Taking leap of faith and trust

Hi, my name is Tarun Mehta. I am from Jodhpur, Rajasthan. I am someone who deeply cares about sales and business development. Last year, I joined Enterprise India Fellowship in March and committed myself to participate in this year-long program where I got the opportunity to explore different real-life business projects, be part of a community where I build some authentic relations and get support to work on my personality. But the journey getting here took a leap of faith.

Been working on projects and believe sales is one of the most important skills to have. I got an opportunity to be part of the Enterprise team as a sales catalyst. For 8 months, I worked from home in my comfort being around family. But for a long time, I wanted to get out of the city and explore. I mentioned it to my team from time to time. Now with all the things getting normal after covid, they called me to Pune for 3 months initially.

I was not expecting it to happen at that moment. This is going to come true what I asked for and wanted. I remember my mentor saying to be careful of what you ask for. I really felt that statement sinking into me. But I was clear in my mind that I have to go out and take this leap. At the same time, I have to consider the situation around me. My mentor gave me some time to consult with my father. As my grandmother was not doing well and she was in the hospital at that moment. Our business also got shut down last year during covid. I know I will definitely need some initial financial help from my family to settle in Pune. Should I ask them or not? Will I be pressuring them?

When my dad came back from Hospital I sat with him and had a conversation about shifting to Pune. Surprisingly, he was more enthu about it than me. He said it’s great you should go. I was still a little hesitant as I was assuming how we are going to manage. He was like you have to do this to grow. He shared his story of moving out to Bombay (what it used to be called at that time) after graduation and told me “You have to break your comfort to be out there”. Though I was clear in my mind, his support was adding more confidence in me about it. I have craved this for my whole life to happen “The father and son talk”.

While taking this leap of faith I was more confident as the last time something like this happened was when I took a drop after my 12th grade where I had to rethink my career and life choices. My roots belong to a village ‘Jaitaran’ but I was brought up in Jodhpur as my mom wanted my sister and me to give the best education possible at that time. Staying away from dad who used to visit us on weekends or once in 15 days. They have provided us with every facility possible. For us, grades and marks were so important to have and it was the only concern that we had. Till 8th class, I was the guy who used to stay home silently and took care of my grades and didn’t care much about anything. My life revolved around my mom and sister. I didn’t know what it meant to connect with others, why to connect and how to connect. Creates unknown or unexplored barriers for me.

After passing from 12th I said to my parents I want to explore. I want to work on myself. I am not going to blindly do engineering. Please let me take a drop. Surprisingly they understood me and let me do it and supported me a lot. Now I was the one who was handling the stick, learning to drive my choices. Make decisions for me whether it is right or wrong. My parents were standing behind and supporting me beyond anything. Took that leap putting my trust in my mentor, with the support of my parents and me fighting my inner voice that “ I can’t do it”.

During this time also while shifting to Pune, I had support from my parents. Trusting my mentors and receiving support from my friend in Pune made it easy for me. When you move you have to take care of finding a place to stay, food, and a lot of things. This all got sorted out because of the support of my friends. They helped me in every aspect possible- going out checking out places for me, giving me a place to live and making me feel like I am at home.

I am feeling grateful for having these relationships and community. At the same time, when you have this much trust and support it also creates pressure to prove and make the leap worthwhile. Now It’s been 10 days in Pune and I’m looking forward to the things I am going to experience. Still, the inner voice kept on nagging me that you can’t do it and you are not capable of this but I know what is important for me to work on.