| Monday, July 19, 2010 |
What to Express and what not to |
As I start writing this while sipping hot tea, I have just entered inside my house experiencing the wonderful cool breeze outside. It might rain too if Lahorites get lucky enough.
It’s been an exact week since the football world cup final and this post should have come at that moment. However I felt writing it now before going for a power nap.
As soon as Iniesta scored in the extra time, I jumped off my table spilling tea into the keyboard of my laptop making it dysfunctional and making everything around caffeinated. I was still jumping around for no apparent reason with no one except my grandma at home. I felt happy doing crazy stuff.
I was still cleaning up the mess that heavy rain started resulting into power shut down as well. I went onto the rooftop in my T-Shirt and Shorts to experience the first Monsoon of the season. In all these long years, I almost forgot how the rain felt. I went straight into the middle of the rooftop at around 3:30 and stood against the winds. It was a lovely rain accompanied by marvelous lightning and thunder. I kept bathing for around 40 minutes and yelling like a happy lion against the winds. I wanted to express myself out and the rain definitely provided me the chance. Even after the rain stopped, I kept watching the thunder and lightning till 6 in the morning. These were the best I have ever seen or perhaps I didn’t have a memorable rain earlier. I was alone. I didn’t need anybody to be with me in all my craziness, wildness and remembrance of recent years. I caught cold later yet I enjoyed every moment of it.
It’s almost a year since I have shifted into my current office and life has been a roller coaster ride since then. I properly started my first venture from my pocket money and taking a loan of Rs. 30K from the dad, conducted interviews, hired people and did hell a lot of stuff which I couldn’t have done while being on a job. Fights with my co-founders at DesignMyWork & PrintMyWork, dusting of office furniture, cleaning the toilet, washing utensils, making tea and snacks for the employees and friends somewhat made me jack of all trades. Those around me never believed in me. I remember people feeding negative things about me to those who wanted to work for me. We wrapped up DMW on friendly terms in November 2009 for the reasons I mentioned in the post “DesignMyWork: My Stunt with the Graphics Design Industry in Pakistan”, and because one of our co-founders couldn’t differentiate between friendship and business. The entrepreneurship and risk taking should have been over for me but I stayed put and God took me to the right direction.
What happened in last many months would require many lengthy posts which I might write at some other time but I am having amazing time at the moment. A lot has happened and is happening and we are MashAllah growing. I am at an ideal position with two amazing people around me. They are mentors, friends, well wishers, my current life makers and what not. They have faith in me and I have in them. Without taking their name, I would like to thank them for believing in me and trusting me. A bigger “Thank You” goes to Allah Almighty for guiding me to select my new partners amongst the lot that offered me to join their respective teams.
A lot of things have changed in my life in last 1.5 years or so. I am currently cruising in the ocean of success and every few days we have some new achievement to talk about. In the last couple of months, I have also somewhat learnt the art to say “NO” though I don’t say that much often :) . I have definitely reduced my college lectures and other social meetups. This can be evident from the fact that I didn’t even go to collect three awards and souvenirs in last two months. We have been nominated for an upcoming International Award with sponsorship of company delegates for Travel, Tour and Accommodation but all of us are not going as we don’t want to waste our days while we can do few more amazing things in that time.
My CTO keeps on convincing me that I should now start charging for everything I do whether it be a college guest lecture or a social initiative as both Dr. Laltein and the Guru think that I am really bad at monetizing stuff. “Aapne Thayka Uthaya Hoa Hai Poori Dunya Ka Gandhi Sb.” I do things from my heart while they do it from their brains and that makes us a wonderful combination.
The yelling that night was my answer to the life and to those who termed me a failure. For those who were sure that I have ruined my career by not accepting the job offers of some really good multinationals. For those who mocked me. I am still standing in front of you happily whereas you are still trying to find happiness. Now I don’t need your certificate of achievement. If a Director or a VP of an MNC calls you and requests to join him for a dinner, it speaks for itself. You have been calling me “Senior” and you have made me one.
