Take a Risk

Nothing good has ever come out of fear. Nothing worth it’s while has ever been a result of worry. Nothing outstanding has ever been carved out of doubt. And of course, I have gone through all of these, like almost everyone. But that’s how we learn, right? In my case, I learned who I was only after going through phases of self-doubt, fear of acceptance, and worry about the scary What-Ifs. I learned through personal experience that to start a new life, you have to take a risk, a bold step.

I’ll tell you about one such incident today.

Few years back, I was a Marketing & International Business Major at a Business School, with absolutely zero dreams of working in some famous MNC. All my batch mates had dreams about their placements – from global MNCs, to famous IT giants, from high-level banking jobs, to even higher-level marketing positions. I, on the other hand, had a different dream. I wanted to be an Advertising Girl.

My batch mates laughed. ‘Why did you even come to the Business School then, girl?’ they would ask me on several occasions. Well, I joined because at the time, I didn’t know better. I come from a city where the word ‘career’ only means Doctor or Engineer. And if you weren’t book-smart enough to be admitted into a good medical college or a government engineering college, you were sent off with a prayer to get an MBA degree.

So when I wanted to come to Delhi and try my luck in the big, mad Advertising World, my only way was to enroll in an MBA college with good (and safe enough on my parents’ scale) hostel facility. Our family did not know anyone from the field, we had no “connections,” and we also had no clue what courses to take in order to land an Advertising job. Also, no one in our nice little protective household was too thrilled about it at the time. I mean, advertising did have a lot of dubious stories around it – like margaritas being served during meetings, and people who chain-smoke while churning out big creative ideas. My parents were kinda worried. So MBA it was, I decided. I would figure out my way to the Ad World once I get to Delhi.

Turns out, MBA takes too much time. :/

I found myself buried in projects and group presentations and foreign concepts like Commerce Studies (I was a Science – Bio student, balance sheets made me uneasy). I will find a way to get into advertising, I would still tell myself. I was determined.

In no time, the third semester ended, and before I knew it, the placement cell was calling us to sit for company interviews. Big MNCs, IT Firms and Banks were supposed to come to the campus for placements. Zero advertising agencies, of course. Just to test the waters, because I was curious about it and to get the placement cell off my back, I decided to appear for an interview for a marketing job in one of the leading national news channels with a posh top-floor office and studios in CP, Delhi.

During the interview, I was relaxed as hell because I didn’t really want the job; I was here just to check it out, you know? I also found out that when they said ‘marketing’, they actually meant ‘direct sales’. As in Space Selling for the channel. Yeah, big eye roll at that. I was even more detached and disinterested now because sales and I – not a good match. I made a few smart ass comments during this interview and walked out feeling like a sassy person with some unnecessary snark, mentally planning to check my email at the hostel internet cafe, hoping to find a response to one of the million unsolicited emails I had sent out to almost every advertising agency in the world, asking for an internship. Ogilvy was my dream, of course.

No emails had arrived from any advertising agency. But a phone call from the placement organizing cell informed me that I was one of the only four students the News Channel had selected. The other three were already partying – because the brand was huge, adding its glossy charm and value to our nascent careers! What was not to love?

Everyone was congratulating me, but me? I was facing one of the toughest decisions of my young life. Taking it up meant I was letting go of my dream. Accepting this offer meant I was giving in to fear of the future because there wasn’t anything that was working out in the advertising front anyway. Taking up this job was obviously the risk-free, practical, and best thing for me. But, I am nothing if not impractical.

So, after a week of joining this coveted internship, I decided to let the opportunity go.

Yes, I did not join the big news channel; it was a risk I took after thinking and analysing for a week. The college placement cell folks were baffled. Instead, I joined a much smaller firm with less than half of the compensation offered by the news channel (which wasn’t much in itself!), in a division that was apparently new and experimental. It was called Digital Wing.

Instead of selling ad space/air time for a news channel, I was now helping plan how to sell products on the World Wide Web, utilizing banner ads on websites, emailers, and search engines. I was a Digital Advertising Girl. And no matter how new the field was, not just to me, but to the entire team and even to the country, I felt at home. This was 2004 (or was it 2005? I forgot…)

With insane hours of debating over HTML mailers and call-to-actions, on roll-overs on Yahoo home page to mailers on Rediff, I was living a new life. One bold step, and I had created a new, much brighter life for myself. Well, even if it wasn’t fancy, it would still be good because it was my life, my way. But thankfully, it was turning out to be good. And exciting! I can’t imagine how a sales job at a news channel would have been exciting, no? My risk was working in my favor; I was happy!

And today, when I look back – even though I am still to attend a meeting where they serve Margaritas (much disappointment, this one!) I am glad I chose to be bold and change the course of my life with that one important decision – instead of being driven by worry and norms and everything that’s expected. And I am proud as hell about my career, and all I want to say to anyone who is reading this today – stop letting fear or worry take over, if you believe in something, go ahead and take that risk!

And how I got from this internship in the digital department of a company to a job in a real Digital Advertising Agency – through this blog! – is a story for a different time. (: