Every day brings in its fair share of learnings and surprises and then there are some days which are etched in one’s memory forever. I still remember going to my father’s office often chatting up with everybody and having a leisure time. What I never really thought was that I would get nervous coming back to the same place on April 30th, 2007. The nervous butterflies, the excitement, my grandmother’s blessings and the belief in her eyes for me still reminds me of the courage and extra confidence I got to sustain through my first day at office.
If you ever really come across stories of second-generation entrepreneurs joining his/her family business and their thoughts of perfect first day at work. One thing you might find in common is the fact that how they generally envision themselves as just sitting through the entire day, reading a lot, getting trained by their parents (or in some cases the best of the best), get their new workstation/cabin and some visiting cards to begin their journey. While me and my father drove to the office on my first day. Excitedly, I asked him about what I was supposed to do on that day. All he said that I should enjoy my day. I didn’t understand his context back then but little did I know it was going to be my ‘First Leadership Lesson’ from him. All my father really focussed was for me to learn and enjoy each and every day in this industry.
As I entered office, all my myths about my own workstation, sitting in his room (Which I usually did while surfing the net) came to a reality check. My father made sure that I learnt everything from ground level and hence my training began from the first level. He sent me out on a client packing site, and asked me to stand there an entire day and observe. It was scorching summer heat and I was with my crew packing for a client moving to Mumbai. I came back home tired and sweaty and then my dad asked me how was my day and I said “ great “ trying to hide the agony of standing all day . He then smiled and said tom you go the same site again to watch loading !!!! . Understanding the business doesn’t start by going to the top B schools and learning from the best but it actually begins with learning the soul of the business and exploring each and every department of your business and industry.
My first day was indeed special and I understood the pain and trouble my crew and packers take everyday when they are moving families !
