SetbacksObstacles Failures The Secrets To Success
[Music]
[Music]
the year was 2005.
i had just finished my class 12 exams i
had grown up in small town jamshedpur
also known as tata nagar and this would
be the first time i would be leaving
home
i was moving to bombay for my graduation
and as cliche as it may sound
it was a culture shock in itself so as i
was getting used to the new city the
crazy speed the unknown set of people
i also started preparing for my
chartered accountancy
it was not that i loved ca it was
because everybody told me
some perk you’re good in accounts you
should go do ca
so i did three months into it i realized
this is not my cup of tea i was not
enjoying it and i knew i would not enjoy
it further as well
we’d invested good 35 40 000 into this
already
a big sum for the family that i came
from but i was sure i decided i wanted
to quit and i did
i was 18 i was still trying to figure
out what i eventually wanted to do in
life
so i experimented with a few part-time
jobs
and it was during one of these jobs that
i eventually found my calling
i started working with a small
electronic store
selling television so every morning from
7 to 12
i would go and attend college every
evening from 4 to 9
i would go and sell tvs i was making
some two thousand five hundred rupees a
month
and i was absolutely ecstatic people
told me
sampak what are you doing what will your
friends think if they see you
my friends eventually did notice me
there but i was not bothered what they
were thinking
because i was liking what i was doing
this was where i fell in love with the
whole thing of closing sales
this was where i found the high of
talking to people convincing them
and seeing them walking out satisfied
with their purchase
and that’s where i decided i wanted to
make a career in sales and marketing
2008 i enrolled for my mba and as luck
would have it
the financial crash came in a year and a
half later when i was sitting for
placements
the situation was still grim and i
walked out without a placement
another thing that i had not planned for
coming from a typical
indian middle class when you invest
lacks in education
you want to come out with a stable job
but that
did not happen and i moved to delhi i
had a few relatives there
and i started walking into offices with
resume in hand looking for a job
some i got rejected some turned me away
saying i was overqualified
a few months into this a friend’s dad
offered me a job
but it was an industry i had no clue
about
astrology so i landed up selling
software to astrologers
i landed up selling rings and gems and
yantras and rudraksha and crystals
standing in exhibitions
shouting at the top of my voice again
people questioned me
sun perk you deserve to be an mnc some
park you deserve a bigger brand
i knew i did but i knew that my
shot will eventually come so i kept
giving my 100
into this job as well 12 months later
that big break did come in i landed up
an interview with asianpaints
the interviewer was amazed with the
industry i came from
that my whole interview was around the
fact how did you convince astrologers
how did you generate leads how did you
close sales etc etc
there were 10 people sitting for the
interview that day i was the only one
who got through
this began my five awesome years at
asian paints
it laid the foundation for me as a
professional it made me the man that i
was
after that the startup bug bit me i
moved for three great years at ola
followed by two fantastic years at oyo
i was going from strength to strength i
was riding a wave
2019 was a landmark here i started the
year
getting awarded as one of the top 100
marketing sales and growth professionals
in the country
somewhere in the year i also won the
linkedin spotlight 2019 award
it was an award by linkedin recognizing
the top content creators in the country
everything seemed perfect nothing could
have gone wrong
but then 2020 came in covet struck
the vertical i was leading crashed and
in one day
i had almost lost my job my income was
gone
everything seemed topsy-turvy at this
stage
i could have sat craved cried and
lamented on
why me why did this happen to me but i
knew that was not the solution
while i’d been very very active on
linkedin i’d been building a network
on the side but it was never with the
intention of doing something full time
entrepreneurship was never on my cards
but as i stood on the crossroads that
day
something in me said sun park you have
nothing to lose
go ahead take the plunge so this forced
plunge
made me an accidental entrepreneur and
over the last 10 months
i have not taken my foot off the
accelerator
i have been coaching i have been
training i’ve been mentoring
i’ve been consulting and i’ve gone on
and on
in the last 10 months i’ve trained over
12 000 people
i’ve done sessions across five
continents across the globe
the fun fact is whatever income i was
able to reach in 10 years
i’ve been able to rise back to that from
zero
within 10 months itself now coming to
the crux
of what i learnt in these last 15 years
there are seven learnings
one if you do not enjoy something
move on the problem with the world is
people don’t know when to let go
if i had not left chartered accountancy
i might have become a ca
but would i have been happy no so if you
are giving a best shot to something
yet you don’t enjoy it look for
something that you do and move on
second there is no work big or small
irrespective of how small the work is
give it your 100
you will eventually get recognized if i
had sat down and said
why should i be selling tvs or why
should i be standing in exhibitions and
shouting at the top of my voice
i would not have reached where i am
third
always be confident of yourself that’s
what will take you forward
a lot of people will raise questions a
lot of people will point fingers
but you should know what you’re capable
of keep learning
keep re-skilling keep growing but a word
of caution there
understand the difference between
self-confidence and overconfidence
fourth there will be ups and downs
irrespective of
how high you are flying there might be
something that will pull you down
a lot of times you may not be the cause
of it something completely out of your
control would
but then that’s what life is did i
expect to lose my job
no did i expect my income to take a hit
no
it was at this time that i remember my
favorite dialogue from the movie rocky
balboa
life ain’t all about sunshines and
rainbows it’s a very mean and nasty
place
and i don’t care how tough you are
because it’s going to beat you to your
knees
and keep you there permanently if you
let it you
me or nobody gonna hit as hard as life
but it’s not about how hard you can hit
it’s about how hard you can get hit
and keep moving forward it’s about how
much you can take
and keep moving forward that’s how
winning is done
point number five stay positive
don’t cry don’t don’t complain no
one cares
no one bothers so if it’s your problem
only you are going to solve it
nobody is going to do it for you and
that’s been my mantra of success
that’s what has helped me achieve
whatever i have
point number six always
ask this question whenever you’re taking
a major decision
what is the worst that will happen i do
ask that question
and if it is not life-threatening then
go ahead and do it
what is the worst that will happen you
might need to restart you might need to
put in some more effort
you might need to uh do it all over
again
but if it is not life-threatening do it
the problem with the world is
the people think of the failure and give
up
the moment you start thinking of victory
your half
the problem is solved the moment you
start doing it you are
anyways ahead of 98 of the people
point number seven always work on your
foundation
the deeper the roots the the mightier
the storm that you can bear
if your roots are not strong enough even
a gust of wind will uproot you
over the last 10 years i’ve been very
very consciously
building those routes learning from
every organization that i have worked
with
so if you ask me what has my
organizations taught me the first
organization taught me life at the grass
root level it taught me the power of
empathy and the problems that you face
asian paints taught me the whole thing
of systems and processes
ola taught me the whole thing of speed
and agility
oyo taught me how do you manage people
how do you understand people dynamics
when you’re leading a team of 200 plus
all of them combined maybe what i am all
of them combined
make the foundation of who sun park is
all of them combined
help me resurrect myself in 10 months
and that’s where your foundation becomes
important
now you will ask me some park what next
what does the future have in hold i
don’t know
but what i know is there will be
victories there will be setbacks
there will be highs there will be lows
there will be good times
and there will be bad times but one
thing i am 100 sure
irrespective of what happens i will keep
going on and on
end of the day it does not matter how
tough the situation
is end of the day it does not matter
where you come from
if you’re positive if you’re confident
and if you’re striving to do what you
want to
you will eventually reach where you
should be
thank you