if you are 35+ working employee, it is must read article.

Today:  Ragavan, 46, senior manager from Xyz Inc, got his current month salary and got 3 months advance salary as severance package.   His 18 years stint in Xyz Inc, ends today.  Ragavan refused to attend farewell party and sent the Bye mail to few of his close friends.

Yesterday:

Let’s go back to 1996 and meet young Ragavan who has completed his B.E degree.   That time, the job opportunities are less.  The young software engineer, he struggled for some time to get a job.  He could manage to get a job as  a coordinator/Trainer  in one of the top computer institute.  But he wants to be a developer (programmer) and he continued learning technology.

He moved to another company as EDP programmer (EDP – in house software development division for bigger organization) and late 90’s there is a boom on Y2K i.e it is a software problem which affects almost all the computer software, especially  Mainframe Computers.  It is a boom for software industry.  There are huge number of programmers needed by the USA and rest of the world to fix the Y2K bug.  Most of the jobs are offloaded to India.

The young Ragavan, smelled the opportunity and quickly switched to Mainframe programmer.  He entered into Xyz Inc as a programmer.   The life suddenly become colorful.  Raghavan, come from lower middle income group, the max he can afford a “Masala Dosa” from the local Udupi hotel, (that too monthly 2 times only) now offered 5 star accommodation from the Xyz company.   But the company expects  14 hrs of work.  Ragvan willing to spend more than 80 hrs a week and he fall love with Xyz Inc.

He got married – 2 kids – Multiple short trips to USA – One 3 year stint in USA – 3 Promotions – Lead a big team/division in Xyz Inc.  He owns the XyZ Inc and put all the effort towards the growth of the company.

During this period, there is a huge technology revolution happened and there is a huge amount of young talent entered into the company / industry.  Unfortunately, Ragavan never realises the change in the industry and he become mere People manager.

Statistics:

When Ragavan entered into the company, XyZ Inc  was 3000 people organization.  But now it is more than 2,25,000 people working with the company.  When he entered in to the industry, only few knows the computer technology and only few thousand will have B.E as degree.  During this period, there are lot of people who entered into the industry and many of them become Managers after 10 years of experience.

There is a huge imbalance between Managers Vs workers (programmers).  The industry got huge numbers of Experienced Managers  than the actual strong technical workers.  The Trump factor completely collapsed the industry.  XyZ inc decided to reduce its managers and the corporate axle just cut all the managers under unproductive category.   It wants to make its work force younger and agile.  Most of the managers who passed the age of 45 are removed.

Back to Today:

Initially, Raghavan was little upset but he shown the brave face to family members.  The only problem is huge EMI and 2 kids who are studying in schools.   He used his first month of free time to visit temples and other places.  He tried to enjoy the free time.

He thought he will get the new job soon.  He had contacts in the industry so he thought getting a job is easy.  He sent his profiles to few of his friends.  He read few technical books and project management books to refresh his knowledge.   He enrolled himself with job portals and contacted placement consultancies.

After 6 months, he realized the software industry in turmoil.  Most of the  organizations need only strong technical workers but not the managers.   The money on hand is evaporating.   He could manage to control his expenses.

Raghavan deeply analyzed the situation in SWOT method (His Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats).   The biggest problem is that he could not do technical work.  He wants to fix that problem.  He joined in the technical course as Android developer.   The institute welcomed him warmly and the students who are studying there looked at him with high respect.   Many of his friends wished him all the best. But after some initial enthusosizm  evaporated soon.  He find difficulty in learning and  he understood much water flown into Ganges.  There is a sea of difference between what he know and what is the current scenario in technical world.    But he completed the course but he decided to stay away from the dream of becoming Developer / programmer again.

Raghavan, no longer wants to sit ideal and decided to start his own venture.  He considered many options and business models.  He looked at each business and analysed whether it suits him or not.  He spend more than 10 months in analysing the suitable business but could not take final decision.

He met one of his friend who quit software industry and started the new business.;

1. Never think you need to be unique in the first venture. Most people think about uniqueness / USP – Unique Selling Points / Creativity / Innovation  etc  and never finalize a business and they spend 5-10 years in identifying the business itself.  They will end up only in talking about business and get tired and retired.
2. When you select the unique path, the chances of failure is so high because no one know the problems of the path. There is a possibility that the business may be huge hit, but the chances is very less.  We often  read about successful people who are unique / creative etc; it is published because it is nice to read.  You will not come across the failure stories of the unique ideas.
3. After success of the first venture, you can find a second venture with unique concept. But definitely not the first one.
4. Look at the successful business communities and people. For example, there are 1000’s of grocery shops in the town.  All of them are making money and successful.  They need to select the right place and that is the key point.   Have you ever seen the grocery merchant closed the business due to the failure.  Never, because the chances of failure is very low.   They simply follow what others do with very slight change.  Normally grocery store make Rs. 50000 to Rs. 200000.
5. Select the business which needs moderate investment. Do not look for zero investment business. Example, MLM.  You will spend lot of time and you will become old before making money.    Do not select the business which is high chances of failures. (Eg. Hotel).
6. Business needs cooling time to pick up. Please plan to continue in the business for 1000 days.
7. If possible, work as a employee for short period of time in the business which you want to start. Even the salary is low, it is a learning opportunity.
8. Partnership is best option if you find a right partner.
9. You are a successful person in your career. It comes because of your hard work and it takes time to get the high position in your organization.
10. Just start. Do not think of 10 year road map. and never think of making 10x of your salary in the first year. Just do it.

Today:

In Raghavan office, there are 25 people waiting for him.  All of them looking for jobs.  They are from different walks of life like accountant, software developers, typists, part time workers etc.   Raghavan assured everyone that he will help to find them a suitable job.

Yes. Raghavan running a placement consultancy.

There is a huge competition, but still there is hope/chance.

He gets 50% of his salary in the business, but there is a massive growth opportunity.

Raghavan started his travel, what about you.

Note:  The above said story is a dream story only.   We can offer business/Entrepreneur  training free of cost to our community members.   Our community need 10000 startups to make ourself agile to face the future challenges.   The entrepreneur communities only flourish in future.   We need to slowly get rid of our “employee” mentality. Please contact us if you look of guidance in starting the business.  brahminsforsociety@gmail.com

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