Triumph

By 25, my life was a complete mess. My girlfriend dumped me, my job payroll was not up to my qualifications, my parents blamed me for all irregularities in my life, my hairs were falling, I wanted to buy all the branded things but had no money, all the self help books which I had accumulated since last 2 years were of no use and to make matter worse my roommate was a psycho. He always landed me in trouble. I don’t know why I agreed to stay with him when I had the chance to stay with other friends.

When we were crossing the busiest roads of the city, he was almost emerged in replying to his Whatsapp friends and I had to rescue him from hitting the bike. Whenever any joke was played in the television he would laugh so loudly and for long that I would miss all the other following jokes for the next five minutes. Even in smallest details like boiling the water and starting the gas for cooking, he would apply his theories and science behind those theories. He would talk loudly on phone and switch on the television when I was sleeping not realizing that I didn’t at all thought of starting the television when he was sleeping thinking he might lose his sleep. When his cell phone was lost, tthe one who founded it called one of his contacts and he got the phone back. Instead of realizing that he should be careful from now, he boosted himself of how lucky he was. His parents were searching a nice girl for his marriage and he discussed all the matters with me. He wanted to marry a US based girl so that she would take him to America and he will be rich. Can you find any logic in this? I mean, waiting for some girl for months so that she will say yes to you and then going abroad just for earning money? Don’t you have that ability to earn money yourself when you are almost 29? I mean shame on such attitude. Why am I so much focused on his talks and habits when I don’t like them? Because I had to listen them all day long no matter I am reading or doing some activity, he’ll not use his common sense to think that someone was reading and that we should not disturb him by our meaningless talks.

When other problems in my life were getting solved and I was finding purpose in my life, I decided that I should do something different rather than following the herd. I had two interests in my life. First, I was a big fan of entrepreneur mindset and second, I had finally got an idea to put my skills into the market. I decided I should design inspiring quoted t-shirts and come up with an online retail store to sell those t shirts. I contacted around ten t-shirt manufacturers and came up with the best pricing and t-shirt material. I contacted many website developers and everyone told me that it was not a good idea. Few even rejected. But I was determined. Hence with my job on side I got less time than I should put in my project. With all the other distractions like family time and engagement, audit in the company, I almost stopped thinking about the t-shirt business.

Then, suddenly one day, a voice came from inside while watching one inspirational speaker on YouTube – ‘Hey man, I was damn good at speaking in colleges and I hosted our first function with no thinking at all and it rocked like anything. Why don’t I give it a try?’ This led me to another thought process thinking what the hell should I say on stage so that people would hear? After watching hundreds of videos and reading as many articles as it’ll make ten new books, I finally realized that if I wait till I am completely ready, I will never ever achieve my goal. The thing is that I may not have knowledge enough to compete with the best speakers internationally but I definitely know something which many people don’t know. I should better start my speaking profession by sharing what I know a little to those who don’t know anything. But another question emerged which asked me what will I speak about?

After third brain storming session, I finally got the reason to speak. I observed around me what was the missing link? People blindly followed the crowd and even lacked small wisdoms of life. They were crazy after material things, friend circle were increasing but only till hi and whats up buddy? Personal meeting were becoming less and people were more concerned with the person thousands of miles away just because he had money and didn’t care about the person next to him. They also lacked self confidence to pursue their dreams. But it was not their fault. There was no one till now to tell them that you can step aside of the line blindly following the crowd and start something you have always dreamt of. They also needed to learn what wasn’t taught in schools and colleges about life rather than just studying about mathematics and science. Collegians also needed to learn that there was more in college except from working hard on learning how to get girls like them. That’s it. I just had to come up with the way to tell this in public and my speaking will start. And after that, I’ll quit my job and live a happy life doing things I loved most.

That was what I thought would be easy but was not in real life. When I presented my idea to the principal of a big college, he laughed and said, ‘First grow up son. Are we all fools that we are teaching all these subjects and you want to include this stupid extra lecture for this meaningless talk and want to get paid more than these traditional teachers who have been teaching since decades?’ I was shocked to hear about his mentality. How can a person responsible for such a big group of colleges and future of thousands of students think like that? He was more interested in saving more money than teaching more new things to his students. I packed my bag, left and didn’t go to my job for two days. I thought what to do next. My roommate knew this and he told me that he knows the trustee of a large college in his hometown and that he can talk with him. I agreed and we went to his home. The trustee was fond of my roommate and he agreed to allot me a demo lecture and if students liked, he’ll call me for further paid lectures. He didn’t have any problem with my fees too.

When we left, I thankfully greeted my idiot roommate who finally did a nice thing. I spent whole day at his home with his family on his request and had a nice day. His parents treated me like a family. I had never felt such love before in any other person’s home before.

I still had one week’s time to give my best lecture ever and I wanted to seal the deal this time. But to prepare the excellent material, I had to spend few thousand rupees on some books and tools I would need to demonstrate different ideas. While I was about to buy them, my dad called me home. My grandfather had to undergo a surgery and it needed two lakh rupees. My father never asked money from me but this time, he felt twenty thousand short from his saving so he asked me politely and I gave him all the money I had. I was now left with only 500 rupees in my pocket. I went to my room and asked my roommate for some money. Without hesitating, he took me to ATM and asked me how much money I wanted and gave me right away. A tear flowed from my right eye but I managed to control it.

I then prepared my best speech and gave a one and half hour lecture which the students and the teachers loved. The trustee then thanked my friend for taking me to his college. I was then offered part time position in the college where I had to give lectures on wisdom and creativity every Saturday and my payroll slowly matched my job salary when I was offered lectures in other city colleges.

After I had a following of around thousand students, I discussed my t-shirt idea with them and they all agreed. Hence the t-shirt business also took off without even developing a website for it. I can’t explain how it felt when I discussed my parents about quitting my job and hey almost agreed. Finally through the frustrating times in life, I triumphed in the race of life but I didn’t reach the top position in my eyes. It was my roommate who triumphed at the top. Without him, I wouldn’t have landed that college lecture and I would still have been roaming around convincing idiots about my ideas.

Mt friend taught me the real meaning of friendship and life. It’s not the annoying things we do that will maintain our friendship but what we do in times of real adversity that matters most.