HOW BEING A PROFESSIONAL HOBBYIST AS A CHILD HELPED ME AS AN ENTREPRENEUR
Growing up in a typical middle class family can be all about good grades and high class ranks. But that wasn’t the case for me. My mother believed that a life outside the walls of a classroom is just as important as inside and true success of a child lies in overall upbringing.
So learning Kathak through an accredited university from the age of three to getting published in a newspaper at eleven to completing three years of formal training in classical music – the average 24 hours for me were busier than Jeff Bezos on any given day! (Sans a trip to Mars).
And my father on the other hand was a huge sports fan – so a biweekly game of badminton was a must in my routine. I also had to know the names of all Wimbledon winners year after year and keep track of every important sport series. There was reading and writing too – I was expected to finish one book every two days, a recap of which I had to narrate at family dinner table conversations. Further to that, write close to 500 words each week because how else will clarity of thought develop?
In a nutshell as the first child of an extended family I was the poster girl of goals for anyone and everyone. But all of these over-the-top activities led to some interesting muscle memories. For example, years of dance training taught me how to command a powerful stage presence – that chalked out an impactful public speaking career. Days of reading enhanced my comprehension abilities that come super handy in client meetings, allowing me to craft the entire sketch of a campaign based on just two lines.
To summarise, my unique jam packed upbringing pushed me to this point, all organically. I never thought I would be an entrepreneur but when I look back at everything I was doing, it seems like the only logical end goal. I don’t think even my parents, coming from a long legacy of government officers, planned it but in their out of the box thinking of pushing the envelope, they unlocked a secret potential which required remembering John McEnroe’s countless meltdowns and the need to talk about it in a client meeting.
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