@springboard your life ebook

60
@ Springboard your life *The penguins have a peculiar spring in the way they move. They represent grace and beauty and most importantly the poise in which they walk and run, irrespective of the body they carry, hence their picture.

Upload: dewaker-basnet

Post on 31-Oct-2014

645 views

Category:

Education


0 download

DESCRIPTION

Motivation, Leadership, Going the extra mile, champion, failure, success, hardships

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: @Springboard your life   ebook

@ Springboard your life

*The penguins have a peculiar spring in the way they move. They represent grace and beauty and most importantly the poise in which they walk and run, irrespective of the body they carry, hence their picture.

Page 2: @Springboard your life   ebook

There are moments where you feel that despite trying, things are not moving the way you intend to move them. This small book is an ode to you, my dear reader, who never gave up despite severe trying circumstances, and each time triumphing from the situations that you came across. It is a reminder of the grit, the determination and the will to do whatever it takes to achieve your intentions.

This is an ode celebrating human determination, celebrating the process of positive transformation.

www.24hoursinspired.comBe Inspired…24 hours

Page 3: @Springboard your life   ebook

The Springboard

1. Payback time…………………………………………………Chapter 12. Resignation……………………………………………………Chapter 23. The Risk………………………………………………………..Chapter 34. Assurances…………………………………………………….Chapter 45. The inspiration…………………………………………………Chapter 56. Planning it out………………………………………………....Chapter 67. Marketing Principles…………………………………………..Chapter 78. Assessing SWOT………………………………………………Chapter 89. M.A.D…………………………………………………………….Chapter 910. The Machine People…………………………………………..Chapter 1011. The Worksheet…………………………………………………Chapter 1112. CARE.SHARE.DARE………………………………………….Chapter 1213. The Process of Revision……………………………………...Chapter 1314. Almost Entrepreneur…………………………………………..Chapter 1415. Challenging Opportunity………………………………………Chapter 1516. Tactical Moves………………………………………………….Chapter 1617. Preparedness…………………………………………………...Chapter 1718. Magic……………………………………………………………..Chapter 1819. Dilemma…………………………………………………………..Chapter 1920. The Retrospection………………………………………………..Chapter 2021. Springboard………………………………………………………..Chapter 21

Page 4: @Springboard your life   ebook

Payback Time

“Never, Never. Never.” James looked around to see if anyone was watching him. The coffee shop looked crowded with everyone having a business to attend with the person sitting on the opposite side. He stared back at Chitra and in an irritated voice remarked, “For the last time, I tell you guys, you will never catch me selling in my life. I might as well do nothing. Selling diapers, soaps, washing machines, knocking doors and giving people fake smiles is way too embarrassing.” Raising his voice a bit, he said, “I especially hate these guys who pester you too much selling their products. Even if you decide to buy something from them, that fake smile just kills the effect and you are forced to put your wallet back…” “Ok, Ok, we get the point,” snapped Chitra. “But James, you never know what life has in store for you. It’s a funny life you see…” There are some people who are a handbag of advice. Ask them for one they give you two. Ask them for none, they offer you an unlimited range of them. Chitra was one of them. A “bubble gum philosopher” of the gang but the darling too! She had up her sleeve, the sweetest of smiles to compensate for the flurry of advice given to anyone. That was the sweet and sour part to Chitra’s advice.

‘Hey, stop Chitra. You and your philosophies….let’s order for something,” James smirked at Chitra. A hint of arrogance passed through his tone. And everyone was fine with that! After all, they had been buddies for the last 4 years and a very tight gang too.

James had two things which made him a heady cocktail. Brilliance and arrogance! He was brilliant and he very well knew he was one, thereby making him arrogant, many a times. Considering this, there were two types of people in James’ life.

The ones who loved him for his brilliance and the others who hated him for his arrogance!

For instance, the new head of the department college for Physics who thought James was a too big a pain to handle. James was too casual in his approach for the strict professor and many a times he would stump the old man with the kind of questions he raised in class.

Page 5: @Springboard your life   ebook

Sometimes James would get a small hoot of appreciation or a pat on the back from his classmates for sending the professor in a tizzy which would infuriate the lecturer further. Suryakanth, the HOD, till the last day of college, could not decide if James was intelligently arrogantly or arrogantly intelligent.

By the way, it was not only his opinion but also the opinion of many a people around, except his last bench gang (LBG).

James was the highest scoring student in his Engineering class. He not only knew page by page of the theories that were written in the book, but also delved with his own experimentation of sorts during his leisure time. With all the traits he had, he loved his science too much to think of becoming anything. Salesman was the last thing he had on his mind!

However, that was 7 years back.

Life had come a full circle in 2009. Circumstances makes us the biggest of jokers. It plays tricks upon us in such a way that we subconsciously are driven by its strong pounding force. Today, circumstances forced James to play the game he always detested. It had made James turn into a salesman!

Page 6: @Springboard your life   ebook

Resignation

“What do you mean by I want to quit James? Don’t give me a shocker this early in the morning. And what happens to your confirmation for the presentation on the Annual Tech conference at France, just a week away? We cannot afford to send anyone else. It is confirmed James….. Ok let’s talk about what’s running in your mind James,” Satish spoke without even stopping to breathe for fresh air.

The freshness of the morning had suddenly vanished as James broke this news to him as he was settling down for the day ahead. Satish was James’ immediate senior and the vice president of the technical division in the organization. “Satish, don’t worry about the tech conference. I will go for the same and only then put down my papers”, James said lowering his tone. He knew about the open heart surgery Satish has had a couple of months ago and did not want him to collapse while discussing. Though, it was a farfetched thought that Satish would collapse because of him quitting, he still did not want to take his chances.

“What, you expect me to do? Give you a round of applause and thank you for the FAVOUR that you are doing for the organization by going to France? Well, James, let’s talk this out, can we?,” Satish remarked easily toying between sarcasm and cuddling.

“See Satish, I have already decided that I want to quit. You forcing me to stay back or trying to hit me hard with sarcasm would not work. Let’s try to separate amiably. You have been a good boss. I respect you for person you have been and have been very benefited by the things that I have learnt from you…but I have decided that I have to move on….” James said still holding his tone right.

“Ok James, what’s next? Have you got some good offer? If yes, let me know, ill match the offer and also try to match the position that you are getting from the other organization. We were looking at sending you onsite for 2 years and also giving you the position of lead- technical designer when you would be back from France. You still can consider James?” Satish said trying to entice him with the offer.

Page 7: @Springboard your life   ebook

For the first time James smiled and said, “It’s so nice of you to say that Satish, but I believe I’ve already made up my mind and I’m firm on that. I am not joining any other company Satish, but am looking at doing something on my own. I am looking at getting into sales and marketing!

“Whatttt???” remarked Satish. James thought that he would collapse any moment and was ready to jump for a glass of cold water if any such thing happened. “You want to get into what? Sales and Marketing? But you always hated the marketing guys James, if I am not wrong. How come all of a sudden you want to get into marketing?”

“Just like that Satish. Have a couple of plans up my sleeve and want to give it a shot in what I despise the most. Who knows maybe the calling comes from places where we least expected to be and that’s where our true self also comes out,” James said philosophically. But Satish was in no mood for philosophy. “Tell me James, if you want to get transferred to the sales and marketing division in the organization. I can have a word with the MD, if you want to?”

“No Satish, that’s fine. I’ll skip that.”

“Well, James, what more can I say. All the best for your future and let me see if I can send someone else to France instead of you. Mind you boy, you are treading the wrong path.”

Page 8: @Springboard your life   ebook

The risk 2 months after quitting he could not get out 2 people from his life. One was Chitra who said “you never know” and the other Satish who had said “you are treading the wrong path.” Both of them had been haunting him for a while now. Reason, being a salesman was not as easy as he had figured it to be.

He jogged his memory back to his college days. Amongst everyone in the Last Bench Gang (LBG) had been doing extremely well for themselves.

Rahul had moved on to start a travel firm and was doing well for himself. Akash had gone back to his family business of hardware networking. Sheela had become the marketing manager of one of the reputed firms in the city. Venkat moved on to join a national television channel as an assistant producer, taking care of its core design aspect. Rashmi had moved to the US and was happily married and settled. Chetan was a globetrotter with Lonely Planet and Chitra had gone ahead to pursue her masters in psychology. She was now working as a counselor with a hospital in the city.

It looked like everyone in the LBG had defied their engineering degree except James. Becoming an engineer was always his desire. As a part of the campus recruitment drive, he had bagged a job in one of the leading software multi-national companies in the city with a six figure package offering.

“Wow…it’s an amazing feel to get a six figure salary.” “So where do we go for the treat?” Rahul asked. “Not today… we’ll go out soon, don’t worry, I will definitely give you guys a treat.”‘No, we want a treat right now. However small it may be,” Chitra coaxed.“Ok, the only thing I can do right now is buy you guys some coffee at our regular hangout. If that’s fine with everyone?”Chetan, the most animated of the gang snapped, “Yes, of course. That’s a cool deal for the moment. Let’s go.”

This is how the gang went out for coffee and this is how the conversation on the sales professional started.

Page 9: @Springboard your life   ebook

As he sat in front of his computer today, everything flashed very clearly in front of his eyes and this made him go from feeling bad to feeling worse.

While working with the Multinational, James had also been silently working on a product which would look at reducing workload and also streamlining a lot of processes. He had developed it in two variants. One was on a smaller version for person usage and the other one on a larger scale for organizations to use it for their employees. While making the prototype of the same, he was advised by his friends to not divulge the product to anyone and that it could fetch him a good sum of money in the market. ‘Yes, that’s a good idea. But how can I sell it off as a commercial product on my name when I am working with an organization? I mean no organization would want its employees to get into things which would not benefit it, right?” James told Sheela when they met over for coffee a few months back.

