There is so much more to the book than the page you think you are stuck on.

[dropcaps type=’square’ font_size=’80’ color=’#4a4a4a’ background_color=’#ffffff’ border_color=”]G[/dropcaps]rowing up, I had a keen interest in sports and excelled at sprinting. I won many prizes as well in sprinting but I got into an accident and couldn’t continue playing sports for quite some years. During those years I developed an interest in cycling which I used to do with my friend and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I look back to those years I can see how I felt very stuck because I couldn’t do what I wanted to and how I got out of the situation by doing what I could and didn’t remain in the same state.

I am Rohan Sarode, a B.Tech graduate majoring in civil, and I have been working with my father in our family-owned construction company for the last 11 months. When they joined the family business, I often heard from my acquaintances and friends that they were frequently criticised or left unheard when they wanted to bring any change in their business. Even though it could have done well for the business, their father was very stringent about any changes. To be honest, it sounded very strange and sad at the same time until I found myself in the same situation. I do not want to sound very pessimistic or sympathise, but this year has not been very great. When things are not going your way, and you feel like everything is against you, and everyone just wants to trouble you for no reason, you go to a friend to vent out, to rant, to cry, simply to feel good that there is someone on your side. 

Let me give you a background of what is going on with me; I was working on my projects in Enterprise India Fellowship and was approached by my father to work in the family business. So, I started working with my father in his construction business very passionately. It felt mandatory to get into the construction business because of the family business and graduation in Civil engineering.  I have always been very interested in doing business, and getting into my own family business was something I was interested in. Still, things didn’t go very well when I actually started working with my father.

In the beginning, I was very excited about work and learning how things work. As I began regularly going to work, I started understanding how much mismanagement and miscommunication was there at our workplace. I wanted to make some small changes that could have helped manage work effectively, and with the same intention, I suggested to my father about minimal but effective changes. Still, he didn’t pay attention to any of my suggestions, which was disheartening for me. Still, I took it positively and started doing things that I could at my level, like bridging the gap between supervisor and workers, getting things in order, and documenting everything. For instance, I observed that we are spending too much money on purchasing the tools used by workers daily very frequently, which we can avoid by simply documenting who is using which tools and if they have kept it at their specific place. This practice drastically lowered our expenses on those tools. I am very well aware that I am new to the business and this environment. Still, I feel very positive when I receive feedback on my work, whether good or bad, and it has always motivated me to do better.

Still, I was not receiving any kind of feedback on which I could work on, people here are very rigid towards any change, and I am not getting a work environment where I can grow intellectually. I am the kind of person who enjoys sharing ideas, finding solutions, working on problems, creating new things but the kind of environment I am working in provides me none of the above. I am in an age where people grow and make changes in themselves and strive to bring a change in society. I, too, want to be one of those; at the least, I want to work upon myself where I could grow, fail and learn. I was not seeing any changes in myself because I couldn’t use my knowledge or creativity and felt very stuck like concrete in the mould which we often use at construction sites where we pour concrete in the mould and it takes the mould’s shape and there is no room for changing the shape of the concrete whereas I want to be like cuplocks ( Kind of lego blocks) where it takes shape according to the structure we want to build and this defines it has space to change.

I was working on the same project for a long time and One day when I was at one of the construction sites I realised, this was not what I wanted to do, the work didn’t require any kind of technical knowledge to learn nor required any soft skills which could have helped me grow personally, after coming back from work that day I reflected that I was not doing anything productive. The work became very monotonous, and I didn’t feel like working. I felt very stuck being there and called a friend to discuss everything.

She is the kind of person who tells you straight up the way things are without sugarcoating anything. I told everything her about what I was feeling over these past months. She said a few things, which definitely didn’t solve my problems instantly but helped me understand things more clearly and practically. She said as difficult as it feels and sounds, she said we must fulfil what we have committed. She asked me to finish the projects I was currently working on and then explore other options after that. It was terrific how bluntly she put that I might think that I am not growing, but if I look back to Rohan of months back, I can definitely see the change in my perspective related to business and mental growth. It’s not always going to be continuous growth. There will always be ups and downs, and sometimes it can get monotonous as well.  Somewhere I was assured that I had my father’s business to rely on and was very scared to explore options outside that, but she told me how important it is to explore things outside our comfort zone; I was not ready to accept the fact that I was scared of leaving my comfort zone. I understood that it was unnecessary for me to do what my father was doing and how important it is to explore as many options as possible before settling for something you have been served already.

 I was not assured but was convinced enough to go back to work on projects where I felt monotonous. I was very worried, but I think after discussing, I could see things with more clarity and got a positive attitude towards work; I understood that it was not necessary to learn everything from my father if I am working in the family business rather I should have a broader approach towards learning. I always believed that my father should be mentoring me if I work with him. Still, over time, as I worked, I realised that my mentality of relying on someone to mentor me is not good in the long run because no one has the time to guide me always. Still, now I have a very positive attitude towards my actions, realising it. 

I was at work when I got a call from Aditya, my mentor at Enterprise India Fellowship who asked me to complete my fellowship at Enterprise but my mind was very saturated and I had a misconception that I should be dealing one ball at a time. But Aadi pushed me to complete it anyways. As I was already feeling stuck, I decided I should at least finish my fellowship to avoid regrets down the road. I started working on a project where my creativity and knowledge would be put to great use, and it took me only two days to feel like a cuplock instead of concrete stuck in the mould.

[highlight color=” background_color=’#949494′]In the end, I feel like it is up to us if we want to get out of one situation or not because we all have what we need right now to bring a change. If one does what they can do rather than thinking what they should be doing, they can get what they want because, We are set in our ways, bound by our perspectives and stuck in our thinking. [/highlight]

[highlight color=” background_color=’#949494′]THINGS START CHANGING ONCE WE BEGIN.[/highlight]