"I am a salesman and when I have something to sell, I don’t wait for the customer to approach me.’’
I am the eldest of ten siblings. Life in my childhood was very difficult and even meeting the basic necessities was daunting.This instead of discouraging me pushed me to have a single track mind to make it big in life.
I always had the dream to pass the civil services exam and become an I.A.S officer. I could not afford that luxury and there was nobody to guide me also. The question of how to come up equally well in life use to haunt me. I decided to try for the corporate sector and took up a job in a small company. I was already reporting directly to the Executive Director and saw no growth opportunities. I resigned and the E.D. demanded to know why I was quitting, when I was good at my job. I replied “Mr. Jacob, at 42, you are the Executive Director of a company. I too want to achieve something and this company is not going to give me that opportunity.” He was startled and said “I appreciate your ambition and I am sure you will do well.”
I joined a leading fertiliser company, Parrys, where once again, I was one among hundred. At a managers conference, a question was thrown up as to who among us was ready to take up promoting our product in Orissa which had just then thrown open the market to privatised fertiliser trade. I raised my hand and found it was the only one. I was soon to discover why. One of the most backward states, I had to work night and day to gain a foothold. In two years, I became a household name with the farming community and was appreciated by ministers in the local government, who stopped calling me by my name and instead addressed me as Mr Parry. In a poor, underdeveloped state, we had created a brand and it became the talk of the industry. It was the most important turning point in my career and at that stage, I could have applied anywhere for a job and got it.
From there I moved to Zuari Agro Chemicals which I learned was conducting interviews in a hotel in my city. I decided to walk in and was given an opportunity to meet the V.P. of the company, an American. He asked me “We have not called you for an interview. How is it that you came to meet us?” I replied "I am a salesman and when I have something to sell, I don’t wait for the customer to write to me. I go and meet the customer.” It was a breezy interview and believe me, I was appointed and those who attended the regular interview lost the chance.
The important lesson is don’t wait for opportunities to knock at your door but create opportunities. A study of those who made it big shows that failure should be taken as our teacher and not an undertaker.
”Failure is delay and not defeat.It is temporary detour and not a dead end".