed and wrote content for him staying up all night.
After a few days one of my client asked me to retouch their logo. As they were my initial clients and their budget was small. I assumed they might not be able to pay me for this work. So in order to strengthen my relationship with them I agreed and called my friend ‘Gupta ji’. I said that we need to retouch or design a completely new logo for my client. He said, “Yeah .. sure.. but Imran .. how much you would pay me for this…??
I was astonished to his reply. I said, “Gupta ji … but you agreed to do this as a favor. I too wrote your content. He said, “Bro..I agreed to work on your projects , not your client’s. You must be getting some amount for this, don’t you??
I replied, “Gupta ji, these are my very first clients and they have a low budget, I can’t take money from them for this, and I want to retain them at any cost.. so this work needs to be done ”
Gupta ji said, “Dude, this is not the way businesses run. You won’t stay in business too long if you keep working for free. Do one thing, take me to your client and I will convince them to pay for the logo work.”
I was stunned for a moment. How could someone be so rude, unethical and mean?!
I said, “ Gupta ji, I will talk to you later, I have someone at the door”. And ended the call.
I got myself a glass of water and sat beside my bookshelf, thinking what to do now ??
After contemplating for sometime it clicked to me that one of my friend once said me, that her elder sister does some of this designing work at a Nasik based advertisement firm. I immediately called her and asked how does her sister makes those logos & designs? She replied that she uses softwares like coreldraw and photoshop.
My reaction, “…….mmmm…. do you have these softwares??” . She replied, “yeah.. didi is here .. why don’t you come to my place collect those sofwares?. I dashed to her place and bought those software.
Now here I was with an alien software, a internet connection and a question, “What should I do next??” :/
I locked myself in my room .. took a deep breath and googled.. “How to use corel draw and photoshop??” I came across some fundamental tutorials and downloaded all of them. Then I started studying the first tutorial and then second and then so on. I didn’t even come out of the room for lunch or dinner. My mom understood that I was into something serious and thus no one bothered me. After three sleepless and exhaustive nights and 11gb internet data usage(I studied about 104 tutorials) , I came out of my room and sat with my mom for tea. My mom knew that I did it! She knows well that whenever somebody prokoves me .. I know how to answer them.Now I was well familiar with these designing softwares in and out. And I designed a completely new logo for my clients, even retouched their previous logo. They were so happy with my work that they decided to continue with the new logo.
I started taking new assignments for logo designing, visiting cards, stationery and banner designing. It was like a hobby, and I enjoyed the work. People started appreciating my work as it was better than most local designers. Later I asked my friend’s elder sister to work with me so I can focus more on customer acquisition. She is a post graduate in fine arts and designing. That way I got a great co-founder. She is also grateful to me that she is earning much more than a job now and that too from the comfort of her home. (by now I was also handling our family business of cosmetic manufacturing and retailing)
Designing assignments was still a part time business for me, until I realized that in past year a major part of my income came from here. And on December 31st 2014 I realized that I was sitting on the most profitable month of my entire career. I was so busy in work that on the eve of 31st I didn’t even went to any party, rather I was working till 11pm. And that night I did all the accounts and wrote a five figure cheque for my co-founder and chief designer for her part time work.
All thanx to Mr. Gupta ji, I consider him so lucky for me. If he hadn’t he provoked me that day, I would never have gotten in this business, nor I would have got such a good co-founder and a good friend.
Mr. Gupta ji still calls me every now and then to ask how I am doing. [he keeps a keen eye on my fb posts and my friends circle 😉 ] He asks me how do I approach so many people and how come I have so many good friends?? (he indirectly asks about rodinhoods….,I think he won’t understand RH philosophy)
To this I reply, “Gupta ji, I don’t go there for business.. I meet people because I want to learn from them and I contribute my part in their life. I give away what I have got, in order to receive what I deserve. I have learnt it the hardway from you.” 😉
Robin Sharma aptly said, “You don’t do your best work until you are humiliated and criticized”
We all should have many gupta ji’s in our life because,
“Life me pin maarne wale chahiye…
Insaan bohot aage jata hai.” 😉
https://www.facebook.com/imran.patel.357
****
You can also WIN Ashwin Sanghi’s book ’13 Steps to Bloody Good Luck’
by posting your #goodluck story on trhs!
*******