“Yeah, that’s a point. You either need to talk to your organization about the organization about this product. And because you are working for them, they would very well ask you to give it to them and they would promote the product as theirs. Yes, you would get a small token of acknowledgment from them or would have your name inscribed in unreadable letters as the inventor of the product. They would also make sure that they patent the product under their name. If all of that’s okay for you, then please do go ahead and do the honors. If not, then you need to look at a different route….” Sheela who was into marketing explained to James who in turn grasped every word that she uttered thinking on the next question to spring to her.“Well, you could look at someone marketing it, under disguise. The organization you are working with should not know that it’s your product.”

“But what’s the point?”

“Exactly. What’s the point? So the next best thing you could do is jump out of the organization and start your own venture, with the product being your USP. In this way, you become your own boss and also sell a lot of these products”, remarked Sheela as they sipped warm coffee on a cold evening. “But it could be a problem for you James?“What?”“Selling has always been degrading for you. So am not too sure if you want to market it yourself,” Sheela said with a wicked smile. “Yeah, I remember that coffee incident. The salesman and what Chaitra had said. Life looks like it’s coming a full circle for me,” James said with a dry smile.

Page 10: @Springboard your life   ebook

‘But it’s a good thing to sell James. Try it out. Your product should work. It is genius. Let me know if there’s any help you require from me, Sheela said as they parted ways.

2 months into it, he had not even sold a single product. All the people who said that the product would sell like hot cakes seemed to have disappeared and every friend of his who were working in the organization had told him that they would get back to him. Getting back when is what they had not mentioned!

Page 11: @Springboard your life   ebook

Assurances

For two months, James had relied on assurances of probable breakthroughs. The breakthroughs not coming and the bank balance dipping every moment, he had to decide to move ahead. Two months of non activity made him realize that if there has to be a light at the end of the tunnel, he has to start digging for the tunnel. Till that day, he had pegged his fortune on the assurances of people. He knew it was high time to take a hold of his life.

‘So how do I go ahead? If things had to move, it would have moved by now. Maybe I need to go out in the sun and do my own bit of searching. But how will I do it when I have no experience of it. Ok let me take it step by step, starting with jotting down all the points which would help me sell the product” he contemplated.

With this he started writing down all the points which could help him sell his product.

He invariably came down to the conclusion that if he had to sell “his” product, he needed to go out there, reach out to people, convince them to have a look at the same and if convinced buy the product. Only then the confidence and the cash bells would start ringing. Having good technical experience and none in the area of sales and marketing, James faced certain dilemmas as he contemplated–

1. I have never sold anything to anyone?2. What happens if people reject my product?3. What if they are not interested?4. I am not in the “field” of selling5. What would my friends think of me when they come to know about this?6. I might embarrass myself with this

These thoughts had always lingered in his minds but today he was angry with himself. He looked hard at the statements that he had written and felt good. “Wow, it’s only this much. I feel better after writing them down.”

Page 12: @Springboard your life   ebook

He looked at taking the writing a step further. For days, because he was waiting for the moon to fall in his lap, his confidence had cocooned and he feared that he would lose it completely one day. With the first writing done, he wanted to take the bull by the horns, so thereby he took another piece of paper.

Thinking about himself at the current state, he wrote down all the emotions that ran through the days and segregated the beneficial from non beneficial.

- Confusion - Depression- Anger- Self Sympathy- Hope- Passion- Excitement- Resentment- Energized - Active- Frustrated

Making columns, he looked at the ones which would help him in his pursuit towards success and the ones which would not fetch him productive results.Useful Not useful

PositiveHope Passion Excitement Energized Active

NegativeConfusion Depression Anger Self Sympathy Resentment PassiveHurt

For a moment, he was shocked to see the “Not Useful” figure more than the “Useful”. James was happy too. He was happy for three reasons –

Page 13: @Springboard your life   ebook

1. He could write down all the things that he experienced as an emotion2. He had enough “Useful” to get him pumped up and start making the changes in his life3. He could obliterate the “Not Useful” of his life now that he exactly knew what they were.

With this done, James heaved a sigh of relief, also clearly understanding that there was a huge task ahead. He was undeterred though, considering that he would work from the “Useful” of his life and not the “Not Useful”.

The first thing he convinced himself was the pride he had in whatever he had invented. He realized that if he is not proud of the product, he would find it extremely challenging to look at someone in the eye and convince. He sat down and looked at all the possibilities of marketing his product in the best possible ways. One by one, the advantages came rolling and so did his conviction.

He was ready to go past his limitations of a not useful thought to the possibilities of a useful thought.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Activity

Worksheet for growth Write down all the emotions that run in your head that would accelerate your growth. Enhance your “useful” area and obliterate the “not useful” area.

Useful Not useful

Page 14: @Springboard your life   ebook

The Inspiration

It was a mental block that James had to overcome. It took him some time and reinforcement to get out from the skin of what he was and get into the skin of what he wanted to be! During the time, he also started getting back to all the inspirational books he had read during the years. He was extremely keen in getting inputs to the lives of individuals who had made it really big despite the hardships that came their way. After thinking about a lot of such stories, he froze on five of them

1. Joe Girard2. Colonel Sanders3. Fred De Luca4. Sharath Babu5. Oprah Winfrey

A small peep into the lives of these 5 people

Joe Girard

When he started selling cars he was 35 years of age. Before that he was one of the wondering types not doing much for himself and aimlessly running around in search of something. One evening when he came home, his wife told him that there was not enough for the family to eat and more importantly for them to feed the kid. That’s when he felt embarrassed and promised himself that he would not see this day again. That’s when he started selling cars. And how he sold! He was so passionate about selling cars that his name features in the Guinness Book of World records for selling the maximum number of cars. The feat remains unchallenged till date!

Colonel Sanders

Harland David Sanders stared the idea of cooking and selling chicken products at the age of 40. Coming from a poor family and his father dying at the age of 5, he had to help his mother with the economics of the family. He

Page 15: @Springboard your life   ebook

did not have a shop to sell, to start off with, so he did a door to door selling of his products. At the age of 65, he looked at franchising his product which is today popularly known as KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken)

Fred De Luca

When he was 17 years old, he borrowed $ 1000 for opening a shop that would sell fast food items to pay for his college fees. The story of Subway began from here. The boldness in ambition on the part of Luca could be well established, when he opened a 3rd subway, even though the two stores were doing small business or in loss. However, the 3rd one was on a prime location and that clicked and how. Today Subway is present in 62 countries with 13,000 stores and is the second most successful franchise in the world.

Sharath Babu

Raised in a slum of Madipakkam in Chennai, India, this 29 years old has a story to listen to. His mother would sell idlis in the morning, work for mid day meals program in the afternoon and teach at an adult education program during the night to raise her 5 kids. Because of lack of money for education, Sharath Babu after his class X worked in a book binding company to collect money for higher studies. For admissions into an elite college, his sister pawned her jewels. Scholarships came in and he performed. He rejected a plum job from one of the corporate houses to start Foodking catering services which is doing extremely well today.

Oprah Winfrey

The world knows her as one of the richest ladies. Her fame and fortune encompass every young and passionate individual’s wish. Born to a very poor family, her growing years were as difficult as you could imagine. At the age of 19, she got a radio job and with hard work, dedication, commitment and passion, she overcame every obstacle on the way and paved herself towards fortune and fame. One of the living icons and an inspiration to look up to, Oprah is the story of turning the tides despite innumerable setbacks.

James read about these people, thought about them and felt real charges up with the idea of making it happen for himself too. He made his own notes on what he learnt from each one of them. It read

Page 16: @Springboard your life   ebook

Joe Jirard – It is never too old to start!Colonel Sanders – If there is no money for your own space, knock people’s doors. Knocking doors comes for free. Fred De Luca – Its never too young to start!Sharath Babu – Where there is a will, there is a way!Oprah Winfrey – Challenge your circumstances and defeat them!

Page 17: @Springboard your life   ebook

Planning it out

After reinforcing and pumping himself with a lot of inspiring thoughts and feelings, James set to work. “If they can do it, it is possible for me also to give my best shot in whatever I do and try to achieve something.” The first task he did was to list down all the contacts that he could use as a help to sell his product. It came to about 15 people. These were the people who were his immediate family members, friends with whom he had lived his years and some of his colleagues whom he had helped in their times of need.

Next, he set himself up to make a website of his own where he could sell his product and also have a chat with people interested to know more about the product. James, though a technical guy, was not in sync with making websites. A professional would cost him a bomb and the ones which were for free were not of the quality that he had expected. After much thought, he posted a small note on his social networking site, “Interested in barter – Exchange of an extremely handy and useful a product with someone who could help me develop a professional website. Thank you.”

For the next 2 hours, he logged off and on for more than 15 times to check if there was anyone who had sent him a message or mail. There was nobody who had responded. He tried to run his mind through several other things and feel distracted, but the thought of checking his mailbox came again and again. 2 hours of hide and seek finally led to the incoming of one message. The link on his scrapbook read – “That sounds great. I am game for the same. Send me details on the same and we’ll take it forward from there” – Lisa.

Lisa was working with an IT firm and James knew that she was one of the most creative people he had known around. He sent her an immediate message - “Let’s talk on this. I will call you tomorrow evening.”Just the right kind of support when he required! With that done, he sat down to write down all the links that he wanted to have on his website. He browsed through several websites and finally froze to 5-6 different segments for his website.

The list read as follows:1. Homepage

Page 18: @Springboard your life   ebook

2. About us3. The product4. Reviews on the product5. Targeted segment6. Frequently asked questions7. Contact us

With that finalized, he sat down writing the text. James got stuck in the homepage itself with him not able to find out a catchy line. He finally hit upon something. He would list down some testimonials on the right hand side of the home page and in the centre would have his product rotating. This would benefit him in two ways.

1. Even if anyone does not go to the other pages, the first page would show what the product is. Hence, when people see his product the next time, they would be able to relate to the same.

