MY STORY

MY EARLY YEARS

My father was a teacher and my mother was a nurse. They were one of the first lot of immigrants back in the 1960s to come over to plug the employment gap the UK was suffering. My father was from India and my mother was from Trinidad & Tobago. They had learnt that education literally takes you places! Because of their qualifications they were able to escape the poverty trap their own countries had and join the country they believed would be better for them and their future off spring.....and boy were they right!

My father met my mother in 1964 and let’s just say it was love at first sight and in 1969 my sister was born. I arrived 3 days after Christmas in 1971. When I was born we moved to a council house in Harlow, Essex where my father was offered the house at a discounted price of £4,000 if he taught in one of the secondary schools. My mother took a part time job as a nurse at one of the industrial areas but she always made sure she was there to pick us up from school at 3.30pm.

MY INTERNAL STRUGGLE

Both my sister and I were encouraged to study and become graduates. This we both did. My sister went to Imperial College London and went on to do a PhD and now she is a journalist for the Times. I went to The London School Of Economics and then went on to train and qualify as a chartered accountant with Deloitte & Touche.

Now let me tell you my parents were very proud of us. We had pretty much gone beyond their expectations of what they wanted for us. My mother would sing to all her friends that her daughter wrote for the prestigious Times Newspaper (which is pretty much my sister's dream job) and her son worked for one of the world famous "big 6" accountancy firms. She was so pleased she gave me £500 to buy my first home back in 1996.

I couldn't share this feeling my mother had. As she would proudly state "my son is a chartered accountant" I would struggle to get up in the morning, dress up in my suit like everyone else, and push the entrance doors below the grand chrome "Deloitte & Touche" sign to get in to work. I think my heart sank every morning Monday to Friday.


I had been on a treadmill of exams after exams. First my GCSEs, then my A levels, then my degree and then my chartered accountancy exams. All which I had revised for and passed with flying colours. At age 25 I was considered a success. I had passed the institute of chartered accountants final exams which have a notoriously high failure rate and I now I was an elite member of the institute with the world at my feet. You would think I would be feeling on top of the world but the complete opposite was true.


I wish I had failed my exams.


At least then there would have been no expectation of me to progress further in the corporate world. But since I had qualified I had a real chance of rising up the ranks and becoming a senior manager or even partner. I started to really look at the corporate world as my future as I did not allow myself to see anything else. I was a chartered accountant for heaven's sake. I could really become the king of the corporates!

DEFINITELY NOT EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

looked at how the corporate world worked. To rise up the first ranks you needed to be punctual, friendly with the right people and create the right perception of yourself to your seniors. I know this because I was told this from my direct bosses. "There is no room for mavericks Ajay" I was told. My performance would be judged on all the things that I thought were irrelevant. I was not going to be judged on how hard I worked, how much I made the company or how much effort I put in. I was going to be judged o wether I turned up to work at 9am, whether I stayed beyond 5.30pm with all the other managers and whether I socialised with the right crowd.

This I really struggled with. I just didn't fit in. I couldn't understand why it had to be so. So much so I turned to drink. I think having to appear to be this corporate guy took so much effort on my part I needed a release when I got home. This didn't help things! I would start turning up late for work, other staff members would talk about my lateness (it even became an office joke!) and I would want (and often did) to leave at 5.30pm on the dot.


It got to the stage where I was always looking for ways of getting off work early (like delivering files to another office round the corner at 4pm and not coming back) or taking sick days or unannounced holidays.

MY POORLY PLANNED "ESCAPE"

Then the final blow was dealt. Another colleague of mine who was at the same level as me got promoted and I didn't. It was no surprise. He worked hard and I didn't. I felt embarrassed that I did not get promoted and to save further humiliation, at age 27, I handed in my resignation before they even needed to explain why I didn't get promotion.

It was funny, when I did hand in my resignation they said "we were expecting this!". They could see I was a maverick and there were no places for mavericks in accountancy as previously told. I'm sure if any of my superiors know of my success they will say "I always knew he would be an entrepreneur".


Now when I handed in my resignation I had no idea how I was going to provide for myself. All I knew was that I would NEVER work for anyone else ever again. I have to say I was close to depression when in the last year of my working career. Money can never be that important for it to take your mental health and wellbeing away from you.


My newly found freedom nearly crushed me


I arranged a £10,000 overdraft before I left work to remain solvent and got the hell out of there! The first 3 months after leaving work in October 1999 I partied. And I partied hard. I went to Ibiza twice, went out every night and did absolutely nothing to build any kind of future for myself. Looking back I think I gave myself this time as I felt I deserved it for putting myself through 5 years of corporate life.


Over my drinking days I had built up quite a few friendships but I started to notice something - I was different to them! I had slightly more intellect than them and I also used to have creative ideas and when presented to them it was dismissed quickly as nonsense. I would come up with ideas on how to make money or do something that would be different from drinking down the pub but they were quickly quashed.


It got to a point where I got fed up with my ideas being dismissed and I quickly saw that they were happy where they were. They didn't want change. I realised I was not happy where I was so I made the clear decision that I was going to start afresh. I cut ties with the group I was drinking with, rented a room in a completely new area and said to myself - "I'm going to make something of myself!".


This was the best thing I ever did. With hindsight I realised that the crowd I was hanging about with were preventing me to be who I really wanted to be. I now know the phrase "Show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are" is so true. This is why I no longer hang out with the corporate gang or the drinking gang but with the entrepreneur's gang! I often find myself discussing ideas with fellow entrepreneurs and we're always trying to change or do things differently. It’s never "No" but often "How". Not "No you can't do that" but "How can you do that?".