Mirza Yawar Baig – Follow your passion
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My brothers and sisters,
my
very dear friend and brother,
specialises in asking good questions,
And I truly appreciate that because it helps
me to
reflect more deeply and to think and to
introspect.
May Allah bless him for this
beautiful
trait.
So he asked me a question. He's in
Egypt just now. He asked me he said
we are
some relatives of mine and I, we are
talking and people are saying that
they want to follow their passion,
but they are afraid
of leaving their dead end job
because the economic situation
is not favorable.
So
he's asking me what is your response?
My response is as follows.
1st and foremost,
whatever you think
is your passion,
ask yourself,
is that really my passion
or
is it an interest?
Is it something that I
have a liking for?
Is it something that I think,
sounds like a good idea?
Because there is a difference
between a passion
and something that's only an interest
which is as big
and as vast
and as
marked
as the difference
between
swimming in a swimming pool
and
being thrown
into
a flooded river
or falling into a flooded river
because your boat sank or something
and trying
desperately
to stay alive
and get to
the shore.
It is as
stark
as that.
Swimming pool is a choice.
Swimming pool is where
you are
safe
even
where you might be thinking that you will
drown. You will not drown because there are
people there that are lifeguards. There are other
people there, and so on and so forth.
You are, like, you know,
5 feet or 4 feet from the side
of the pool. You can just grab hold.
But when you are in a flood, you're
being tumbled in the flood up and down
inside,
going down into the water, coming up in
the water. You have no clue. Will I
live or die? You want to you you
don't want to die.
What will you do?
That is passion.
What you will do there is passion.
And believe me there, you're not thinking about
the scenery, you're not thinking about the environment,
you're not thinking about the economic situation.
You're thinking only about one thing, how do
I succeed?
What can I do
to get myself
out of this
and be alive?
What can I do to prevent myself from
dying?
That is passion.
So,
first question. Ask yourself
whatever you think is your passion.
Is it really your passion?
And apply this
this analogy of mind.
Is it like falling into a river
and thrashing around desperately
to get out
and save yourself,
or is it
swimming in a pool?
If it is swimming in a pool, which
is what the situation is with most people
that I have ever talked about talked to
about this.
Because this is a very common topic. A
lot of people like to talk about, oh,
shit.
I want to do this. I want to
do that. Okay. You did it. Yeah. Sure.
I did it. You want to know how
I did it?
Then read my book. A book is called
an entrepreneur's diary. Read the book. I took
the trouble to write the whole book because
people ask these questions. So I said, okay.
Let me explain to you what I did.
In a nutshell and that's not so that
you don't read the book. Read the book
because,
there's a lot more in the book.
In a nutshell,
I decided in 1983
that I wanted to become
a leadership consultant.
I wanted to teach leadership.
So I didn't just say, okay, who who
who can I teach leadership to? I said,
first thing and foremost,
which I decided was and I and I
acknowledge was,
what do I know about leadership?
Today, I know a lot.
Today, I know more than most people.
But in 1983, I didn't know the first
thing about leadership.
So I said if I want
to teach people leadership, I need to understand
what leadership is.
So I
started studying. I started reading.
I started,
attending
workshops on leadership.
I
spoke to some friends of mine who were
leadership trainers,
and I requested them to
allow me to
to shadow them,
you know, go to their class,
be with them, watch what they do.
And they were very kind, they agreed
because all this was free. I mean, I
I had no money to pay them.
They never asked me, but even even if
they had asked me, I had no money
to pay them.
There was no course
in leadership development
teaching
then at the time. I don't know if
there is even a course now, but that
time definitely there wasn't.
Meanwhile, a friend of mine said to me,
if you are serious about
becoming a consultant, then you need to get
an MBA. I didn't have an MBA at
the time in 83.
So this friend of mine said to me
and remember all this while I'm talking, years
are passing.
So he said to me, you need to
get an MBA. So I said, okay. Now
how do I get an MBA? Because I'm
in a full time job. I need that
job
to make ends meet. 85, I got married,
so I'm married now.
I,
have to support my wife,
So I can't leave my job. So
I
researched, and I found that
there was an executive,
MBA
course available in the number one,
the best MBA institution in India,
which is called the Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad.
This, was set up
in collaboration,
set up at the initiative of Vikram Sarabhai
and Joel and Erud at that time,
in collaboration with the with Harvard Business School.