2. The credibility of the product would be enhanced with the testimonials of various people who have used the same.

James was elated that the day was a good one. It was 11 pm and the energy remained intact. Rather, the energy seemed to have accelerated magically. James wanted to do more. In the process, he looked for an old diary where he could keep a tab of his daily finances. Finding one in the cupboard, he made a very simple “expense chart” for himself. ) Before sleeping, he checked a couple of inspirational videos on youtube.com and with a feeling of great pride and satisfaction he went to bed, waiting for tomorrow to happen as soon as possible.

The Expense Chart

Date Details Cash received Cash given Amount

Page 19: @Springboard your life   ebook

Marketing Principles

The next morning James woke up quite early. He had kept an alarm for 6 a.m. but he was up and ready to go at around 5.45 a.m. He got up, wore his favorite sweat shirt, shorts, sports shoes and went off for a jog. The earth was still and the sky was moving from red to blue. There were a few people who passed by James as he jogged towards the football field. To a few who made eye contact with him, he smiled and got the same back in response. He felt that he was growing in confidence in tiny ways like this.

As he ran around the football ground, he thought about the ways and means of promoting his product. He reflected on the techniques he had implemented till date and looked at the factors he could use to promote his product in the coming time. He thought about all the ideas he had generated while reading the books written by several eminent marketing personalities and he thought of implementing the same one by one and thereby tracking progress.

The 90 day principle of Kishore Biyani, The door to door marketing concept of Colonel Sanders and the 5% commission marketing of Joe Girard were the top three ideas he thought of implementing.He tried to concretize on these concepts and looked at applying the same to his product. Slowly, he reflected on the three concepts as he sweated on the football ground.

1. The 90 day principle – Kishore Biyani, the founder of Future group, also known as the father of Indian retail In his book “It happened in India” talked about several easy to do techniques including the 90 day principle which he used while building the business conglomerate. His 90 day principle was very simple – “From ideation to implementation, if there is no progress in the first 90 days, it is not much worth the effort.”

James had found the idea extremely interesting as it pushed an idea to become a product in set time. He remembered very clearly what someone had said about dreams and goals. “Goals are dreams with a deadline.” He wanted to implement the same in his process. So as he jogged, he thought about using the same concept, but standardizing it to his area of work. Rather than the 90 days, he challenged himself to a 48 hours deal. From ideation to implementation, 48 hours is what he gave himself. If he was able to do something about the idea in

Page 20: @Springboard your life   ebook

48 hours, he would take the idea forward. Or else he would write it down in a notebook and mark – for future reference.

2. The door to door marketing - James had liked the thought that when Colonel Sanders started selling fried chicken, he did not have a store or rather he did not have money for the store. So, what he had done was he had moved from door to door selling his chicken before coming up with his first outlet in Kentucky, America and later franchising the same.

James thought of his product and also his customers. It would be extremely illogical for them to come to him and ask him to demonstrate his product. So the logical aspect would be that he reached out to his clients and show the capability of the product and the advantages that the product could bring to them. If he succeeded, that would be fabulous. If he failed, it would at least be a good exposure and experience for him.

3. The 5% of commissioned marketing – As he read Joe Girard’s book “How to sell anything to Anybody,” he realized two very important elements – 1. Help People 2. Build on your credibility by paying what you have promised and paying in time. The 5% commission came as an idea when Joe in his book mentions about how he gave 5% commission to people who referred clients to him and paid them on time. With this small gesture, he had been able to get in a lot of people referring others to go to Joe to buy their new cars.

James thought at his business. Would he be able to replicate the same to his business? “Hell, yes.” He could definitely give a 5% as a fee to anyone who referred him to business. The 5% would not be from profit but from the overall deal made while selling the product is what James thought of giving. The idea was simple. The finder would get more money than he/she would after profits and that would encourage them to refer more people to James.

James did not realize that he had taken around 10 rounds of the ground and that he had spent about an hour just jogging. With this finalized, he suddenly realized that it had been a while. He rested on the bench beside the park for sometime, closing his eyes and visualizing on where he wanted to see himself in the coming times. With this done, he walked out of the ground, smiling and bouncing towards home for a structure well laid.

Page 21: @Springboard your life   ebook

Marketing strategies

Sl. No.

Strategies Your strategy Deadline

1. The 90 day principle

2. The door to door marketing

3. The 5% commissioned marketing

Page 22: @Springboard your life   ebook

Assessing SWOT

The first thing he did after he came back was write down all the things that he had to do on the day on a stick it note. He listed down 10-12 things to be done for the day -

1. Take a shower2. Make a Power point presentation on the product3. Get connected to 10 people online who could be potential customers4. Talk to Lisa in the evening5. Meet Max and look at how he could be of help6. Wash clothes7. Look at understanding how to use twitter8. Meet Shashi and get to know ideas on marketing9. List down the SWOT for self and the product10. Make an expense flow sheet for the month in a diary11. Look at some places around town where I could get more crowd to engage with regarding my product12. Read one chapter of a book

This done he looked at listing it down in terms of priorities and then starting to get into action. Taking a shower was the immediate requirement which he got up and completed in 10 minutes. Next he sat down and opened linkedin.com (the business networking site) and started looking for 10 people whom he could get connected with. In 30 minutes, he sent about 10 mails requesting for a connection on the network. With that done, he looked at the clock. The time was already 10.30 a.m. He felt that networking online had taken a little too much of a time, but nevertheless it was worth the effort. Next he sat for making a SWOT for himself, but thought otherwise, He felt that he should make a PPT slide on the product and in leisure should do a SWOT analysis of the product and self.

With the help of technology, it was easy for him to compile the latest of slides and use it while making the presentation. Almost an hour and a half got spent in the making of the same. The final result was for him to see.

Page 23: @Springboard your life   ebook

The time was five minutes to 1 when James got a call from Lisa. James explained to her his idea of promoting his product and the necessity for him to have a great website. Lisa promised that she would work on a test copy of the webpage and send it to him by the end of the week. In return, James as promised told her that the product would be handed to her when they meet the next time. 10 minutes into the talk, and they had agreed upon certain tangible results.

With the talk done, the feeling of extreme possibilities and the thought of acceleration inspired him to no greater extent. He rushed for lunch and did not spend too much of a time grabbing a bite. After lunch, he felt a little heavy and therefore thought of either sitting for the SWOT analysis or grabbing a book to read. He chose the later because of the fact that he did not have to contemplate too much on the same. He picked up a book titled “Tuesdays with Morris.” The book talked about the relationship between a student and a teacher and the lessons learnt during the journey of life. James was impressed by the simplicity of writing and thoughts and after reading for half an hour, took a siesta for 15 minutes. The alarm rang and James half willingly woke up. He washed his face and looked at the list for the day.

1. Meet Max and look at how he could be of help2. Wash clothes3. Look at understanding how to use twitter4. Meet Shashi and get to know ideas on marketing5. List down the SWOT for self and the product6. Make an expense flow sheet for the month in a diary7. Look at some places around town where I could get more crowd to engage with regarding my product

There were still 7 to go from the list and the time was already 4 pm. He sat for further prioritization of work and struck off “Wash Clothes,” “Meet max” and “Meet Shashi”. He could always meet the two of them tomorrow or over the weekend and could delegate someone to wash the clothes for him on payment!

This left him with the most vital aspects for the day.

1. Look at understanding how to use twitter2. List down the SWOT

With two things remaining on the “priority” list, it did not seem too much for him to do. James felt that he could well finish the work in about 2 hours. With renewed enthusiasm, he sat down to work. His idea on going ahead

Page 24: @Springboard your life   ebook

was simple. From the most time consuming to the least time consuming! So, it was from listing down SWOT to making an expense flow sheet. The SWOT had to be from a marketing perspective, for himself as well as the product. So, James made 2 separate analysis -

Marketer’s Strengths

- I am good at communicating my thoughts- I have a pleasant personality- I can understand body language signals- I am good in making eye contact- I am good in presentation

Marketer’s Weakness -

- I have never tried my hand in marketing- Sometimes, I over talk- Sometimes, I jump the gun when

someone is explaining something to me- I am intimidated to make eye contact very

often with peopleMarketer’s Opportunities

- I could be one of the only salesmen who’s selling my own product which could be a guarantee for the people who buy it, if the conviction of the same is made from my end

Marketer’s Threats

The first impression while presenting my product could also be the last impression for the same. Need to watch out in giving my best shot.

Likewise he made one for the product and after an hour or so finally came out with the final SWOT for both the aspects. Fatigue set in and he moved out of the chair to make himself a cup of coffee.

As he prepared coffee, he thought about how someone recently had told him about independence and interdependence. It was strange for him to realize that when he thought that independence was the mantra of success, it was interdependence that made the world go round. He thought of how Lisa had pitched in, how he had easily written down 10 people who could help him achieve the targets, he thought about the 5% commission theory. The more he thought about it, the more he was convinced that he was living in an interdependent world rather than an independent world.

With about an hour spent on a heavy duty task, he definitely deserved to take a light topic as the next in agenda which was to understand the use of twitter. This done it ended his list for the day. He was exhausted yet happy that he could finish so much in a given day. However, he still had a tinge that he could better the same. After all,

Page 25: @Springboard your life   ebook

it was just the first day of a progressive approach towards marketing. James had filled himself with the ambition to go full throttle and he did not want to take tiny steps to cross the chasm!

The time was 9 p.m. on the clock. James had his dinner, watched some news on TV and at around 11 p.m. received a well deserved sleep determined to get up at 5 am next morning.

Page 26: @Springboard your life   ebook

M.A.D

James woke up exactly at 5 am. The first thing he did was take 10 minutes and concentrate to write all the things to do for the day after which he went off for his regular jogging. As one of his to do’s in the list he had written down about going to 3 companies and demonstrating his product to the people in the management. He was sure that they would give him an appointment and through the jog he rehearsed on every aspect he had to talk about his product. He was confident that out of the three, two of them would give him a hearing.

He returned, took a shower, got to do a few of the things that he had jot down in his “to-do-today” list and by 11 a.m. got ready to go for the first marketing venture. He had listed 3 companies in the vicinity which could be interested in his product. Taking a walk, James reached the first company at around 11.30 a.m.

