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Why I left my job and became jobless

Hello everyone,

This being my first post on rohinhoods, let me briefly introduce myself. I am a Computer Science graduate and an MBA from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi, at present I am working on building a new venture with four team-mates. It has been around 3 months when I quit my first post-MBA job with Vodafone in a pursuit to do something that I enjoyed more than what I was doing, and since then quite a few people have asked me why did I quit my job, this post is an answer to that. 

I had joined Vodafone less than 2 years ago and had started working as an ASM barely 9 months ago. I was lucky to get Ahmedabad (City+semi rural) as my territory, perhaps the most challenging and visible territory in the Gujarat circle, and I was performing reasonably well. From being placed as one of the bottom-most territories for past many years, my team was able to get us to become the best territory in Gujarat for the last quarter, and it wasn't just one or two members doing well, each one of my team members had contributed to it by performing at his absolute best. I liked and respected my team and I am confident that the feeling was reciprocated by them. I was reasonably confident of a good rating and a promotion for myself as well as most(if not all) of my team.

So, I understand that from most peoples' perspective it was an odd decision, which was even more odd considering I wasn't switching for a higher salary rather looking to 'build' a start-up(employee/founder title was and is irrelevant for me). But, if you think from my perspective, the answer was as straightforward as any because of the following three reasons.

1) I strongly believe that most people earn a major portion of their money in last 10 years of their life, and gains a major portion of their learning in the first 10 years. Even though I was doing pretty well in Vodafone and earning okay, I didn't think I was learning enough or was being challenged enough. 

2) I think a person is shaped by the people he interacts(works/lives/plays etc) with more than anything else, and so I've always placed a very high emphasis on the kind of people I work with. So much so that whenever people ask me which sector/company/profile I want to work in, my answer is inadvertently the same, I want to work with a great team and most of the other criteria have little relevance for me(I accept that every time I answer this, people look at me as someone who has no clarity in life).

Now, there were quite a few awesome people in Vodafone, from whom I did learn a lot, but in general there was a good deal of dissonance between my core value system and theirs, e.g. I believe in giving my team a lot of independence and in-turn ask for complete accountability, I always acted just as a supporter, someone who can make their problems go away while they focus on their tasks, but in larger companies most people believe in micro-managing, the common belief being that the more pressure you put on someone the better they perform. So, even though I had and have much respect for my seniors and colleagues, I knew that I couldn't become like that and had to move on.

3.) I am by nature an impatient person and I like to move things quickly, for me short term success or failures are immaterial as long as you are experimenting and learning, but in a larger organization decision making is often multi-layered and unidirectional, and thus things don't move as quickly. Actions are judged purely by results and hence people avoid taking risks and prefer taking short-cuts.

And so even though I wasn't sure of what I wanted to do, I was sure that this was definitely not it, and decided to take a break to figure out what exactly I do want to do.

If you have had similar experiences in past, please do share in comments.

Ranjeet Pratap Singh

Originally posted on: http://therodinhoods.com/profiles/blogs/why-i-left-my-job-and-became-jobless

जीवन क्या, इक सफ़र अनूठा
साथ मिले, साथी सब छूटे |
जीवन क्या, गोपी की गगरी
कान्हा के कंकड़ से फूटे ||

जीवन क्या, एक नदी पुरानी
बहा किये, सब साथ लिए |
जीवन क्या, एक रात अँधेरी
हो गए स्याह, जो दिए जले ||

जीवन क्या, हंसी अनाथ की
सरल किन्तु अबूझ ये गाथा |
जीवन क्या, आंसू इक दिल के
शोर शराबे में सन्नाटा ||

जीवन क्या, इक ख्वाब सुहाना
खुले आँख, गायब हो जाता |
जीवन क्या, बोतल मदिरा की
गम हो या ख़ुशी, बहता जाता ||