So it's the it's the top number one
institution. This friend of mine also told me,
don't get an MBA from anywhere. They get
it from the top because at the end
of the day, that name of the institution
sells.
So they had this course.
It was an executive
MBA program, 6 month course,
which start basically
their entire 2 year
formal MBA
syllabus in that period of 6 months. So
it was
no leave, no vacation,
classes and then making
class presentations,
studying and so on, which I wanted to
you had to study for something like literally
16 to 18 hours a day.
And no holidays, no festival holidays, no weekends,
no nothing.
And
the fee was the same as the 2
year program.
Now that was way beyond what I could
afford.
Way beyond. I mean, there's not even a
comparison
because my salary in those days was 800
rupees a month.
And,
my bank balance, if I can call it
that,
I remember once I went to the bank,
State Bank of India,
and updated my passbook
long before all this became online.
And I had 500 rupees, 500 Indian rupees
in my account and I felt like a
king, I said wow, I've got 500
whole rupees in my account,
those days. So now
the fee in those days was 30,000 rupees.
Right? So imagine what what 800 rupees salary,
500 rupees the bank, and 30,000 is the
salary is is the
fee.
So did I give up? I didn't give
up.
I consulted with my wife.
I sold my car.
I had a I had a secondhand ambassador
which didn't give me too much money, but
it got me some money.
Then the rest of the money,
I borrowed.
I went to the company, and I said,
well, I'm going to do this course, and
this would be good for my job, and
I'm working for you. So I'll come back
and bring all this goodness to your job.
They were not impressed. So I said, okay.
So don't so I said, will you sponsor
me? Always ask. This is what this is
another big thing I always tell people. Just
ask.
What's gonna happen? They they say no. No
problem. Let them say no. It won't kill
you. Right? But ask because many times by
asking you get you'll be surprised
how much you will get just by asking,
so ask.
And
so I asked and they said no. So
I said, okay. And never give up. They
never say, oh, but you asked and they
said, no. It doesn't matter. So I have
no means no by this way. No in
this way. So find another way. So I
said I went to them and I said,
look,
how about I,
how about you give me a loan?
And,
then I repay this loan.
So they said, okay, we will give you
a loan,
but we will not give you the entire
amount. We will give you half the amount.
Now
really, sometimes I ask my my self I
ask people, you know, you are giving somebody
half the amount they need. They're asking you
because they don't have the money. By giving
them half the amount, how are you helping
them? But anyway,
so they said okay, have the amount.
So that half the amount they gave me
as a loan to be repaid and they
said that
you also have to write a bond to
say that you will not leave
the employment of this company for 3 years.
Now that is technically illegal.
You cannot bind somebody to a job,
in a bond which is nonreciprocal.
So they are not saying we will not
fire you for 3 years.
We guarantee your job for 3 years. They
are saying you can't leave.
But, of course, if they want to find
me, they can kick me out, you know,
in in 2 in 2 minutes.
So this but this is reality. This is
reality. This is where your passion is tested.
So I said, okay. So, you know, let
me send this bond. So I signed the
bond. I'm still
out for have the money. So that's where
I sold I sold the car. So I
went to the I got this loan first,
and then I sold the car,
and, you know,
did that. And then I went now.
This was in 1985.
So 1983, 1985. 1985, I also got married.
So
soon after 1 month after getting married, I
disappeared
for 6 months.
And my wife went to her parents place.
Now we had this understanding between us and
I cannot thank Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala enough
for giving me the wife he gave me
and the kind of support He's always always
always provided me.
So
1 month after marriage
no contact with my wife for the next
6 months because my wife was in England
I was in Ahmedabad in India
these were the days before chats so it
was either a telephone an international telephone call
which I could not afford, so I never
made it.
Or
write a letter.
So I don't see her. I don't talk
to her for 6 months.
This kind of grueling brutal schedule.
But at the end of that,
I got my
degree and then I worked in this company
for another 3 years
as I had promised
I could have left I could have contested.
I could have said this whole bond itself
is illegal. I said, no. You give your
word. You you
you you keep your word.
So
I I completed my job there.
The job itself, of course, I love the
job. It's a beautiful job. I was a
plantation manager,
and that's all of this is part of
the part of the test.
Now the job when I finally left the
job,
I was living in a
15,000 square feet bungalow on top of a
hill.
I had
8 7s.
I had
2 cars,
drivers.
I had I was interested in horse riding,
so I had my own horse.
I love dogs, so I had dogs.
I was
the king of the, you know, king of
the hips.
