One Step at a Time
Right from when you step into this world, you’re moulded and nurtured to fit in with the rest of the crowd, essentially to survive. We’re constantly in survival mode, and there’s a defined journey that each one of us takes, as a riteful passage to make it through this world. While the framework of this journey is largely predetermined, each one takes a different path to reach the destination.
I never fit in the all-rounder, overachieving bracket of students who achieved great fame and rewards in school from teachers and other peers. Surprisingly though, despite all the hype that was created around the ‘rat-race’ and the competitiveness that ensued — to out-do the rest of your class — I never caught that bug. And I’d like to think that I’m glad I didn’t. My focus was entirely towards bettering myself with every little task, every time, be it a weekly test, or the final year examinations. I strived to do better than my previous test each time. While I wasn’t always successful at achieving that, it didn’t deter me from following this path. I was, and am, my own benchmark.
Having said that, as I grew older, graduated, and started my first job back in 2017, I did find a handful of people I could emulate. I was still my own benchmark, but my admiration for the sea of knowledge, expertise, work-ethic, and technique that they brought to their work, had me aspiring for more. Giving me a clearer sense of who I wanted to become, it drove me to work towards it with more vigour.
Communication is something that always came naturally to me. Being the by-product of an English teacher and an Ad-Sales media professional, conversing with people was never a task. My first job in a PR agency only confirmed that for me within a professional framework. It was now time for me to figure out what field of communications I wanted to pursue as my career. As I moved along on my journey to carve my own path, sooner than later, I would figure out the areas I didn’t want to associate with, more than the one place that I was fervently in search of, that actually gave me joy. I was in utter disappointment, and was worried about my search for survival.
Cut to 2019, when I was pursuing my MBA, and I took an instant liking towards one of my subjects, Consumer Behaviour and Insights. So, when I completed my course and took up a job in a multinational marketing agency, I got the opportunity to work on well established brands. I worked with the digital team to deliver stellar campaigns and understand the way consumers responded to them with the insights we received through post-campaign analysis. The rush it gave me confirmed without a doubt that this was it — I wanted to drive digital communications for woke, fun, and interesting brands. What made me even more confident, was that I was able to single-handedly drive the end-to-end execution of nation-wide campaigns. While I had largely learnt how to manage accounts well, there was a lot more to learn.
Cut to the latter half of 2021, when I took a leap of faith with The Mavericks. I was unsure of what I was getting into, and fearful of whether I’d ever be able to deliver on my job, considering I’d never dabbled before in certain aspects of my current responsibilities, especially from the perspective of content creation. The faith that the leadership at The Mavericks, has placed in me has been instrumental in helping me embrace this change with grace. It’s important to know when you need to leave an organisation, and when you need to stay on, to out-do yourself. The Mavericks came to me at a time when I was in great need of a change — to learn, grow, and most importantly, work in an environment that aided and nurtured that growth.
Ten months and counting…, I would’ve never been able to see this side of me — a person that not only manages accounts, but also writes, designs (still terrible but somehow conforms to the basics), and ideates, all while running a household for the first time in my life — away from my family and my hometown. None of this would’ve been possible without the teams and mentors I’ve had and have, the opportunity to work with, and most importantly, Chetan, who built this place where humanitarian consideration has always been the first priority, regardless of the everyday chaos. I’m proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish so far, but there’s miles to go from here.
While I continue running on survival mode, I’m now in search of understanding where I want to see myself ten years from now. Challenges are inevitable, and the future is uncertain. Assuming I make it through, I am taking it one step at a time, hopefully coming closer to finding those answers.
