“Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it”

 


It’s a question often asked to a little kid...

“Tell me what you want to be?”,

and here I was, at 28, in an executive development program, organized at my first job, answering this question. 

This must have been something like 1995-96.

And my spontaneous response “I just want to be happy”.

“Gentleman, could you please expand on it so we all understand what you are trying to ‘get at’ ..” said the facilitator, wanting to be “expansive” 😉.

“..well lets say by the age of 40…at the most 45… I want to be “free”. Like, I want to be able to decide what I do with my time without having to think about office hours and work…while I will still have a bit of living left in me”.

That must have been a boring response for a room filled with aspiring CEO & MDs.

Well, in 2016 at the age of 47 I actually became “independent”!!

The circumstances at work, at the company we had painstakingly set up in India over a period of 13 yrs, got to a point where my role became redundant. It did hurt a lot, but I was now “independent” 😊.

At this point I decided that it was going to be my last job working for someone else. It was time to stand up on my own feet (and be free of the corporate narratives of “Passion for Life & Spirit of the  Organization” sold to gullible employees, expecting exploitative one sided loyalty in return).

So I decided to be an “independent” consultant.

I find it remarkable, that the commitment to myself had come true within a +/- 5% range of my desired target!

So when someone quotes   

“Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it”,

I am smiling to myself.


Here i am smiling to myself!

Comments

  1. Aniruddha LimayeFebruary 5, 2026 at 8:33 AM

    Way to go Bro!! You almost make it feel that getting your wish is a scary thing. I think it could be challenging, but highly energizing, empowering, exciting, providing you a clean slate to write and draw. So. Great!! Keep it up.

    ReplyDelete

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