किसी का कल संवारा जा रहा है
हमें किश्तों में मारा जा रहा है ||

किसी को महल की दरकार हुई
हमें घर से निकला जा रहा है ||

कोई श्रृंगार करे सोलहों, सज जाए तनिक
हमारे तन से हर कपडा उतरा जा रहा है ||

किसी की मस्त जवानी को जीत देने को
हमारे प्यार की बाजी को हारा जा रहा है ||

किसी को पाँव कहीं जमीन पर रखने ना पड़ें
हमारा एक ही था जो, सहारा जा रहा है ||

किसी को याद में पल भर को तड़पना ना पड़े
हमारा हर निशान, 'रोहित' मिटाया जा रहा है |

एक अबूझ पहेली

गम तो बहुत दिए हैं तुमने

लेकिन खुशियाँ भी उतनी ही 

क्रूर बहुत थी सच है लेकिन 

कोमलता भी थी उतनी ही ||

आंखों में आंसू भर देना

कोई तुमसे सीख के जाए

पर आँखों में स्वप्न संजोने

की क्षमता भी थी उतनी ही ||

ख़्वाबों में आके तड़पाना

तुमसा कोई ना कर पाए 

उसी तरस को मधु से मिटाने 

की तन्मयता भी उतनी ही ||

एक अबूझ पहेली बन के
जीवन को था गूढ़ बनाया 

लेकिन उन गहरी आँखों में

दिखी सरलता भी उतनी ही ||

रोहित 

Just when do u decide to cut your losses and move on ???

"Persistence pays", "you have to let it go", "if you love something, risk everything that you have to get it", "you can't risk losing everything for that one thing"....

So many contrasting thoughts, all of them look absolute pearls of wisdom and yet they contrast as much with each other as day and night, head and tail, sreesanth and mcgrath.

Every person dead or alive, has faced this question more than once in his life. Whether he should give more effort for something which is not working out by the effort that he has already put into it. Whether he should wait another year for that elusive brand wimwi (or joka or xl for that matter), whether he should control his urge to earn his own money and to study for two more years to do a post graduate degree, whether he should cut the losses in the investment that he has made in ICICI stocks, whether he should ask his son to get a job who has failed in his attempts at IAS twice, whether he should try one more time to make a relationship work when he has failed miserably earlier...

In all that I could find out, there is no perfect answer to this. The world often sees the victors, it will see at a Newton and tell you that he failed a thousand times before inventing a bulb but it will also see at a Sachin Tendulkar and tell u that even though he wanted to be a fast bowler he gave that up to be the batting maestro that he is.

The world is cruel, it looks up-to people who have succeeded and asks u to emulate them but it conveniently overlooks several hundred others who would have done the same things as these champions and failed miserably, it forgets there are still others who did the exactly opposite thing and still went on to make their mark.

There are people who cut their losses of a investment and learned from their mistakes, there are others who stayed on and the same investment gave them millions, but more than both of these are the number of people who chose either of the two options but turned out big losers.

I remember watching the movie Girl Next Door, and I remember the phrase "juice is worth the squeeze" the question is how much do u squeeze to see if the juice is really worth it....

बहुत दिन पे है हमने लिखा, और क्या :P

// Any resemblance to any person dead or alive is merely co-incidental.

ज़िन्दगी बन गयी इक सजा, और क्य़ा
हर ख़ुशी हो गयी अब हवा, और क्या
हम थे यूँ चल रहे, अरमान मचल रहे
हो गया सब धुआं, और क्या

ख्वाब देखे थे जो, वो हुए लापता
किसको कोसूं भला और कोसूं भी क्या
खुद के ही थे सपन, खुद ही करके दफ़न
राख से था शुरू राख ही अब बचा, और क्या

हमको लगता था कि सारी दुनियां हसीं
सब है मुट्ठी में अब, ना कोई है कमी
बस यहीं थम ये जाए मेरी जिंदगी
और बस ये सफ़र थम गया, और क्या

आंख में अश्क हो, और दिल में दरद
पर रहेगी मेरे होंठ पे वोह हंसी
तू भले जिंदगी से गयी अब मेरे
जहर थोडा ग़मों का पिया, और क्या

माना कि बिन तेरे, जिंदगी रंग बिना
पर ये मतलब नहीं कि मैं जिन्दा नहीं
माना तुझसे था मुझको बहुत प्यार पर
थोड़ा आंसू बहाया किया, और क्या

मानता हूँ कि मुश्किल तेरे बिन सफ़र
आँखों में तेरे सपने अभी तक भी हैं
पर ना ये तू समझ कि मैं कमजोर हूँ
दिल को सदमा लगा इक जरा, और क्या ...