He was stopped at the gate by the security who asked him if he had made an appointment with the person concerned. James replied in the negative and the security requested him to make an appointment and come down. He was baffled. With all the preparation he had made, a guard stopping him on the gate was something he thought was below his dignity. He raised his voice and so did the guard. He ordered that he wanted to speak to the manager to which the guard told him to leave immediately. As he was jostling with the security guard, James saw some of the employees walking in the office. He ran to them and explained the situation. The guard too left no stones unturned to make sure that James would not be left inside. The employees told James that they were helpless and they moved on. The guard had his cards on the top.

James suddenly realized that the trick of the trade was to impress the guard and take the appointment. So he sincerely said, “Sir, I am sorry for the confusion. I am also sorry for behaving rude with you. It was my fault. Would you mind if you could please connect me to the product manager of the organization?” his tone had mellowed and his facial expressions turned from bold to cold. To this the guard dialed a number and asked if the manager was in. He reported that the manager was out of the office but did offer James the landline to get connected to the concerned person. James shook hands with the guard and thanked him for the help. While moving out, he also apologized for his behavior, understanding very well that if he kept a nice relationship with the people who guard the door, they could come handy sometime. And after all, he felt they were just doing their job.

Page 27: @Springboard your life   ebook

As he walked towards the next office which was about a kilometer from this office, James realized some extremely vital aspects.

They were –

1. It was he who needed them, not vice versa2. Having a polite tone surely helps3. He has to keep his attitude and ego at home when he is coming out

In the second office, he spoke well to the guy at the door and the reception but was told to take an appointment and come in, so was the same in the third. This is not what he was expecting in the worst of cases. He had thought that he would walk in with the product and walk out with the deal, or at least, get an appointment with the concerned person. But it was going exactly the other way. Disillusioned and dejected on the first day of real “selling” he headed towards home.

It was about 3 a.m. when came back home. The day was sunny so he felt a little fatigued. So, he crashed in his bed and started thinking. He thought of the plan and how difficult was it to execute the same. “How illogical of me to think that people and companies would be waiting for me with their arms wide open to listen to my sales pitch,” was the thought that struck him as he contemplated on the day’s events. James quickly thought that he should come up with a different approach. He thought of Sashi whom he considered as a marketing hero. Picking up the phone he called up Sashi and requested him for a meet. They fixed up 8 pm in their regular adda for the same. With this done, James felt like taking a siesta which he did, just to wake up after 4 hours. The time was already 7 pm. He immediately got ready and brushed up the questions intended to ask to Sashi and moved towards the adda.

After pleasantries exchanged and a cup of shared coffee ordered for James went ahead with his story, “I thought that marketing and sales was something which I would never get into. As you know, I have always been in the technical side of life and felt that this is my calling. Now things seem to have been pushing me to market my product and therefore want to add the skill of marketing in my portfolio……” And he went on with the situations of the day. After 15 minutes he stopped and asked Sashi, “Now you know my problem, can you please help me sell my products well?”

Page 28: @Springboard your life   ebook

Sashi quipped “First and foremost welcome to the club boss. In marketing and sales there are a few things that are very vital for you to understand and ingrain-

1. If you want to succeed, rain or sunshine should not deter you. It should inspire you to do more2. Forget the word “ego”. You have to look at yourself as an entity that’s conditioned to understand

mindsets. These mindsets will haunt you, cajole you, temper you, pamper you and you need to be ready for all of this

3. Be nice in your approach to people. Even if they do not like your product, they will like you if you are nice to them

4. Take an appointment when meeting people. Make a list of people among your friends who can help you meet people in the corporate spaces.

5. Always remember that the customer is looking at “What is in for me” in anything we explain to them

“I would also like to share with you a small tool which I use for myself after I meet my customers. It is called M.A.D which means Moving Ahead diaries, a very handy tool which will structure your conversations with people as days go by,” said Sashi.

M.A.D (Moving Ahead Diary)

Person you met

Designation

What did you talk about?

What are the questions he/she asked?

How did you answer

What is that you will keep in mind?

Page 29: @Springboard your life   ebook

What is that you will use more of?

Sashi said that with time, he would not have to use the M.A.D but for the initial meetings and after meetings this is an extremely handy tool. James before leaving profusely thanked Sashi for the help provided promising him that he would come back to him time and again for guidance and assistance.

He returned home and with a renewed vigor. He started working on a host of things including M.A.D, listing down the companies he wanted to visit in the vicinity, listing down names of friends who worked in some of the companies and also drafting an impressive mail which he could send to these companies. He worked late through the night and hit bed at around 2 a.m.

Page 30: @Springboard your life   ebook

The Machine People

Having worked late, James woke up at around 9 a.m. The jogging had gone for a toss and the sun already seemed to have climbed the nearest tree. James felt a little guilty for that but quickly reminded himself that he had slept at around 2 a.m. He got out his regular diary and started jotting down all the things that he had to do for the day, starting from going to colleges that he had missed yesterday. He added 2 more organizations in his list, which made it 4 for the day. He moved out of bed and checked if any company he had written to responded. This he found ridiculous and smiled because he had sent a mail at around 1 30 am and that it was just 9 a.m. Some people would have just walked in and some might still be on their way to office.

He finished his regular chores and got ready for work. One very interesting habit James had was that whether he went out or stayed at home and work, he would always keep himself well dressed to have a feeling of working. “If you are in your home attire, you feel plain lazy and disinterested to work,” is what he always told everyone who worked from home, like him.

There were about 5 major things to do for the day, excluding the 4 organizations he had to visit. He thought he would add more to the list as and when the day progressed. 11 a.m. and he was ready to hit the ground. He reminded himself the 5 things that Sashi had told him and promised himself of taking care of these elements throughout his interaction with people today.

He went to the first organization and fortunately this time, he was given a permission to meet the manager. He waited for the marketing manager to call him in. After 20 minutes of waiting, finally he was called. The manager was a jovial looking man who introduced himself as Ratnakar Rastogi. “My name is James Mathew and I run an organization called “The machine people.” We are based out of Nanchungud and we offer this product which I believe would be extremely handy for your organization.” James said all of this in a single breath. The manager realized that he was nervous and gave him a glass of water. “So Mr. James, what is so different in this product compared to others?” the manager asked.

James had through the presentations made by Richard Kawasaki learnt the power of breaking down his presentation into bulleted points.

Page 31: @Springboard your life   ebook

“5 things Sir, first this is the future of technology. The platform that we have worked on is….Second, this is….third….fourth…and finally, the price is extremely competitive which is one of the reasons why you should take this product!” He realized that this time, he was less nervous and more confident. “Can I have some brochures of the same, Mr. James so that I can forward it to the technical person?” the manager quipped. James did not have any brochure to show so he said, ‘Sir, one of the fundamental elements that “The machine people” practice is conservation of paper. If you suggest, I could send you the e-format of the same, if that’s fine with you?” The manager smiled and nodded. James knew that he was itching closer to the deal. After another 5 minutes of talk, James asked for leave and taking the manager’s card walked away smiling to himself for a pitch well made.

On the second and third organization, he was more sure about 2-3 things –

1. Relaxing on presentation2. The name of the organization (The Machine people)3. We do not use paper so we circulate e-brochures.

The other presentations were also good enough and he was happy with his overall performance. As he fiddled with his mind on the way back home, James realized that he had by accident made 2-3 very vital decisions for the future. 1. Name of the organization 2. E-brochures and thereby an eco-friendly organization!

He wrote that down and promised himself that he would keep these 2 things static in the future.

Reaching home, he checked his mail and found out that there has been one response for his mail. He had sent 15 mails simultaneously to these many organizations and this resulted in a mail back from one organization. The appointment given was on next Wednesday. He was happy that at least there was a response. Inspired, he sat down and sent mails to 15 different organizations. Having done that he ticked off all the “to-do” things that he had written one after another.

After an hour of work, he relaxed with a book which had ‘Tough things don’t last, tough people do” written by Robert H Schuller. It was a very interesting book written in anecdotal format and this engaged James for a while till he fell asleep with the book in his hand. He woke after 2 hours and realized that it was dinner time. Quickly finishing dinner, he sat down with the other activities to complete and finishing by midnight, he went to bed again.

Page 32: @Springboard your life   ebook

The Work Sheet

He woke early next day and went for his regular jog. During the process, his thoughts went on to the first three days of marketing. He realized that it was a wee bit difficult to get through the entrance person and that he should device something in this regard. He thought of ways and means of getting through to meet the concerned person of the organization.

Suddenly he hit upon an idea. The idea was simple. He would make a requirement survey form with a disclaimer that it is to be filled by the marketing head and the same will be used for a book which he is researching upon. The idea seemed to be a good one. With a single stone James would hit on both the birds. On one hand he would give the impression that he’s researching on the book, on the other hand he would also be able to meet the head of the concerned department and talk about the product.

Stopping midway he ran back home. Without bothering about the sweat and the tiredness, he sat down on his computer and started making a feedback form. The final output was –

The work productivity enhancement score sheet

Does your organization follow XYZ process?

Would there be an enhancement in work productivity when XYZ process is used?

What are the top three technologies that you are using in your organization?

What are the top 3 concerns when it comes to employee work enhancement?

Page 33: @Springboard your life   ebook

Would you be interested in a demonstration if a unique product is introduced to you?

Where do you want to see your organization in 5 years time?

Name:Organization:E-mail id: Contact details:

James sent the sheet to Sashi with the idea and requesting his feedback. This done, he sat for writing the engagements for the day. He made out a plan that the plan would be to send about 50 mails and that he would spend the rest of the day doing that, writing down names of people who were working in various organizations he could immediately connect with and also preparing content for the website he intended to launch.

After finishing with the engagements of the morning, he sat down to write the content for the website. He thought of his friend Mike who was an expert in web hosting. He picked up the phone immediately and called up Mike and told him about his plans to launch the website. He also told him about Lisa ready with the web pages to be hosted. Mike assured of help and also of a nominal charge for hosting the website. Done with the talk he sat down and started writing content for his website.

