I've always been one to believe in the power of love whether it's to do with relationships, hobbies, education or career. When you love something, you'll work on it and work for it that much harder. And to make sure that your hard work will pay off, you try to gain the knowledge that will help you succeed. "Love.Work.Knowledge" has always been my motto for different aspects and phases of my life. For me, work has to equate to some form of love, if I don't feel it, I start losing motivation and eventually stagnate at work. I believe that no matter how far you are up the career ladder, there is always knowledge to be gained. If I'm no longer learning, it's a sign for me to move on.
After moving back to India post college, I was trying to find my footing in the working world. After struggling through four years of engineering as an undergraduate student at UPenn, I realised a little too late that I was never cut out to be an engineer. While I knew that the skills and the lessons learnt as an engineering student would always benefit me, I could not envision myself doing a boring desk job that I was not passionate about. Of all the things I expected after college, being 23 and confused was definitely no where near the top of my list. While the rest of my friends from college went into Banking and Consulting, I was still clueless and anxious to know where life was going to take me. After consulting my Dad (who has always been a superb mentor and a great source of inspiration to me) and a close friend of the family (who has a great track record for giving the right career guidance to my slightly misguided generation), I decided to try to my hand at fashion retail as a management trainee at Reliance Brands (the umbrella organisation for international brands such as Diesel, Timberland, Kenneth Cole, Steve Madden etc in India) . Three months into the job, I knew I had found my calling. My zest to learn and high level of motivation helped me grow from management trainee to a buyer for Diesel India within 6 months. By the time I was ready to move on to the next phase in my career at the end of my two year stint at Reliance Brands, I was already handling two product categories for Diesel India on my own. It was a great learning experience and major stepping stone for me to work with a renowned Italian brand like Diesel, but it was time for me to learn from my own failures and successes. I needed to make mistakes that I could take something away from professionally, and that was not going to happen while working in a corporate structure.
So after my (now) business partner approached me at the end of 2011 with a proposition to launch a fashion e-commerce portal focused purely on pocket-friendly fashion for women, I decided to take the plunge with her. After a year of exhausting brainstorming sessions, painfully long days, sleepless nights and treating coffee shops like our private office space (we almost got kicked out a couple of times) - our baby Anonymous Co. came to life. It took a lot of courage on my part and countless arguments with my parents to let go of the comfort and safety of my first job but it has been completely worth it. Every day is a new learning experience, sometimes I fall hard and feel disheartened but all of it finally only pushes me to work harder. And now, my parents and family are my biggest support system on the 'bad' days because they realised soon enough that I had the strength and dedication to do something on my own and see it through. On most days I wake up and go to sleep thinking of new ideas or what I can do better at work, not because I have something to prove to the world but because I have something to prove to the work that I love.
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