Skip to main content

Almost missed an opportunity

Today’s blog post is a real incident of my life.

I started teaching in 2016. In 2017, I almost let go of the opportunity that brought me to where I am. This is about realising that there are hints which you must take seriously in order to not miss an opportunity. In my case, luck favoured me. Here’s what had happened:

A year after starting classes, I got good feedback from the limited students I had. Students, as well as their parents, were happy with the classes. Unfortunately, there was no growth. Despite the feedback, I had a limited number of students. As a young man of 25, I couldn’t afford this growth rate. I was not expecting a flooded classroom but considering the feedback, at least double the strength of the existing students.

After contemplating about the same, I decided to stop teaching the students of CBSE board. I had to say ‘no’ to them and it was one of the toughest decisions I had to take back then. I was highly anxious about telling this to the existing students. Still, I somehow managed to do it. Parents felt bad upon hearing me out. They insisted that I reconsider my decision. I told them I would but in my heart, I knew I would not.

After the cancellation of the CBSE batches, I had to fill the empty time slot. I got a confirmation of two new batches and was preparing for the same. These two batches didn’t go much further due to the time adjustment issues of students. During that time, I met one of the parents of the CBSE batch. They strongly requested me to start the class again saying, “Think upon it and say yes this time.”

I realised that the other batches were not working well and instead of sitting idle, I would at least have something if I start CBSE again. As the saying goes, ‘Something is better than nothing.’

Today, I am in a very different position and it was possible only because I accepted the opportunity that came my way. In my case, I would call myself lucky. I said no to an existing opportunity and yet, it knocked on my door once again. This opportunity was a launchpad for my career. Had I said no to it again, I don’t know where I would be. The parents who kept following up with me for the classes were an important factor. If not for those parents, I would not have reconsidered my decision.

I want to tell all of you that think of an opportunity in a holistic way before you say no to it. It may be that very opportunity that may skyrocket your career. Sometimes we fail to realise that that opportunity is the very opportunity we desperately need.

So think before saying no and think if you are missing out on something great. After all, not every opportunity knocks twice.

And hey you! Thanks for being here. Means a lot. If you liked reading this, do share it with others, comment your thoughts on it and help share the optimism.

Comments

  1. Very nice Sir. I really appreciate the way you express yourself

    ReplyDelete
  2. You arent lucky,you thought of empty slots that made perturbation in mind and thought of working hard to increase the students and that's the way you are rocking today

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank You reconsidering Sir. I don't know where I would be if you hadn't.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gulmohar teaches

Nature is a great teacher. If we look around ourselves and do not learn from nature, we must be blind to ignore the lessons of the omnipresent. While every single petal, every single leaf is a lesson in itself, one lesson that appeals to me the most is the lesson of the gulmohar tree. Here is a story: He was scolded by his parents for disrupting his sleep cycle. He felt dejected. He felt angry. He didn’t want to wait for a single second in the house. He didn’t want to let his parents know that he would be away for some time. Grabbing the key of his scooter, he softly closed the door and left. To make sure his parents don’t notice anything, he pulled his scooter to the end of the lane, and when out of earshot, he switched on the ignition. After god knows how much time of riding, he spotted a field. It was nearly 6pm and the sun’s rays looked like melted gold on the green grass. He parked his scooter and sat down under a gulmohar tree. He looked up at the six feet tall tree. His eyes gli...

The best advice I’ve ever received.

How many times has it happened that we have received a lot of advice and suggestions? Many times I believe. To add to it, many of these are similar to each other in some cases yet the point is: why is it that only some drive home the message? I guess there are surrounding factors to it. Maybe the experience we may be going through or the context in which we receive the advice… There is a lot of advice I’ve received but this one has stayed with me like no other advice. All of us were once a student and we have been there, done that: we have been typical students at a point in time. During my master's, I was facing some issues with one of the subjects (typical student problems ;)). As usual, we were playing the blame game and yes, you guessed it right, the blame was on the teacher and her teaching skills. A genuine and helping person that she was, we were concerned with her teaching skills at that point in time. We were standing next to the door of our classroom cribbing about ho...

How did I start cycling?

It has been a year that I have taken to cycling. At this point, I would like to share how I got into it. Many would obviously guess that I started cycling for weight loss and considering the way I look now, it is but natural to guess so. But honestly, I started cycling because my mother wanted my life to be better! Mothers do have unconditional love and the power of that love is unparalleled. It all started somewhere in June of 2020. My mother consulted an astrologer regarding my future. The astrologer suggested that I should visit a nearby Hanuman Temple for one and a half months. The people who know me know that I am not a fan of God and visiting temples is not my thing. Yet there are some things that a person does for his family. Initially hesitant, I agreed to the above suggestion. This is because it gives them peace of mind about their son’s future. Initially, I went to the temple on my scooter. Given the pandemic, temples were closed. I just had to go, pray from outside and...