After about 3 hours, he stopped. The first draft was done. He wanted someone to review the content and advice him on further modifications. He tried to connect people who were good at writing and editing. Shivani was someone whom he could trust to help him out with. Her writing was excellent and she was a good friend of James. He picked the phone and requested Shivani. She was more than happy to help him out. He was happy too that there were people who would be ready to help him at his call.

With the content done and sent to Shivani, he took a small break and then sat down to send the 100 mails, he had promised himself. So, one by one, he moved on with sending the mail which continued till late evening. By the time he finished, he was famished by the mundane job. He crashed on his bed to take a short nap with the nap converting into a full fledged sleep.

At around 2 a.m. James woke up to hunger. He went to the kitchen to search for some food. Fortunately, there was something to eat. He quickly grabbed a bite and moved towards checking his mail. There were 5 mails on

Page 34: @Springboard your life   ebook

his inbox. Three junk and two relevant! The relevant ones were the response to the mail that James had sent to the companies in the evening. Out of 100, two had responded and given him time for an appointment on Saturday, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Things looked like they were moving and moving in the right direction.

Page 35: @Springboard your life   ebook

CARE.SHARE.DARE

In the last 10 days, James had gone to meet the concerned individual from the 3 companies that he had an appointment from. The response from all the companies seemed good. Everyone seemed to like the product but each one told them that they would revert to James in sometime. Though, neither of them mentioned when they would come back to him. However, for the last one week, there had been no response from either side. On one hand, he wanted some business to happen. On the other hand, he did not want to write to them again and again and thereby look too forceful on his approach.

In a dilemma, the first person he thought of approaching was Sashi. He called him up and fixed a meet with him in the evening. At around 7 pm they met at their regular coffee shop. James explained to Sashi his dilemma and asked for his inputs on the way ahead. He was helpful in giving James a perspective on the approach to take the next time he was going for a meet. He told him about 3 simple steps –

Care –to ask and listen intently about their concernsShare –the inputs and the advantages of your product Dare –to breach the topic of commercials

This sounded simple to him. However, with whatever tiny experience he had in selling, he knew it was not going to be as simple as in the discussions. He went home and sat down to list out 5 companies that he wanted to visit the next day. In the last 10 days, the feedback forms had been working very well. It was giving him an immediate opportunity to meet the concerned professional in every office and also a perspective on the needs and wants of his kind of product for the organization.

In the meanwhile, Lisa had called and requested him to send the data. She promised him that the first draft of the website would be ready by Sunday. Today was Saturday. He could not wait to see the first draft of the website. Through the days, he had connected himself to many people, a lot of them online and some offline. Through his search, he happened to make acquaintances with people in the US and the UK who showed initial interest in his product. It was too far fetched an idea but he knew for a fact that no opportunity was far fetched. It all depended on how far was he open to stretch himself.

Page 36: @Springboard your life   ebook

As advised by Sashi, he put his strategies in place for the Care, Share, and Dare principle. It was like a mantra he felt and was excited to use it the next time he met a new client, which was tomorrow.

Page 37: @Springboard your life   ebook

The process of revision

The next day he met the client and showed him the product. The reception was good so was the principles taught by Sashi. The client however repeated the same lines given by the others. He would come back to James with the requirement. Another proposal looked bleak to him. But, there was hope. Hope that all the work that he did today would fructify into something concrete in the coming times.Sometimes life looked gung ho but sometimes he just wanted to give it up.

However, as the days progressed, it looked bleaker and bleaker. He used the concepts that he had learnt from Sashi innumerable times. There was a good amount of interest generated amongst people but when it came to the final stage, everyone said that they would come back to him. In the meanwhile, cash was running dry for James. There were moments where he felt that he should give it up and move back to the corporate sector and work with a firm. Things would at least be stable on the economic front! But there was something that stopped him from doing so. Even though there was not much money left in his account, somewhere deep within he was convinced that sometime soon he would break profit.

He made drastic changes in his lifestyle in the past couple of weeks in terms of his economics. Spending became very calculated, socializing without any meaningful output went off the scheduler, he cut down on eating out regularly and he also, very religiously, started making a note of his daily expenditure. The incoming route seemed to have hit a dead end.

One of these days, James hit upon a thought of re-doing his SWOT analysis and this time in terms of the skill set he carried and the opportunities he could tap. Through the weeks, he had just been looking at marketing his products and this did not show enough results in terms of economics. So, he looked at what are the services that he could offer as an independent entity to the clients that he met through the days.

He made a chart-

My area of service and collaterals required

Page 38: @Springboard your life   ebook

Consulting fee per service

This was a step forward. What would require sometime was to make collaterals in the form of online and offline brochures highlighting the services offered. He sat down to work and in 3 days time completed the complete brochure. In the meanwhile, he visited companies with his product. The reactions were more or less the same. There was excitement for the services offered but when it came to finances, everyone told him that they would revert.

Through the weeks, he had met innumerable people and had discussed with them his products. The best part of these interactions was that he grew more in confidence and his presentation capabilities and it was a good sign for the marketing guy in him.

Though the business was not kick starting as expected, there had been some positive news too for James.- His website was up and running- He had connected with about 500 people online- He was much more convincing in his approach while dealing with potential clients- He was understanding the ropes of selling- He realized that he liked whatever he was doing

Page 39: @Springboard your life   ebook

Almost Entrepreneur

The idea of exploiting the skills that he had started paying dividends, if not in large quantities! He got a few requirements independently, some through people he knew directly and a few through references. At least there was some flow of money to keep the dreams of selling his product intact. Through the opportunities, he also realized that he could very well get his product in the organization provided he showed exceptional service quality to the client.

James worked harder each day to provide premium output to the client. He spent long hours understanding the ways in which a certain process could be made to work simpler. Sometimes, even the weekends were given a miss. Anyways, weekday or weekend, it was the same for James the ‘almost” entrepreneur. The clients were happy with the progress that James made in fulfilling the task. They offered to give him more work, some of whom offered to hire him as a full time for double than what he was earning in his last company. But James was adamant. His dreams were adamant. They were getting concretized as the days passed and his understanding of marketing got better.

One day, James was working in his client’s place when someone tapped him on his back and said ‘Hello, are you James?” Puzzled of not having recognized the person, he muttered, “Yes, I am and you?” “Sorry, Hi, I am Anne, I am the vice president of the marketing vertical and have been hearing some good things about you from the manager. Why don’t you drop by my office in 15 minutes time so that we can talk a few things?” James thought if it was a job offer he would reject it out rightly. Smilingly, he said, “Hi Anne, pleasure to meet. Thank you for the compliment. It would be my pleasure to come by in the next 15 minutes.”

Bang!

That was what he had learnt in all his days of selling. Even if you want to reject something, do not let the other person find it on your face. Being pleasant to people, he had understood does not cost a dime and yet brings dividends, professionally and personally.

Page 40: @Springboard your life   ebook

15 minutes later James walked into Anne’s cabin and after a brief small talk Anne got to the point. “I understand James that you have a very interesting product to showcase. The manager told me to take a look on the same. Can you bring your product the next time you come by?” James was thrilled at the proposal and thanked Anne, saying that he would get the product tomorrow for a demonstration. In the evening he came back home and prepared his presentation. He called up his best friend Jeet and told him to be at his house at around 8 p.m. James wanted to put a presentation demonstration in front of him and wanted him to provide him feedback on his presentation. He did not want to miss the opportunity. It was a “do or sigh” opportunity for him is what he felt. He sat through the presentation for the nth time and was finally prepared when Jeet rang the door bell.

After exchanging pleasantries they sat for the presentation. Jeet sat on the dining table and James stood about 10 ft away ready to go. “Go boss,” quipped Jeet and James started the presentation. In exactly 10 minutes, he finished the presentation. Jeet was spellbound. He never knew that James could present so well. With that enthusiasm, poise, confidence and clarity, he was bound to make an impact. The only feedback he gave was that maybe James should check once a while during the presentation on the audience’s understanding of the matter.

James acknowledged the same and thanked Jeet for the help and after some talk he left for home. James had realized that there was nothing called over preparation, so he stood in front of the mirror and practiced the presentation. He then sat down to write all the questions that Anne and her team might ask him about the product. Someone had told him that to prepare fully is to predict the questions that an interviewer would ask, note them down one by one and try answering them and preparing.

Tentative questions

1. What’s different from your competitors?2. How much cost would it save?3. What’s the validity for the product to show us results in record time?4. How much discount could you give to us?5. How about the service factor. Would you provide service guarantee for the product?

He listed down the answers too, rehearsed the main points to the T and then went to bed, fully prepared to face Anne and the board tomorrow.

Page 41: @Springboard your life   ebook

Challenging Opportunity James reached office quite early. There was no one in the office except the office boys. The office opened at 9 a.m. which was a good half and hour from then. He was at his chirpiest best and he immediately inquired if Anne was in with the office boys. With another hour to go for the meet, James sat down in the space he had been given in the office and started preparing for the presentation. He did not want to even miss an opportunity to make an effective presentation that would be engaging and gently persuasive, for he felt that, if he did not get that, he would be shattered.

So there was a lot of stake for him in the presentation that he was making on this day. He went to the restroom, closed the door and started practicing in front of the mirror. In 10 minutes, he came out fully prepared for the success he wanted to see. He was positively charged and energetic. Because he was early he went out for a cup of coffee in the nearby restaurant. Exactly at 9 a.m. he walked inside, and so did Anne.

He gave a warm good morning to her of which she reciprocated with a nice smile and asked him if he was ready for the presentation. James nodded his head in acknowledgement. “Give me 15 minutes and we are good to go. I’ll be there at the second seminar hall. See you there,” said Lisa and she walked in. 15 minutes ran through his mind. He immediately rushed to his desk, carried his laptop and the product and rushed to the second seminar hall. The seminar hall was locked. And he felt that 5 minutes would pass by searching for the keys. Fortunately, there was Gopal, the office boy moving around. He immediately caught him and requested him to open the seminar hall, which he obliged.