You name it.
It was a beautiful job, luxurious surroundings,
everything.
I never I didn't leave the job because
I didn't like the job. I left the
job because my passion was leadership development to
become a leadership development trainer.
So
from a
1983
to 1994,
when I finally set up shop as a
full time leadership trainer,
I did not take one single day's
vacation. Not one day.
These were the days when we had a
one day weekend, which was Sunday.
And,
that Sunday,
I would spend in
study.
We didn't have a single rupee to spare
because every figure we had
was invested in books,
was invested in travelling from place to place
to shadow and and see
what my,
the people who were kind enough to allow
me into their classes were doing and then
to debrief with them and so on so
on.
And no
extra money to stay in a decent hotel.
So where I could pile on to friends
in those places, I did that, and everybody
was very nice, and they allowed me to
come and just, you know, camp on their
couch in their living room or something, or
where there were no such places. I have
stayed in hotels that today you would not
even kennel your dog in it.
I used to travel by train because that's
the only thing I could afford. Indian train,
3rd class, which was a plank
there was no seat, there was a plank
and you sat on the plank and then
the night you slept on the plank just
wooden plank
I did all that
because it was a passion.
1983 to 1994.
1994,
I resigned my job and set up shop
in
Bangalore.
And for 1 year,
things were so tough
financially
because I was completely unknown. I had I
was not I was a line manager. I
was a production manager.
I was not in the HR circuit. I
was not in the training circuit.
And so, therefore, I was,
you know,
completely
unknown.
So to make a mark, to break into
the market, all of this is my book,
so read the book.
I did all that took me a year,
but in that one year, there were
several times, several months when I did not
have money to pay
my house
rent until
sometimes one day before it was due or
2 days before it was due Allah
never allowed me
to default on the rent, so I always
got the money,
you know,
default payments and stuff. But
that's what I did.
And
in 1985,
thanks to the same friend of mine who
advised me to get an MBA, Pratik Roy.
He got me an opening into GE into
their trainings into their training scene,
and I became a GE,
certified,
trainer,
and so on and so on and so
on. That's a long story. But the point
being that then business became,
a little more,
regular.
But all through that period, all through the
hunger, all through the tension,
there was nothing that I wanted to do
more than leadership training.
And that remains to the day. Alhamdulillah.
So ask yourself
is it a passion number 1? Number 2
then invest what it takes.
It's a very simple equation. If I say
I want a suit,
okay, great, lovely.
So
what kind of suit?
Well, you can go into a thrift store,
and you can get
a somebody's old suit. Go and get it
dry cleaned, and you can wear it.
Now it'll cost you maybe,
you know, what does it cost you?
I've never bought
a suit in a store, so I can't
tell you. But, so it cost you whatever
it cost you. Right?
But you said, no. No. No. No. I
want an Armani suit
made
to measure.
Then believe me, we are not talking the
same numbers
as in the thrift store.
We are not talking the same numbers as
in the thrift store.
So if you decide you want an Armani
suit made to measure, can you have it?
Of course, you can have it,
but it cost that much money,
So if you have a passion
and you say, can I achieve my passion?
Short answer,
absolutely yes.
No doubt.
Longer answer, you have to pay what it
costs.
Is it worth your while or not? Do
you think it is worth that payment?
That is the key which decides whether it
is your passion or not.
Because if it is your passion, that question
will not come in your mind.
You will not be thinking economic up scale,
down scale, whatnot makes no difference. Believe me,
my brother.
Because for the people for whom it's not
a passion, when the economy is good, that
will be a reason not to leave the
job because everything is going fine. Why disturb?
When the economy is bad, that will be
a reason not to leave the job because
the economy is bad. I don't know what
will happen to me outside.
But for somebody who has faith in Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and for whom that thing
is actually a passion
that person will do what it takes
to get it done.
Is it easy? No, it's not easy.
But for the person, it's like climbing Mount
Everest.
Is it something for you or me? That's
something you have to decide. But if you
talk to them to the to the people
who are actually scaling the mountain,
go to the 1st base camp and talk
to them. There is no doubt in their
mind.
Is it worth it?
You need to ask that question to those
people. No.
If you ask them that question, they will
say, if you think if I thought it
was not worth it, what do you think
I'm doing here and on this base camp?
I'm not sitting here cooking food for the
4 climbers. I'm I am the climber.
So
we begin where we end.
Ask yourself a simple question, is it my
passion?
And then