रोहित

:-*

जिंदगी भर तेरी बांहों में मैं रहूँ.
आँखों से प्यार का जाम पीता रहूँ
अश्क हो या हँसी, साथ शामिल हो हम
साथ ही मैं मरुँ, साथ जीता रहूँ ||

तेरे ख्वाबों को सारे सजा मैं सकूँ
जिंदगी में तेरी भर दूँ सारे सुकून
है यही बस तमन्ना अकेली मेरी
जो भी हो जिंदगी, साथ तेरे जियूं ||

हर घड़ी तुझको पाने को तरसे ये दिल
दूर तू जो रहे तो है तड़पे ये दिल
बिन तेरे, जिंदगी में ना मकसद लगे
साथ तेरे ये दुनिया भी जन्नत लगे ||

हर घड़ी है ख्यालों में चेहरा तेरा
रहे तू मुस्कराती है ये अरमान मेरा
चाहता हूँ तुझे कितना कैसे कहूँ
बस तू ये जान ले हूँ दीवाना तेरा ||

...

है एक आशिक़ी ये संभलती नही जो
है एक आरजू बस मचलती रही जो
करूँ क्या बता मुझको दिलबर मेरे
मेरी दोनो आँखें तरसती रही जो ....

कि हर रोज़ यूँ ही है दिल मेरा तड़पे
तुघे घूरता, तुमसे मिलने को तरसे
तुम नही सामने, तो ये मरु सा तपे है
देखते ही तुम्हे, मरू पे पानी सा बरसे

तेरी आँख में डूब जाने का दिल है
करूँ प्यार कितना बताने का दिल है
है डरता ये दिल मेरा, नादान हैं थोड़ा
कि संग साथ रिश्ता निभाने का दिल है.

तू जो कहदे मुझसे तो ये जान दे दूं
तेरे ख्वाब पे अपने अरमान दे दूं
है तेरी ही आँखों में अपना बसेरा
तेरी इक खुशी को मैं हर दाम दे दूं

ओ जानम मैं तुझसे करूँ प्यार जब से
दुआ बस यही माँगता हूँ मैं रब से
ये मासूम चेहरा, हँसी ये कयामत
तेरी मुस्कराहट हो हरदम सलामत

रोहित.

जीवन क्या ?

जीवन क्या ? एक बहता दरिया
जो हरदम बहता जाता है |
थके मगर ये रुके कभी ना
सारे गम सहता जाता है ||

जीवन क्या ? एक फांस है अन्दर
जो सबके दिल में चुभती है |
चाहे कितना कोई ढूरे
ये सबके अन्दर रहती है ||

जीवन क्या ? एक सफ़र सुहाना
साथ सफ़र चलते कुछ साथी |
कोई मिलता कोई बिछड़ता
संग हमेशा पथ और पाथी ||

जीवन क्या ? एक ख्वाब सुहाना
जो हमने था खूब संजोया |
अब देखो जो पीछे मुडके
सब कुछ पाया, ख्वाब ही खोया ||

जीवन क्या ? ये एक कहानी
बचपन से सुनते आये हैं |
अब तक भागे मृगतृष्णा में
अब जाके हम पछताए हैं ||

जीवन क्या ? बस यारी अपनी
वक्त कोई हो साथ हमेशा |
आस पास हो या हो दूरी
सोचें तेरी बात हमेशा ||

रोहित