Class teacher was calling out Ranks in increasing order of roll number. Roll number allocation was itself random. Benjamin knew his roll number and hoped that the world ends before his number was called. His lips tightened more while he tried mumbling all the prayers he knew. He hardly prays otherwise, so he knew his prayers are not going to help. Amidst all this drama, his roll was called. Normally by this time all top 10 ranks are distributed among those bunch of guys and gals, who seem to do nothing but get good marks. But little did he realize that this year the 2nd Rank was still lying there waiting for its rightful owner.
image source: io9.com
Benjamin was never an “intelligent guy” except for his mother, so getting 2nd Rank was a feat for Benjamin. His parents dreamt of a good job for him where he earns (40k pm) for his entire life. He himself does not know what he did differently. May be the other 9 guys did things differently. When I speak to Benjamin about it, he says that now he realizes he did not succeed then, it was others failures that gave the perception of his success. Benjamin became a hero overnight amongst his friends. Suddenly he started running faster and won few sprints in Annual day competition. Suddenly the gal that he always wanted to talk, invited him for sharing her tiffin. Life was so different. It was standard 2.
Life stayed pretty much on top for next two years until one fine day when Benjamin’s mother announced that Benjamin needs to go from CBSE to ICSE, little did he know or care about that. All he was worried about was leaving Jasmine(name changed). In the blink of an eye, all formalities was done and here was Benjamin bidding good bye to his friends for the last time. Eventually he never met any of them ever again (no, not even on Facebook).
He joined this new ICSE school. Greats such as Subhash Chandra Bose, Hari Prasad Chaurasia studied there. This school was larger than life. Benjamin was overwhelmed. Benjamin was introvert, he could not make new friends. as years passed on, he got the tag of “shy”.But frankly, barring a couple of his close friends, no one else even knew he existed. Life in between has been pretty boring except for few instances when he fell in love, almost failed in +2, rose-up and got 400 rank in JEE, got 1497 in IIT JEE subsequent year, chose a local college to graduate and got a job in one of the best Software company in the world and got married (to the one he fell in love with). Not to forget those 3 months prior to the entrance examinations where he spent full time patching up his best friend’s love life. I have been with Benjamin throughout like his Shadow. I have seen his lows and super lows.
Life wouldn’t have changed for Benjamin if he wouldn’t have “almost failed”. Benjamin’s parents hold me and 5 other friends responsible for his poor result. We woke up late, bunked classes (almost all), played cricket all day, played video games all night. That result shook him up. His parents and I had lost all hope in him. But only he believed that he can rise again. From bottom 2% to top 2%, no its not easy. He also proved he can crack the IIT. He told me “I don’t do things until I want them to do”. I had never seen that kind of fire in his eyes. He has proven critics wrong. Sheer hardwork and dedication got him results that the world approves. We still don’t understand why he didn’t join IIT. he says – “to jump high you need to go low, very low”. From then on, we all knew he is of different kind.
Benjamin, often told me about starting a business. I stayed away as much as possible. If his parents knew about him cultivating these thoughts with me, it would have been extremely bad for our health. “You are educated, why do you want to get into the death spiral of business?” shouted his mother during an earlier heated argument couple of years back. Its was no point convincing them. If Benjamin cannot convince them then no one else can. Benjamin says he didn’t want to convince them, but the fact is that he is tired of convincing, especially after the 1 year ordeal of convincing them to get him married to the gal he loved. Not to mention 4 years of convincing the gal.
I thought Benjamin was just like millions of Oriyas who has to live his entire life with burning desire inside. But surprisingly last year I found out, he is silently working on his startup and now its almost ready. He didn’t leave his job because he has no savings left. I have heard about people working hard but never seen one. He gets up at 7.15 am, gets ready, drops his wife at 8.15, reaches his office at 8.45. Works till 4.30. Picks up his wife, reaches home by 6pm. Continues work on his startup till 5 am. At Least once or twice a week he skips sleep. we have all warned him about health implications. He says he is blessed with controlling sleep. I know he makes it up. Like all others he has lot of liabilities, but unlike others he didn’t save enough. He spoke to an investor but one of their criteria was that the Founder should not be employed. Unfortunately, soon may be thrown out of the company because of his poor performance. Its obvious to think that his dual role is causing the poor performance. But when I spoke to him he told me why he performs poorly and why that is the cause for the startup.
Basically he moved between groups after spending 4 yrs in the first group. But the second group was far from being similar to group 1 in terms of culture, ethics. The old group was about disrupting existing rules, thought process and doing something new, different, all the time. This new group was exactly different. He realized he cannot work in this environment. His interest died out. He did not seek new work, did only what was given. That’s still “underperform”. Thus was born his startup. Now into the 10th month, its registered, the product (web based) is out there accepting beta invites.
I don’t know if this venture would be successful or not, but thank god he did it and fortunately I am part of it now. I am fortunate because Benjamin is calm, he is skillful, he is hard working and thinks ahead of time. I just hope this venture works works so that millions like Benjamin, who don’t enjoy their family support, who aren’t from premier institutes, who have not yet found the success formula, can take that leap of faith. Some other day I will surely describe the ordeals of Benjamin and what exactly his startup is about.
