Face your fear!

Sankar S Velayudan

Face your fear — this is not a motivational quote to prepare you for going to your office on a Monday morning! Let us dig in a little deeper as some quotes leave an ever-lasting impact.

Back in 2007, I was working with Tata Consultancy Services and had decided to do an MBA — a transition from technology to business aspects. I got admitted to Georgetown University, Washington DC, for their full-time MBA programme. Three choices were staring me in the face — quit my job and join the MBA programme or take a two-year sabbatical from work with the option of returning back to the same position or defer the joining date by an year because there were early indications of an impending recession.

The fear I faced was the prospect of not getting a job at the end of my MBA programme. Nevertheless, I made a choice to quit my job and joined the MBA programme. The reason was that I did not want to stay in a safety net, which would have ultimately held me back.

Fast forward to 2009, at the end of the programme, I graduated without a job. So the fear turned into reality. Now, again, I was surrounded by choices I had to make — either to look for a business role by returning back to India or to find a technology role in the USA. Now the fear I faced was the prospect of not getting a job on returning to India. I made a choice to return because the purpose behind doing an MBA was to move to a business role. Fortunately, I was hired as a business manager with i-mint (multi-brand loyalty programme similar to Plenti in the US, Aeroplan in Canada and Nectar in UK). i-mint was acquired by PAYBACK in April 2010, which was subsequently acquired by American Express in December, 2010. So, in 14 months, I went from being jobless to working for American Express! I could not have imagined this even in my wildest possible dreams.

There are two types of fear — ones that turn into reality and the ones that remain in the virtual space of your mind. Either way, if you make the right choice, you can shape your future the way you want.

(The writer is an entrepreneur from Chennai)