He was a hugely successful professional, who had built up a company from
scratch and was running it efficiently for several years. Everything was
picture perfect. With good growth generating huge profit, he was
enjoying life like never before.
Then, suddenly, business started shrinking and, over a period of one
year, he lost everything that he had earned and invested till that time.
It happened, when the great recession of 2008 swallowed uncountable
small businesses all over the world.
Cash flow came to a grinding halt, obviously destroying the business set
up that he had established with so much love and care, and, finally,
one fine morning, he found himself in a debt trap amounting to several
millions Rupess with no source of income.
Desperate, about to give up, Sandip got in touch with me to help him find out what went wrong and also to explore if there is a possibility of getting out of that mess.
Subsequently, I had a few joint introspection sessions with him, going
over the details of what had happened, analyzing why it happened and,
finally, trying to find out the root cause of his unexpected destruction
of professional life.
My findings were as mentioned below:
1. Riding the wave of success, he developed a thought process that he
was invincible and success would continue kissing his feet, in this line
of business, forever.
2. To expand further, he, instead of focusing on his core area of
operations, shifted his attention to an unknown territory and burnt his
fingers over a period of time.
3. Instead of balancing out between the existing field of operation and
the new terrain of business, he neglected the former while pursuing the
latter.
4. In his existing business, he happened to be heavily dependent on a few clients and never bothered to add more.
5. At the same time he was going through a major crisis in his personal
life, distracting his attention needed to run business successfully.
All these above factors, added up, created an ideal platform for total
collapse and landed him in a situation he could never think of.
While working out a rescue package for him, some of the suggestions that came to my mind were:
1. Look at success on daily basis and never lose momentum of growth for a minute even.
2. Expand your business, but mostly in one's core area of competence.
3. While handling a few different types of assignments, one must balance the time that's required to be invested in each.
4. Never keep all the eggs in one basket. Clients diversity is one of
the most important factors that decides the fate of any business. Never
be too dependent on a single client.
5. Develop sufficient mental strength to withstand the impact of
relationship fall-out. Do your best to make things work out, but if
that doesn't produce the desired results -either just move on, or
compromise with no regret.
Although he didn't admit to me, but I could make out that the root cause
of his downfall: Losing momentum, perhaps lied in his personal problems.
So, at last, I told him to accept the reality of life and change his
own thought processes to get aligned with what's unlikely to change.
I told him that there is no point in repenting over what had happened --
it makes no sense in wasting your time looking for a solution that
doesn't exist. The most practical approach is to accept, live, and put
in your best efforts for making a turn around out of whatever you already have
in your life.
My concluding suggestion to him was: Sooner you realize, better it is,
that, life doesn't give everything to everyone. Wise people accept this
fact and live that reality, without wasting their mental energy on blaming
others for their sufferings.
Almost on the verge of committing suicide when he had met me first, a year
and half ago, today I find him cheerful and full of hopes for making the
best out of whatever life has given him.
And yes, in professional life also, despite buried from the neck down in
huge debts, he is completely focused on turning it around and with a
determination that I haven't seen in him earlier. I'm sure, very soon he
will make it happen again.
P.S: It's a decade old story. These days, I am not in touch with Sandip.
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