Thanking his lucky stars he walked in the hall, arranged the presentation and was gung ho about the entire activity when Anne walked in with the other three managers for the presentation. There was one manager among the team whom James did not meet eye to eye. He had about 5 altercations with him in the past 2 months and James always felt that he would be someone who does not like him growing professionally. However, there was no scope for him to think about this, though there was a little bit of a heart break when he saw him. Nevertheless, he smiled at him and wished him a good morning as he also wished the other gentleman a good morning. He had no issues with the other gentleman though. James made a quick mental note of the statistics in the room. 3 people, 2 people have no issues with me, 1 has had altercations in the past. It was still a 2:1 ratio.

Page 42: @Springboard your life   ebook

Also he made a note on the time spent on preparation vis-à-vis the time he would spend giving the presentation. 5 hours vis-à-vis 15 minutes!

The stakes naturally were favored on his side. He felt good about it. So, making a mental visualization of success, he started his presentation on the product. He started with the story of how the idea came, moved on to how it would enhance the effectiveness of organizations and narrowed down to how helpful it would be to that particular organization in terms of cost optimization, effectiveness of the workspace and also highlighted on the aspects of servicing offered with the package.

After he made a presentation on the same, they panelists fired questions to him. James was more than prepared for all the questions they asked and convincingly shot it down, one by one. In 45 minutes time the presentation was over and the panelists bought in the product idea. “It’s an interesting device you have made, however we would like to test the same in our space before we look at ordering for bulk. So we just need two pieces right now and if required we will request you for more. What do you think gentlemen?,” Lisa asked the other two. The other two nodded their heads in unison. James felt that the first guy had done it convincingly while the second guy reluctantly nodded his head too. He had shot James about 3 questions of which he had most convincingly replied to.

James was happy for the first ‘sale’ made of his product. Selling two products on the spot was a neat achievement for him after all the “nice product but order later” theories he had been fed with by all the people whom he had met during the weeks.

He gave two products to the purchase department, took an invoice from them and gave it to the accounts department for the clearance of the cheque. The lady at the accounts section told him to collect his cheque by the end of the day. Extremely excited and sweetened by his victory, he immediately called up Sashi to tell him the good news. Sashi congratulated him on the feat and asked him if there was anything he could help James with. To this he replied, “You could help me by taking sometime off this evening and joining me for dinner.” Sashi obliged and the two of them decided to meet at 9 p.m. at a nice place around the city and celebrate.

This done, he was extremely pumped up to do more. He quickly finished off a task that he had to and rushed home. Since he was not a full timer with the organization, he had the liberty to work from home on the project he was assigned to. Reaching home, he switched on the computer and started to type

“A product that will increase your work efficiency by 25%”

- Especially for growing enterprises

Page 43: @Springboard your life   ebook

In this progressive age, how would you like if your work efficiency is increased by 25% and your cost of operations reduced by 30%?

Presenting to you “Whiz tech” a wonder product that would look at helping you do the same

FasterEffectiveEfficient Cost optimized

For more details on the product: Email : [email protected] or call : 998764354

This was an ad he wanted to send to all the people who were in his mailing list and could be prospective clients for the product. However, before doing the same, James wanted to show the ad copy to Seema, a good friend who was a copywriter. He called up Seema and requested her to have a look at the copy and revert. She told him that she would get back to him by evening on the same. He thanked her and after keeping the phone down went to attend other things at home. The rest of the day went on as normal as it would, between e-mails, people online, phone calls and browsing.

At around 6 p.m., he checked his mail and saw that Seema had reverted.

“Good job boy. Just a couple of suggestions. Why don’t you add on some testimonials from people who have used it? Increases credibility. Think about it Also if you could give some design to the mailer it would look terrific.”

Cheers,

Seema They were nice suggestions. He thanked Seema and went ahead with making arrangements for the testimonials and also the design.8.30 p.m. he left home to meet Sashi. The two of them spent some good time discussing business and the future growth, leaving for their respective homes at around 11 p.m.

Page 44: @Springboard your life   ebook

Tactical moves

For James, the order from Anne and her organization was highly symbolic as this was the first order for his product by an organization. He was sure that they would like the product and order for more in the coming days. However, he wanted to make the moment monumental. He never wanted to forget the first order he received. The next day, he skipped going to office and decided to work from home. He called up the manager and informed him the same. The manager on his part obliged his request. James had thought of what to do and at around 10.30 a.m., James walked up to the nearest photocopy shop and requested the gentleman to give him a photocopy and lamination of the cheque.

The shopkeeper looked at him for once and when he did not see any expression on James’ face, he went ahead with the same. Having done that James went back to his room and pasted the laminated copy of the cheque at the wall in front of his work desk. He realized that this would help him in 2 ways –

1. Keep him motivated to work more2. Keep him humble irrespective of how big he grew in life

He went on to write down the engagements of the day after which he checked if anyone had sent him some mails requesting for a demonstration on his product. There was one – Computer Solutions Private Limited. They wanted James to come by the next day with his product to give the technical head a demo. He reverted acknowledging them and also confirming the timings of the meet. After that, he straightway hit to the website of the company to know more about the organization and also look at where the product would fit in.

After about an hour of research, he was finally done with the notes, promising himself to have a deeper look at the same in the evening. With that done, one of the assignments that James had written for himself was to go to the nearest bookstore and get himself some of the magazines related to his work. A quick shower and James was out on the streets towards the bookstore.

It was about 2 p.m. when James reached the bookstore. He browsed through the news board of the store, checking the latest engagements in the book world. To his extreme surprise, he came to realize that one of his idols was releasing maiden publication in the bookstore at 5 p.m. He wanted to be a part of the event. There was still 3 hours to go before the event started and he realized that it would be extremely long for him

Page 45: @Springboard your life   ebook

to stay at the bookstore for the next 3 hours. He thought of buying a magazine, walking up to the nearest coffee shop, spending some time and coming back half an hour before the event. That sounded a good idea. He picked up a magazine, paid and headed towards the coffee shop. There were about 6 people in the coffee shop, in three pairs. He sat at a distance that he could read the magazine and also overhear the conversation going on, just in case the conversation would help him in promoting his product in some way. He was not willing to let any opportunities in any which ways to sell and promote his product. James also thought that if they talk technology, he would smile at them and join one of the groups and showcase the idea of his product. He listened intently while his eyes focused on the magazine. The guys on the left hand were talking about some college fest they were planning to organize at college.

The gentleman facing James looked like the professor while the younger guy the president of the fest club. Their discussions revolved around participating colleges, events, logistics, sponsors, permissions etc. James thought the professor could be a good connect when it comes to showcasing his product in the college. However, there was no response or an eye contact with James as he was engrossed in entirety in conversations with the young guy. He thought it would also be a bad idea to interrupt.

He moved his ears to the right. Some interesting conversation was on. The guys were talking about the something related to technology. James thought he heard that they were looking at options of some software for their processes in the office. This was music to James’ ears. He could talk to these guys about the product. It could be a good opportunity. He looked at the guy facing him. He looked 35-36 years of age and also looked like the finance guy of the company. With cuff linked shirt, blazer and a tie, the guy definitely looked rich. James started thinking about cracking the conversation, but there was a hesitation to do so.

He did a mental rehearsal of a smile and a hello. He also mentally rehearsed the following line – “Hi, sorry I overheard you guys discussing about software, so could not stop myself from saying a hello to you guys. My name is James and I work in the same industry as you guys….” He looked up and rehearsed once again with his eyes closed. He opened his eyes, turned towards the guys, just to see one of them get up and proceed towards the toilet. That was an excellent opportunity for him. He had the lines. He had the emotions and the confidence. In worst case, it was better getting embarrassed with one person than two!

With a smile and making an eye contact he said the exact lines - “Hi, Sorry I overheard you guys discussing about software, so could not stop myself from saying a hello to you guys. My name is James and I work in the same industry as you guys….” Surprisingly, the guy gave a wider smile, came over shook hands with James and told him he was Sagar. He invited James to their table. James thought it was a little too much but on second thoughts, he felt good. This was what he was expecting. Sagar introduced himself as the managing partner of a mid-sized software firm and also indicated that his friend was the founder of the

Page 46: @Springboard your life   ebook

company. In the meanwhile, the other gentleman came in and Sagar introduced him to James. The other gentleman, Arjun was a very soft spoken individual with a keen sense of observation and always carried a smile on his face. James liked the guy instantly. They inquired about the work James did and through the discussion James brought out the topic of the product he had developed. He also confessed on overhearing their conversation on the lookout of a new product and thereby the generated interest. They both laughed at the same, with Arjun thanking James for being honest. James started liking him more.

After 25 minutes of discussion, they asked for leave. Handing James, their visiting cards, they suggested James to be at their office with his product at 11 am tomorrow morning. James could not have asked for more. He realized the importance of keeping the eyes and ears open in search of opportunities. Sagar and Arjun’s case was a classic testimony of the same. He reinforced himself to further his power of observation in the coming times.

It was already 4 p.m. by the time they finished conversation. After about 10 minutes of their departure, James too left the place and headed towards the bookstore. They were getting the stage arranged. For 25 minutes, James casually browsed the books and when he saw that the chairs were laid and people were sitting, he settled down. In another 5 minutes the guests arrived. After a bit of welcoming, the host started the process.

The guest was introduced as one of the brightest minds of the industry and as the host spelt out his accomplishments, James could not stop wondering how much of time it would take for him to achieve the kind of recognition. Maybe in 2 lives, he concluded. After that there was a small snippet of the book read by one of the most distinguished theatre personalities in the city. The reader had a very good baritone and it kept the audience glued to the presentation. James quickly removed his notepad and started scribbling the data the reader fed to the audience. After 10 minutes, the reader stopped and the audience gave him a thunderous applause. James looked at the author who was smiling and had his eyes lit up at the gesture. He felt real good for his hero.

