By Sriharsh Vaidya
Contributory Author for Spark Igniting Minds
“Taking a decision to be different from the crowd” or “choosing a career path which resonates with who you are” is generally considered as a big risk because many of the times such decisions don't fit easily into the logic of our parents, siblings and some of our close people who actually means a lot in our life.
To be honest, there is nothing wrong with them because for them “choosing to be different” means “high chances of failing to attain a safe and secure life”. thus, when you declare that you want to be different, you invite almost all bigger battles of your life. so certainly, the harmony in relationships is up for a toss because you can't guarantee your loved ones about how much time you are going to take for a significant financial breakthrough in your chosen path.
In my life, it was October 2013 when I took that big risk where I had quit my high paying job and decided to be an entrepreneur. thus, I ventured into a highly promising and proven business model. initially, I have started with a small investment but in a very short time with an expectation of huge profits in the long term, I have decided to invest more money. this was a huge step, it may sound weird but I increased my investments to almost 15 times of initial investments. all these further investments were done with money borrowed from different sources comprising family funds and bank loans.
I was pretty sure of making good profits. I started making little money in the first 4 months but after that, for almost 8 months I was literally broke. I was working hard yet with no good results. overall, the first year of business was miserable and in the 2nd year the income started coming but most of the time, the amount of money that I used to generate was going in repayments of interest, EMI's and other business operational costs. sometimes to sustain, the survival expenses I had to borrow money from my friends. so, to be precise I wasn't making any considerable amount of money to show my family that the decision I took was absolutely right. the irony was that I was instrumental in making other people earn a good amount of profits but when it comes to my earnings I was experiencing a series of failures.
The saga of financial crunches continued for 2 more years. life seems tough when we see that things aren't happening as per our own plan. even after careful planning and flawless execution, there will be times where we don't get any of the desired outcomes. especially when we are working on something which we believe in by standing against all odds, the experience of the financial crisis is absolutely terrible.
It was hard to digest that even after having good intentions, good expertise and huge potential in the business, forget about huge money, I was just struggling to earn so that I can pay my bills. I was angry with myself, what I love to do seemed like a curse. all my focus was on my financial terms. whoever wants to judge my growth in the last 4 years would only consider how much did I grow financially. it was more than 4 years and yet I didn't reach a point of break-even. I kept myself motivated all these years by reading and watching inspirational stories of those who made big in life in spite of many setbacks. I implemented some of the proven strategies of my seniors and other successful people in the same business, but somehow nothing was working for me.
Oct’2013 to dec’2017 was a period where I was looking at life only with a materialistic perspective. all I can conclude that “I haven't made the money that I expected to make in the last 4 years and I haven't made my people feel proud by showing financial success in the last 4 years.”
I considered myself a big failure. what I was missing was the other way or I would say the right way of looking at life. I kept asking myself that
“There is something which I am missing in this journey. what is that missing thing?
“I am feeling like I am doing all the things but there is something which I haven't included within me. what is that quality or factor which I haven't included?”
Jan 2018 was the beginning of the whole new transformational era for me. it was the time that came to navigate me to find the answers to all my questions. several self-help books came my way to make my mind receptive to the wisdom which I was seeking.
in Feb’2018, Hiren Patel, one of my business partners suggested me to read Bhagavad Gita. I followed his words and started reading it. thus, I started looking at life with a spiritual perspective. I continued to read other spiritual books also in the same scope and that resulted from me to become god-consciousness. I had faith in god earlier too but what I realized after reading spiritual books and by listening to the talks of bona fide spiritual masters was altogether at a different level.
When I changed my perspective to look at life the first thing I realized is that all these struggling years are in fact are true blessings. every person who came in my life has done their part of work to lead me to a higher pedestal of life. some people taught me the do’s, and some taught me don’t’s but somehow all the people and all the hard times have made me stronger and better than who I was. I was not able to see the good in the situation but deep down all this was happening to prepare me for many bigger opportunities in the future.
I realized that due to inappropriate guidance, the biggest thing that I kept missing was the real meaning of gratitude. I had a love for what I am doing, I got driven by ego several times, I got angry on myself and on my people when I couldn't see the expected results, I found happiness and I celebrated when the things went well but overall there was something massively missing was the act of thanking and acknowledging the things happened to me. I realized that gratitude isn't only about being grateful when things go well, but gratitude is being grateful for everything that happens in life.
Since the day I realized the value of gratitude and the blissfulness in being God-consciousness I have seen a remarkable shift in my thought process. my understanding of life has improved to an extent that I became more inquisitive for the ultimate cause behind the things that are happening around me. I started attracting people and things that can bring better in me. the urge to put meaning or logic on everything has been reduced and the habit of seeing things “as it is” is slowly getting inculcated in me. financial abundance has started coming into my life. what seemed as failures in the past are helping me in building new platforms towards prosperity with peace.
The last 4 months were like game-changers. after getting exposed to the real essence of spirituality in material life, I got introduced to the esoteric studies of energy sciences. the wisdom I am pursuing from the world of pranic healing has given a greater contribution to learning and understanding many of the missing links of my life. I believe the most significant findings in the last 4 months is that “the last 4 to 5 years has actually laid a strong foundation to take my all business ventures to a whole new level. financially I haven't elevated to the expected level but mentally and spiritually I have raised myself to a stage where I can sustain the upcoming growth in a more effective way. my real earning was the people and their association. my financial set back was the cost of what I paid to earn the trust and co-operation of people who have worked with me”.
I believe that the past 4 years were the sowing time and coming years are what I call as reaping time.
The intention behind sharing my story is to give the reaffirmation to many people who are like me. I know it’s very hard to see a positive vision in the time of setbacks, I know how tough it is to give hope to our loved ones when we have already broken many of the promises made in the past, I know how bad it feels when your efforts don't give good results for a long time but the best part of this journey is that over a period of time every worst thing we have gone through will pay off in the best way possible. I have started reaping the benefits now and I am sure you will reap too very soon. truly the attitude of gratitude can bring the paradigm shift in everything we do.
I believe my story has reached you because the spark has given me the opportunity to share. I sincerely express my gratitude to spark for giving such a wonderful platform to share and learn from many amazing writers.
I am deeply grateful to my parents and my wife Sunayana who has patiently stood with me in all the good and not so good times of my life. in fact, it’s a huge list of people who have contributed to my transformational journey but Hiren Patel, Dr. Gazal Goyal, Chetan Bansal, and Sai Krishna Tallam are few of the very important ones who are been instrumental in bringing the best out of me.
Thank you so much!
Sriharsh Vaidya
About the author:
Sriharsh Vaidya is a Pranic Psychotherapist, a Life Coach, and a Licensed Practitioner of NLP. He also contributes to and supports various learning and development initiatives that focus on areas such as entrepreneurship, psychology, and spiritual science. He is an MBA with a specialization in Marketing & Finance. Before he ventured into his business in 2013, he had worked at few chemical and biotech companies.
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