Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

The challenge was that there was no formal training course, degree, or program that I could attend to qualify as a leadership trainer. Also, I was sitting on top of the hill in the Anamallais while everything I needed to qualify was miles and days away in the cities. To make matters more interesting, I needed my job (I also enjoyed it very much) and so had to figure out a way of self-learning where I could get the study and experience I needed while still holding down and full-time job.  Less as a conscious decision and more because of doing whatever was necessary, I invested every available paisa (cent) on books. Since my salary was only Rs. 850.00 per month and then was increased to Rs. 1100.00 per month, I didn’t have too many savings. But I made sure that whatever savings I had, were not used in anything other than my learning and train fares (third class – a bare wooden plank for a seat) and every available day of vacation leave, interning with one trainer or another. I did not take a single day off in twelve years. Then in 1994, I started my own company (Yawar Baig & Associates) in Bangalore with all of Rs. 3000 ($ 80) in my pocket and a dream in my heart, of becoming an internationally recognized leadership trainer. That in my view is typical of being an entrepreneur – to dream of things that never were and ask, “Why not?”