Next, the host invited the author to speak a few words on the book. James sat up straight. He did not want to miss out on a single word said. He scribbled interesting facts the author said and was completely mesmerized by the way he spoke and the confidence he carried with him. The author thanked the audience before moving out, just to be given a standing ovation for his talk. James felt extremely delighted for him.

The book signing went on and that was followed by snacks. James wanted a chance with his idol. During the socializing, he found his idol engaged in a talk with an elderly gentleman. He mentally rehearsed his lines, carried a smile on his face and walked towards his idol. “Hello sir, It was a wonderful presentation and I am

Page 47: @Springboard your life   ebook

sure the book is also extremely valuable for youngsters like me,” quipped James. The author thanked James for his kind words. ‘Sir, you did talk about innovation and the need for revolutionary products in your presentation. It was highly inspiring for a young innovator like me. I have recently come out with a product which would improve effectively and cut costs by 50%. Its been tested in the market and the results have been extremely encouraging,” he said in a breath.

The author looked at James from head to toe and inquired what he did. James talked about his profession and also gave more inputs on his product. The author looked very impressed. He asked him a few questions to which James answered confidently and convincingly. After all, he had been talking only about his products to everyone for the past couple of months. The questions were repeated 80% of the time.

James knew that if he could market his product to the man, it could be a massive business opportunity for him. Here was one man who made a fortune selling products. If he was clued and glued with his idea, James could strike gold. The author took his business card and told James to bring 2 products to demonstrate at his office the next day at 9.

9-11-4.

It looked like a back to back timing for him but he was confident that he would make it. He had to request Sagar for a push by an hour. He thanked the gentleman and took leave promising to be at his office at 9 a.m. sharp. He could not believe that he had touched one of the icons of the industry and more importantly convinced him for a product demonstration. James started believing that the product could actually be a goldmine for companies. He called up Sagar and requested for a push by the hour. Sagar was nice enough to oblige for the same.

Page 48: @Springboard your life   ebook

Preparedness

It had been an extremely hectic day for him and he knew the evening was going to be much more hectic. Ground work on three companies was no small task. He at least felt a little relieved about having done a bit of groundwork for the third client. He switched on the system, went to the company’s website and started making his notes. In exactly 2 hours, he had all the relevant inputs required. The time was about 8 p.m.

Exhausted, he fell on the bed to lie down for a while, just to wake up at 3 a.m. the next day. He suddenly woke up and the first thing was to check the time. 3.15 a.m. James ran out of bed, went straight to the fridge and scooped anything he could into his mouth. He was extremely hungry and before he sat to work he wanted to eat something. After having done, he sat in front of his computer, and started revising the material he had compiled for the meetings. He took out a blank sheet of paper and looked at creating a sheet for himself.

A look at the sheets–

Organization Questions Answers

After this, he filled in the tentative questions that each organization would ask him and also jotted down the answers he wanted to speak out. James did not want to miss out the opportunity to showcase his product and with a big client like the author’s company, he would take double precautions to not show his nerves.

Page 49: @Springboard your life   ebook

It took him an hour to do write down the questions and tentative answers for all the companies. The time was 4 30 a.m. James thought there was no point in sleeping. So he went for his early morning jog, though half an hour earlier.

Page 50: @Springboard your life   ebook

Magic

James was back from his daily jog half an hour than the regular day. Through the jog, he had rehearsed the answers, tried to see if there are any loopholes in the same and did a positive visualization for 15 minutes. He felt charged up and was raring to go. He had laid rest a couple of doubts including, what if they will not like my product and what if they ask difficult questions. He had answers for both, more importantly, the first question. James thought he would give it his best shot but had nothing to lose, if the deal did not come through. He would look at the loopholes, try to polish them and use it in the next interview. That was an excellent attitude to carry.

At around 8 a.m. he left for the first client’s office. The distance was about 25 minutes but he did not want to panic, just in case there was a traffic jam. He reached by around 8.35, with an easy half an hour to go for the meet. He purchased a newspaper and as was his habit, went to the sports segment, followed by the business segment. The IPL was on and pages were flooded with columns written by ex-cricketers, starlets, management gurus and the likes. He skipped. James moved to the business page. There were at least 5 news articles indicating takeover of smaller companies by bigger ones in the software industry.

He thought about his product for a while. What if they say that they wanted to buy the product in entirety? What if they, after demonstration will assign their technical team to bring out a prototype of the same product? What if they come out with a product similar to his and dominate the market? Suddenly these thoughts started taking wings. However, there was something inside that told him that there was nothing to worry about. He felt everything’s going to be fine.

At 8.40, he stepped into the office, introduced himself at the reception and took his seat. It was a massive office space, with a lot of security men on the ground and surveillance camera on the ceiling. He felt a little intimidated. However, he kept his cool and waited to be called for the demonstration. After about 10 minutes of wait, he was escorted towards the seminar hall. People were already there in the hall. At a quick glance, he noticed there were about 15 people in the room, including the CEO of the company, who incidentally the guy James met at the bookstore.

Page 51: @Springboard your life   ebook

James was given a warm welcome by the CEO and that cooled the nervousness that he had while seeing all of them. He took about 5 minutes for the setting and when he was ready the presentation started. James was cool, confident and comfortable with the presentation. He explained every bit of the product with ease and panache. He was thorough with the product and the presentation. In about 20 minutes the presentation was finally done and James opened the house for questions. Questions darted from far and wide with him answering each one of them with utmost care. The CEO at the end of the presentation asked James a question on if he was willing to sell the product completely to the company and if yes, what was the price he was looking at.

This was one question which James was not able to answer very convincingly, even to himself as he prepared for the answers. And the CEO asking him the same question was extremely challenging. The challenge was for 2 reasons – 1. He looked upon him as a role model and thought saying a “No,” he thought, could be an end to their

relationship.2. He was realizing that his product had excellent potential, if he was looking at marketing it full throttle.

James was in a dilemma. He did not know what to do. He sighed for a moment and took a gamble. It was extremely challenging for him and as he spoke, he narrated to the gang the two concerns that he had 1. Not selling and losing a relationship2. Selling it independently as he thought the product was a great prospect

At this the CEO laughed aloud, congratulated James for his analysis and also told him that the product had a very good potential if tapped wisely. He also told James that they would still continue with the relationship, even if he did not want to sell his product. Further, he put across an offer to James. The offer was simple.

James could go back and do his research on the market value of his product, come back with a price and put it across to him. If it looked like a win situation for both, he could go ahead with the deal. James could not believe his ears. He had never expected the CEO to be so generous with his approach. Of all the people he had met, here was a man who gave you the liberty of thinking on your own and deciding for your good. James made up his mind that if he would sell the product, the first preference would be him.

However, at the moment he had time.

The CEO agreed that they would take 2 sample products for the time being and use it for some applications before scaling up. He requested James to discuss accounts with the department and left the hall. James handed the product to one of the people and was escorted to the accounts department. An invoice was raised and a cheque was made in no time. James was thrilled about the deftness and speed. He looked at the clock hanging

Page 52: @Springboard your life   ebook

at the reception. It read 10. 25. Another half hour, he had to present his product to Sagar and company. He rushed out of the office. 15 minutes later, he was there, ready to make another presentation.

The next presentation seemed like a walk in the park. Easily James answered all the queries, sold 2 pieces and walked to present his third case for the day. It was an interesting day for him. From the early morning nice shocker to the relaxed pre noon presentation, things looked very bright for him. The next meet was at 4 pm. So he had about 2 hours before the meet and the office of the client was a stone throw away from Sagar’s office. James thought of giving himself a treat.

He went to a very nice place in the vicinity, relaxed himself in one of the seats with a sofa and ordered for the most sumptuous of lunch. During the period, he called up Sashi and talked about his day and requested his time tomorrow evening so that he could take Sashi’s advice on the matter.

Like always he consented and they fixed a time and place. With lunch done, he had about half an hour to go for the next meet. James took out his note book and scribbled the events of the day, highlighting the ‘things-to-do” for himself on the two accounts. This was one habit he had been following for the past 3 years. It kept him in great stead. The third client was a bit of a challenge for him. They thought the product was good but wanted a negotiation on the pricing. They quoted him an amount which he thought was ridiculous stating that if he wanted to give the product in that price, they would take more of it in the future. At the moment, they wanted three in the quoted price. James gave one product to the client saying that he would give it for a weeklong trial and not charge for it. If they liked the function, they could order. However, price would not be negotiated. The client told James to come back after a week for the review of the product and then they would decide on future business prospects. James had second thought of working with the client, considering the experience. But that was for a later day. Right now he wanted to savor the moment.He went out for a movie with a few friends including Sashi and spent the rest of the evening relaxing and thanking his stars for the day.

Page 53: @Springboard your life   ebook

Dilemma

The next day he went to work as usual. There were not many things happening at his workstation, thereby he left the office early. Through the day, the issue about selling his product or going solo hit him like bricks. He felt the urge to ask for some suggestions and advice but he did not get the feeling of asking for advice from anyone at his working space. Anne was at the top his mind for an opinion but he stopped. The reason was simple. What if she felt that he sold her a product which he was contemplating to sell off to a third party. It would look like he knew about the deal but still went ahead and sold the product to her company. And more so, it could bring about him being disassociated completely with the organization. He would not only lose professional contacts but also professional rapport with everyone in the organization which he was not willing to let go. As the day progressed he got impatient. If he spoke to his friends he was sure they would advice him to sell it off at a good price. If he spoke to his ex-colleagues back at work, they also would advice him the same. However, he had one person whom he could talk to. He dialed the number.

‘Hello, is it Prakash?”“Yes,”“Hi Prakash, James here. How are you?“Oh Hey James, how have you been doing? Been a while man.”“I have been doing well, Prakash”“So how’s the marketing thing going on? What all have you been selling?”“Been going good Prakash. Wanted to talk to you for a while if you have some time?”“Sure go ahead”

James explained him everything from the day he started building this product, the reason he quit, the struggles he had had during the days and the final offer that was made to him by his role model.

