Mid-life crisis is a term that is pegged for individuals that are of 45-64 years of age, but I had seemed to hit that stage quite early at the age of 24. The question of my identity and self-confidence arose when I saw a lot of individuals around me who I had studied with had climbed up the ladder of life so quickly that I was left clueless behind. Money and guidance were ample for them to reach where they were in life. As a person who had no idea what to do with his life, I found myself wanting to get a job at the earliest. I had completed my B. Com and I started my career at a call centre.
After 6 months, I quit the job finding it to be boring and monotonous. I hit a phase in 2010 where I was unemployed for close to 16 months. Eventually, I got a call for a job offer that kind off seemed related to what I had studied with, thus started my career as a back-end finance person. 2 years of monotony in an MNC doing back end finance operations also led me nowhere in life. Granted that I had the money to pay my bills, but it never satisfied my thirst for something more in life.
In my endeavour to do something different and to make quick money, I went to my uncle who owns a leading real estate company in South India. I joined him as a real estate agent and started off with my own josh for it. The game of real estate was manipulative and twisted in measure. I pegged myself as a person who had moral lines and ethics that I was not willing to cross just to make money. Even there, it seemed like the people around me were making money and I was still doing something wrong that I didn’t quite fully understand.
Personal loans and debts piled on me that I had to apologise to my uncle and quit working with him since I wasn’t making any money as such. Before leaving him, I asked him “Uncle, how did you end up being so successful, I am 24 now and I haven’t made a decent living nor do I know what to do with my life. I feel like I have reached a dead end”, my uncle smiled at me and said, “A few years down the road, you will look back on this particular moment and laugh for asking me this”.
I restarted my career in another MNC in finance, the field which I had already started dreading. 12 months have passed by and I finally come in terms that I should just stop thinking that good things could possibly happen to me. I became completely numb as the days went by. One day my team leader comes to me with a particular request, - “Siddharth why don’t you train the younger agents as to how to communicate since you are really good at it”. I hesitantly accepted it but by the end of the training session, the agents I had trained loved the session and I felt a sensation that I hadn’t felt in a long time in life; I felt ALIVE.
I went to my team lead and I told him that I can deliver more training sessions if needed. 3 months into it and my curiosity peeked into training. I looked up the internet and I found a course in British Council that certifies you as an official trainer in Language, it was quite expensive, but I decided to take a leap of faith. I went on a sabbatical from work and I joined the British Council to take up this course.
I was put in a batch of 16 unique people. People from various parts of the country and abroad, people from various diverse cultures of their own right but the one thing that was common between them was their language. The batch comprised of Teachers, Trainers, Coaches and Editors. I, being the odd fish was the only BPO employee in the room. Doubt started clouding my mind since Day 1 as I became completely insecure since I was pitted against people with exceptional language proficiencies.
However, I made up my mind to give it my all for the next 30 days. I thought to myself that If nothing happens, then I go back to my company and continue on with my life with the satisfaction that I at least tried something different. My batchmates found me special since I was the youngest to attempt the course and that I had no background for the same as well. I worked close to 17 hours a day during my course, I sweated on my language research, I learnt so much from my batchmates regarding training methodologies and techniques. I felt that I hadn’t learnt this much over the last 25 years.
At the end of Day 30, I was CELTA certified. All my hard work had paid off. I was put as part of an Elite club where only a total of 650 plus people had ever managed to complete the course in India successfully. My happiness at that moment knew no bounds, that part of my life brought about the beginning of something beautiful and of course, the biggest change of my life as well.
I am 29 now, I still work in an MNC. I do not do finance anymore though. I am now a trainer heading the talent development division throughout India for this MNC. The people who I was on a race within life, the people who had become team leads and managers – I now train those people in communication and personality development, I now train them to be better at their job.
As my uncle had mentioned, I still look back to how I was in the past and laugh at that moment. I found that LIFE is an individual perspective as well. There is no race in life, WE ALL MAKE IT. It’s just that we take our own time to do so. The impact that we wish to have in this world takes time, effort and most of all patience.
As Simon Sinek aptly said - “Don’t miss the mountain for the summit. You can climb the mountain, or take a helicopter, whatever – but acknowledge the mountain and the necessity to climb it in order to reach the summit.”
~ Siddharth UP
HR - Training & Development