We all have heard this phrase – “Be what you want to be and to be what to want to be, believe in what you want to be”.
New career options always excited me. Many a times you want to explore something new, and I was no different.
When I was young, the job of a Conductor always excited me, just because he had a whistle. A policeman had a gun, so this was another good option I considered. I was more excited with what others carried as part of their profession, rather than their actual profession.
On one such day, I met a fighter pilot with my uncle, who retired as Major General in the Indian Army. The fighter pilot’s towering personality, and his skills of touching the skies with the wings of a fighter plane, excited me no end, and I immediately decided to become a fighter pilot. My dreams had changed and so my attitude.
But I shortly realised that I had a serious issue – I was dead scared of heights. This scare continues even today. I cannot see down from the balcony of a high-rise building. I have this dead-fear that, somehow, I would lose my balance and would fall eventually.
Now, I had two choices – Either I drop my dream, or I overcome my fear. I tried my best to overcome my fear but failed. The fear of heights could never go out of my mind. I had to drop my dream of becoming a fighter pilot, and I did eventually.
I started realizing, if one needs to succeed in life, having a mentor is very important. And if you are able to get a good mentor at an early age, you are amongst the few blessed in this world.
This mentor does not need to be from a certain profession or be a professional counsellor – rather a person, who understands your strengths & weaknesses, and can guide you to achieve what you want to achieve.
People may argue that this mentor can be your wife or husband – sorry, the mentor needs to be someone who doesn’t argue on everything, and is also detached so that the areas of improvement could be highlighted.
During my such wondering days, I came in contact with one retired diplomat who persuaded me to join him in a small venture of selling properties. His name was Mr. O.P Chabra. This I am talking about the times when Vasant Kunj in Delhi was being developed and no one wanted to go to DLF.
This was the time when people rushed to book DDA flats, and for the allotment of flats, one had to wait for months together. Then, if you were lucky, your name would appear in the lucky draw.
Mr. Chabra had seen me dealing with various clients and he advised me to pursue my career in communication and public relations – “Pavan, with your power of persuasion and negotiation skills, you could be an excellent communicator”,he had said. He sat with me the next day and discussed many things, perhaps to understand my inclination towards the suggested profession.
Once convinced, he gave me a road map. Road map for my journey to become a good communicator. First, I was advised to pursue languages – Literature in English and Hindi in my Graduation – and then for analysis do Masters in Economics. After Masters in Economics, he advised me to go for higher qualifications in Advertising and Public Relations.
Mr. O P Chabra was my first mentor who gave me my first career guidance along-with a road map. The road-map was clear and achievable.
I am not sure if you would believe – he even offered to pay my fees, which I politely refused.
Along with my educational qualification, he personally devoted time to improve my communication and body language skills.
The second stage was to improve knowledge and remain updated with what was happening in India and around the world. With absence of Google, my dependency was more on newspapers, radio and television news.
The third stage of grooming was perfecting the art of making an appearance in public forums and meetings. He often said – “People do not ask for your qualification or designation when you meet them in public. Their first judgement comes from what you are wearing and how dignified you look. What is your approach towards people, your politeness and humbleness, play significant role in making an impression about you on people.”
He suggested that I start doing exercise, yoga, brisk-walking and meditation for self-analysis. This was required to organize my life, bring discipline, and it did initially. As always, the beginnings are exciting, but then, as you say – there is always a tomorrow.
Having said this, things started shaping professionally. I joined the Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW) as a Program Officer. Then gradually moved to CAPART (Ministry of Rural Development) as an Exhibition Officer. And then, one fine day – on 25th September 1989, I joined Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) as Assistant Director – a gazetted officer at the age of 23, when I didn’t even have proper moustache. The journey had started.
Later I joined NIFT as Media Head – Hindustan Zinc (Vedanta Group) as Vice President and Head of Corporate Communication – Director Communication and PR in Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI) – then DS Group – then M3M India as Vice President and Head of Corporate Communication and Public Relations – and Finally as Director – Corporate Communication at OfBusiness Group.
I always had this dream to have my own firm, so in 2024, I opened my own consultancy firm – M/s Gurukshetra Consultancy Pvt Limited (LLP), being its Co-Founder and Director.
If you see above, there is a pattern. My vision was well crafted with a strong road-map that included content writing and language control – selection of words while speaking – personality development – body language – confidence building – drawing a professional vision – education –experience, and then finally, go for it – hit the jackpot.
These were all essentially required to be a good communicator, no shortcuts.
Today, how many of us sit with our children to draw their career road-maps. Do we devote time to understand what they want to achieve in life? Or whether what they are thinking can be achieved? Help them build a road-map and mentor them.
Remember roads to success are never easy. Some roads would be smooth and some would take you through a rough-patch. More than the smooth road, the rough patch is important, because that prepares you for the challenges. As always, people hesitate to travel on rough roads – so it would not be easy for anyone as well.
You cannot judge the experience by looking at the grey hair; experience is counted when you are successful in handling tough situations and overcome your fear. Success and learnings are part of the process – there are no failures.
I wrote once, “Nothing is impossible in this world, till you know you can do it. Impossible is a phrase that exists only in books.”