Shall I know your email id please.

Regards,
Jubair Hasan Khwaja

You know it kinda reminded me of my first job (and second, third… too :p) – I used to be a total noob at everything in the beginning and as a result would get a lot of firing from my seniors / boss.

I still remember my very first scolding – It was the first week of my first job and it was a PDF-to-HTML converter program that I was working on ( my first PHP project ). Like an ardent Googler, instead of working on my logic I simply Googled and downloaded the script from web and installed it. I did go through the program to understand how it worked, but mostly I was glad coz I had cut short my work by a number of hours..

Smiling to myself, I was getting ready for a pat on the back from my boss for being so fast for a fresher – but within seconds all I could hear was him screaming at the top of his voice asking me who the hell gave me permission to start using Google for ready-made solutions?! I was stumped still not able to comprehend what I missed. Before I knew it, ganga jamuna were flowing out of my eyes.

Sir went on to scold me for a good 10-15minutes after that in full public view (my colleagues, office boy, and even the chai wala who had just come in with our evening tea ) and I thought that was it! While packing my bag for the day I firmly told myself I won’t come back to this office tom. I muttered to myself they did not even know how to treat their employees, how can they just make someone cry on their very first task.. I wasn’t even going to give a notice, after all I had been there only a week.

Just as I was leaving for the day, my boss called me to his cabin and asked me to have a seat. Hesitantly, I complied. Very coolly he explained to me where I went wrong and why he lost his temper. I was still in denial, but somehow every word he said made sense.

He made me understand I wouldn’t learn unless I tried first, unless I asked for help from those who were much more experienced than me there, unless I went up to him and told him what issues I was facing with my task rather than taking the easy way out to get rid of it somehow in a hurry to go home. We had a good 20 minute chat.. the very first firing and very first pep talk of my career, all in a day!

Since that day, there was no looking back.. my sir went on to become one of the few people who I have the utmost respect for. It’s been a long time and I don’t work there anymore, but even today after all these years I know he is just a phone call away.

Whatever little or moderate coding skills I have today, I owe it completely to those very scoldings and the pep talks that followed in my career. First it would pull me down a bit, but in my heart I knew I was only being scolded at because I was not being up to the mark and people scolding me knew I could do better. This in turn would propel me! Again, this may work differently for different people, what matters is how you face adversity and pull yourself together despite all odds.

I wish that everyone who reads this post realizes the strong sentiments behind it and takes every word in the right sense. Different people are motivated by different things, scolding (fear) may/may not work for some, just like raise may/may not or being friendly with your juniors/employees may/may not (I tried. Getting someone to like you need not guarantee their loyalties )…

The bottom line is – at the end of the day, motivation to perform better each day for your organization, clients and mainly for your own personal satisfaction comes from within!

Awesome post Sumit, took me down the memory lane. And the video attached is just too inspirational. Thank you so much (and sorry for the longggg comment, couldn’t contain myself)

Best Regards,
Sib