“So what do you think I should do Prakash?”“Oh cool James. I never knew you would turn into a marketing genius too”“Hey, no genius and all. Just tried and pushed my luck.”

Page 54: @Springboard your life   ebook

“Well, am happy for you James”“Thanks Prakash. So what do you think I should do? Should I wait or should I sell it off?“What’s the price you are looking at if you selling?”“Don’t know”“What’s the scaling up you are doing of the product if you looking at going on your own?”“I don’t know that too”“Well James, you still remain a technical guy to me, then.”“Hey Prakash, Jokes apart, what do you think is a good price for this?”“So you have thought of selling it off eh?”“No, no..generally looking at a figure”“It should easily be somewhere close to a 2 million dollars. That’s a conservative estimate James. You could up it to more than 5 times of the price I said. Depends on how well can you explain the reason why you quoting the price.”“You sure about it, Prakash?”“Yes, absolutely. Nothing less than 2 million”“Oh cool. So do you advice me to sell it off?”“Well it looks a great offer to me though James, rest is your decision”“Cool. Thanks Prakash”

And with a little bit of nice small talk he hung up the phone. He wondered through the coffee vending machine and then to the water cooler. He was restless and clueless. Prakash had given him a good figure to estimate the worth of the product. And it looked a neat sum.

He dialed another number

“Hey, hi James, long time. How have you been?”“Doing good Chitra”“Heard you have moved into marketing and selling, boy”“Am still a researcher by heart”“Ya ya you remember the coffee shop discussion right..”you never know thing”“Don’t rub it in Chitra!Ha ha ha..”So tell me why does the great James call the tiny Chitra after years?”“Bloody its hardly been a year Chitra!”“Oh, the famous temper eh. Cool down and tell me what happened?“Ok.ok.”And James went on to narrate the story and also what price Prakash had estimated of the product.

Page 55: @Springboard your life   ebook

‘Wow. An arrogant millionaire eh…”“Shut up!”“So tell me what do you want from me?”‘Should I sell it off or keep it with me and start something of my own taking this product as a flagship?”“Hey, that’s a huge decision. How can I decide for you?”“I think you predict well with all the unwanted philosophies that you carry along with you”, he joked“See and now you come to the philosopher to ask about the biggest thing in your life. James grow up!”“Hey, I was joking. Sorry. I am”“Ok. If you were not my friend, I would have slammed the phone”“Tell me what do you think should I sell it or keep?” ‘Well, James, what do I say? If you think what I said at that coffee shop came true for you, does not mean that everything I say will come true for you. I am not biting this. Don’t ask me for this favor.”‘Please Chitra. One last time. Help me out. What does your gut say?”“My gut says that I should slam the phone now”“Hey Chitra, don’t do this to me. Okay I might not take your advice, but what do you think?”“Okay, I think whatever you do, will be good for you. Either ways I feel would be good for you.” “Got to get back to work James. All the best!”

With that Chitra hung up the phone. James went into further soul searching. Chitra had been of not much help except the last lines that he could do either of them, and it would prove beneficial. He realized that he too knew the same. James grew restless. He looked around the office. Everyone seemed to be busy doing something, not knowing if that’s what they wanted to do for life. They seemed to be doing things for a living. Life and living were two separate entities for James. If life was the celebration of all the small things that made up one’s existence, living was about survival. If he sold the product, he would fetch a good amount of money for that and make a living for a very long time. However, if he kept the product with him, marketed it well, built an entity for itself, then he would be able to live a life, for that was the sole purpose he left working for an organization. He wanted a break. The clutter in the mind was a little too much for him to handle. James packed his bag, wrote a small mail asking for leave and sent it to the person he was reporting to. “What happened James, suddenly?”“Not feeling well Ram. Just want to go home and sleep for a bit.”“Ok. Do take some medicine and if it is persisting, do go to a doctor ok.”“Yes I will Ram. Thanks for the advice.”

Page 56: @Springboard your life   ebook

Having said goodbye to Ram, the person he was reporting to, he walked out of the office. He felt like a zombie. The day was sunny and cars zipped past through him. But somewhere he did not feel the chaos of the outside. What was happening inside was more than enough to keep him busy.

He wondered around the city for the entire day, sitting at coffee shops, visiting a book stall, watching kids play in gleeful abandon in the parks and pavements and finally as the day dusked, walked back home, still confused but glad that he had fooled himself from not thinking too much about the dilemma he was facing. He removed his shoes and crashed to bed, just to fall into deep sleep.

Page 57: @Springboard your life   ebook

The retrospection

“Hey James, you are the cockiest guy I’ve ever met… It is okay to be intelligent but good to be humble. ..You think you know everything in that’s there in this world…How do people tolerate you?...Have you lost your mind? Why should I support you for this? How am I supposed to believe that you have become a reformed man? Who on earth is going to be by your side? What happened to your attitude of - I don’t need anyone!

James woke up sweating. He looked at the time. It was 3 a.m. in the morning. James reflected on what he had just experienced. It was shocking. He remembered each and every line that he had seen in his dreams. James looked at connecting the dots. Taking a note book and a pen, he wrote the statements once by one.

“Hey James, you are the cockiest guy I’ve ever met… Ashish, his college mate had once said as they debated on some trivial topic“It is okay to be intelligent but good to be humble”...Neha another class mate had said when he gave a winning speech discrediting his competitors“You think you know everything in that’s there in this world”…his Physics Head of Department had told him years back. “How do people tolerate you?”...Shruthi, the extremely outgoing girl from the class had told him once.“Have you lost your mind? Why should I support you for this?” Deepak, his colleague from his previous job and who was working as a manager in one of the companies had said when he had gone to him with the product. Deepak was always the “on-the-face” kind of person.“How am I supposed to believe that you have become a reformed man?” Chitra had once asked him. “What happened to your attitude of - I don’t need anyone!” His first manager who had a big fight once upon a time said when he went with his product to him.

He knew the power of the written word. He gazed at them as he finished writing and thought of the step forward. James through the past few months of constant experimentation had realized one very important aspect about life. That life is always about the action word! For all the successes he has had and for all the setbacks that he saw in the past couple of months, had it not been his will to take action, the experiences he has had would have been impossible.

Page 58: @Springboard your life   ebook

He thought of acting it out. He looked at the time again. Not the right time to take action. So he sat down and tried to frame what his next step would be. He thought for a while and decided upon an idea which would help him decide whether to sell off the company or to keep it and try to take it to the next level. With the thought clearly framed in his mind, he went off to bed. This time he was smiling as he put his head on the comforts of his pillow case.

Page 59: @Springboard your life   ebook

Springboard

“Hey Ashish, James here. Is this the right time to talk to you?”“Oh Mr. Cocky, I should be asking you this question. Is this the right time to listen to you?”“Hey Ashish, bygones are bygones. We are all grown up and I apologize for all that happened during college days.”“Oh; the mighty James. What’s come up to you?”“Forget it yaar. I called you for a suggestion?”“Hey are you on some kind of medication or are you the really reformed James?”“I have moved into marketing and selling”“What holy cow, what are you saying? But you were always against it? How come all of a sudden?”

By this time Ashish mellowed and James went on to explain his side of the story to Ashish. Ashish still carried the sarcasm towards James but he did give his thoughts on the subject before he put down the phone. James was relieved that he spoke to Ashish, apologized and did not lose his cool with him. He gave himself a pat on the back for making the call and making an honest effort to make amends.

He next moved on to call all the others who were in the list. The reactions ranged from surprise to happiness to rudeness. However James stood firm and polite through his conversation with everyone. He spoke to about 10 people in the last 2 hours and each one of them had given their opinion. James, before sleeping had come with a small resolve that he would call up the people who were his detractors and ask them about their suggestions. It would be helpful in two ways

1. Get back the people who were his detractors into the goodwill fold2. Get opinions from them as they would have fresh perspective compared to what his friends always

suggested

James was happy that he had people give honest opinion about the product and also the way forward. He was confident that their judgment would keep him in good stead. He got ready for work, called up the number of the

Page 60: @Springboard your life   ebook

person who wanted to buy out his product, took an appointment for the morning half and moved out of the house.The office of the gentleman was half hour from his house and he took a taxi for the venue. Upon reaching there, he was directed towards the board room and requested to wait for the Chairman of the company. In another 10 minutes, the smartly dressed gentleman walked into the room with his regular air of comfortable confidence. “Hi James, wonderful to see you early in the morning”“Thank you Sir, it’s always a pleasure to meet you”“What would you like to have, tea coffee?”“Tea is fine for me?”He dialed the reception for a cup of tea and coffee. “So tell me James, what brings you here?”“Sir, as you had advised for me to decide on the product, I have decided”“Oh, good. And what’s the decision you made on that?”“Sir, I am not selling it. I am forming a company which would sell this product.”The Chairman smiled. “Excellent James! That’s the answer I was also expecting from you. You have a brilliant product in hand. Make sure that you capitalize it to the maximum,” he said with a warm smile.“Thank you Sir. You have been a great support.”“Anytime James, I know the offer was tempting enough for you to keep thinking. What made you to decide against the same?”“Sir, it took me a long while to decide on the same, however after much of deliberations, I came upon an idea….” James then went to narrate to the Chairman, the phone call activity he did in the morning.“Oh, and what did most of them tell you?”“They told me to sell it off and that it was a good deal!”“And you did the reverse of what they said?”“Yes, I am taking my chances,” James grinned shyly.“Fair enough James. I have told you the other day that we will still be interested to take your products. Keep innovating and keep coming back with world changing products like the one you created. Am sure you have a great future.”“Thank you Sir. One request I have Sir is if you could mentor and be my guide in the years to come. I have always looked at you as my role model and would be greatly benefited from your advices in the future too.”The Chairman smiled. “Sure James, it would be my good fortune to be of any help to smart and intelligent go getters like you”With the tea done, James thanked the Chairman, walked out of the office with a broad grin on his face and the swagger of a champion.

The sun was shining brightly in the afternoon sky.