Die with memories, not dreams

When I started my career as a fresh Chartered Accountant way back in 1994, (I cleared my CA in May 1992 with 50^thAll India Rank. Thereafter I joined a two years full time residential cultural course at Tattvagyan Vidyapeeth) I had some vivid thoughts, or one can say dreams of what I want to do in my professional career. I will share my professional dreams first and then I’ll come to my personal dreams. Being a Chartered Accountant, I had two professional ambitions/dreams, one was to work on Initial Public Offering (IPO) of a company and second was to become Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a company.  Both of these are unique, as in the history of a company; IPO comes only ‘once’ and there can only be one CFO in any company, as per the Companies Act.

In my case, with grace of God, my second dream materialized first. I became Chief Financial Officer of a company at an age of 39 years! It was like a dream come true. If I recall the said stint, I feel I was destined for that role. My very close family friend (my “parachute packer” in all my professional and personal life) was instrumental in showing me the said opportunity and arranging the meeting with Managing Director for the interview. Rest is history. Starting with shifting the head office from one state to another, geographical presence across India, building the team, opening almost average two stores in a month, challenges of a start up with couple of investors on board, entering into joint ventures and floating the subsidiaries, indirect tax challenges, retail operations, fund raising and limited fund resources to manage expectations of all stake holders were some of the key responsibilities I have shouldered. When I look back and think of that stint, that has taught me so many things in my life and major amongst all, was to think and act as an entrepreneur. Being in a start up, I learned, as and when required, one needs to be ready to do any and all work. No work is small and one can’t say this Is not my responsibility.  I developed my own way of entrepreneurship in Accounts & Finance and used to think “would have I signed these papers if this would have been my own company?” before signing any document, contracts, work orders, purchase orders, cheques, payment vouchers, agreements, papers or claiming even any reimbursements. That was my way of thinking as an entrepreneur. I tried to practice this myself and inculcate the same in my team. What a star-studded team we built! Like any other startup team, we also had our own experience of hiccups, doubts, errors, learnings and challenges. I learnt the most important lesson of my life that Finance & Accounts are like a 4 * 100-meter relay race. First runner runs for 100 meter and then passes on the baton to the next runner. It is the speed, agility, perfection, coordination, timing of each and every team member which is important to win the race. One has to have faith on his fellow team member and play according to one’s strength. That was my first experience with building and managing a diversified team pan India. So many people had contributed towards that success. I am and will always remain indebted to them forever. With some of those colleagues, I have developed relationship beyond office and I’m fortunate to be in touch with them till date. Those three years were my life changing years. I strongly believe there was a stroke of God’s hand (one would say luck) in me being appointed as a CFO. I gave my 500% to justify that faith and for all the work I did during those days. I did not know that all these learning of building and managing large and diversified team across India would come in handy in future. That’s how I achieved my first professional dream.

My second dream was to work on an Initial Public Offering, which came true year and a half after I parted ways with my first CFO role. I joined another company as a CFO but that turned out to be a wrong career move. I had to leave that company in desperation and took up the role of Financial Controller in another company. Not knowing that it would turn out to be the best career move ever for me. Someone has rightly said, “when God takes something away from your grasp, he’s not punishing you but merely emptying your hands for you to receive something better” and that’s exactly what happened with me.

When I accepted the offer for the role of a Financial Controller, I had no idea that the said company will go for Initial Public Offering soon. On my joining day, I was introduced to the auditors who were helping us ‘circling (certifying) the financial numbers’ for our initial public offering. Working on the draft red hearing prospectus to be submitted to the stock market regulators, Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI), was a herculean task. Working with top management, auditors, merchant bankers, legal advisors, stock exchanges, printers, internal departments to understand the business nuances and other consultants was an immense learning experience. Learning, working and contributing towards the maiden IPO of the company will always remain very close to my heart. I will cherish those moments till my last breath. During this, I learnt a key ingredient to success – eye for detailing. One has to be so focused and have an eye for detailing to avoid round of iterations.  Not only facts and figures but also foot notes, comma and full stops are important when you communicate with prospective investors. Secondly, once the Financials, DRHP and Prospectus are submitted to the statutory authorities, one has to be sure to avoid errors and re-submission as it can cost not only time & money but at times entire IPO gets shelved! Particularly once the Annual Report is printed, circulated to shareholders and submitted to statutory authorities it is gone forever and will remain till perpetuity in the history of the company. Hence, I used to have sleepless nights before printing of each and every annual report.

Working on the IPO and there after continuing to work with that company was a turning point in my career. My learning curve was at peak as my confidence level soared, I learnt a lot while working on SOPs, building controls, structuring and reviewing Management Information System (MIS), conducting regular review mechanism for critical functions, my team building abilities etc. My self-belief and self-confidence went up sky rocketing. Thanks to a) my visionary Director Finance & CFO, who guided me throughout my spell with that company and also provided me with an opportunity to work on all the diversified areas and b) to my wonderful, talented and committed team who made me shine. Should I call them the Team? Absolutely not. It was and is still like my family, rather integral part of who I am. We did list the shares within a year of commencement of preparation for IPO. What an achievement and satisfaction. I never considered what I was doing as my “job” or “KRAs”, as I was enjoying and living every moment that I have spent in that company. So much that at times, I have not paid attention to my health, family, friends and hobbies. The list goes on. Someone has rightly said, “No pain, no gain”.

To achieve both these dreams I haven’t paid enough attention to my health, given little time to my family and friends, almost zero time for reading other than my professional updates or for any of my hobbies or things which I used to enjoy. For me my work was my only priority.  I particularly regret the time which I couldn’t spent with my wife and kids. I hear so many unfortunate incidences now a days that someone untimely lost his / her life to heart attack due to work related stress. It could have been me! I believe that God has been too kind to me. Some of the ailments I have got at a young age are indirect outcome of my style of working throughout my professional career. But at the end, do I regret those long and stressful working hours? I would strongly say No. One has to always make a choice in his life, and I chose what I wanted. At the end, your life is the outcome of the choices that you make. I strongly echo Rajesh Khanna’s dialogue from the movie Anand written by Gulzar and directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee “Babu Moshai Zindagi Badi Honi Chahiye, Lambi Nahi”

What is your dream or wish or bucket list as a professional? Where you are in that journey? What are you doing to take a step in that direction? In the next blog I’ll share my personal bucket / wish list.  Till then happy reading and feel free to share your feedback. (PS: Your thoughts, views and insights are the highlight of my day)