Shakthi !! Wake up and smell the Salt!!

After our marriage , the whole bliss and happiness thing lasted for about two weeks ,Then the fun began , you see the company that I was working for decided that they do not need my division and obviously when the division aint there , they don't need a VP for it .Hence I was fired without any notice .

What next ? I started looking out for a job and something told me that it will be better if I had a business of my own .I decided that the division that was axed will continue and become my company.Well there were a few things that I did not realise at that time , first and foremost was that I had ZERO  experience at running my own show .Next were the small things like where I would get funding from (venture capital did not exist those days) , and where would I get people to work with me (I was not a known employer at that time , and even now ).

Most people would start small , I on the other hand started the size of KING KONG and HULK put together .I went for a posh multi-storey office bang in the center of Chennai.Fully air conditioned , power backup , support staff numbering 8 and all the jing bang .Well , at that time , I was very comfident that I would break even in 15 days !!

I found a solution my problem of people , I started roping in my classmates and family friends to work for me (as I realised very painfully later : WRONGEST THING TO DO!! EVER !! ) I felt like I owned half of the world and the other half was waiting for me to acquire it !!

Then the show began  , I was good at communication , still am .So marketing and getting orders was never an issue .I was bad at sourcing and billing , the most important parts of running the show .So I ended up sourcing at a higher price , delivering at a lower price and being unable to collect all at the same time .

Before I realised it , It was trouble time , I had borrowed from all the wrong kinds of people and all my credit sources were overdrawn.At this point my wife offered to pawn all her jewels for me to get out of the trouble .She trusted me so much that she dint bother to ask or tell anyone else at home about this .

Well , as it turned out , people found out and in a very very very unpleasant manner .I still vividly remember all the events that lead upto my first "liquidity event" .That in the next post .

Always remember :  Great opportunities are often brilliantly disguised as insolvable problems ...