EPIPHANIES OF CURIOSITY, CARING, & GRATITUDE
I consider these chronicles to be the journey of my minor self-discovery and becoming financially independent.
EPIPHANY OF CURIOSITY
“Son, I think you have learned how to make business cards and all in Mumbai. right? Why don’t you start working on it again and I’ll probably have some business for you.”, says my dad.
It’s Feb. 2014, It’s those times when there was no school for me at that time, the family was staying in one single room, I had to drop out because we as a family had lost everything — work money, education, savings, etc. and my dad was trying to settle things from scratch. Until I went back to school in April. 2014 (Grade 8th again), I unknowingly started to walk on the path of ‘Design’. The next day after my dad’s request, I created some business cards. And on the second day, I remember I created an ugly-looking UI of a website by watching a tutorial.
Dad didn’t give me any business and there was no money for the next 2–3 years. But curiosity to find, research, and learn about design led me to find what I want to do in my career. I landed my first internship in 10th grade (2017). By 2018, I had closed myself to a business of around (1.5 lacs) by working as a freelancer around the world (London, New York, Los Angeles, Florida, etc.). I worked for a travel magazine, did pro bonos, and did everything which can build my credibility in the market.
That was financial kickstart, but that wouldn’t be possible if I wasn’t curious about design education which I had to take up in terms of history, principles, aesthetics, learning from experts, marketing myself, speaking up, networking, tools, presentation, and so many other little things which helped me to get started & thrive in the market.
This Chronicle is a chronicle of curiosity, which helped me realize how a person without having a passion, discipline, goals, and other success-framework things can create opportunities and thrive with just being curious. This reminds me of a quote from the book — “Show Your Work’’ by Austin Kleon — “To be interesting you have to be interested.”
EPIPHANY OF CARING
I’m the most ignorant person I have ever met myself when I look back. After observing family financial struggles and being part of it for more than 10 years, I took less action about my life. “Look out Charchit, your family is not doing well. Do something about it.” I even thought of leaving my house as I started to hate my father for leaving his well-settled job. And then I remember my dad saying to me in sadness, “Son, I have nothing for you in my life to give you — money, education, and anything which an ideal father gives. Your life is your own to create it.” And that’s when I started to care a little bit.
Things started to ease up a little bit with my family. Life started to change a little after 3–4 months from 10th boards. I dropped out & I started caring about everything, I felt the need to contribute to my family. That’s when I learned how to market myself, my brother helped me with Gary Vaynerchuk’s marketing frameworks for Instagram and I started doing it. I began to have my global presence in a short time. But the money was still low, to earn money in this field you need trust and an audience and I had to do some pro-bonos work. To now help my family with money, we decided to take a radical approach. I took a loan from my mother’s personal savings of 15k rupees. I stood on the street, brought a cart, and sold burgers, tikkas, sandwiches, daily. I cooked, procured, and did everything that has to be done. Within one month, I had revenue of 20–30k INR. Though It was tough to stand on the street where my friends and school teachers crossed the lane.
“Standing on the street taught me operations, to get rid of the fear of embarrassment. When people disregarded my cooked food in front of other people, I learned to comprehend the difference between taking feedback personally and in an objective manner. Through which my taking of design feedback is much better.”
Within this span of time, I landed an internship at a design agency with the help of a professional friend. I went for a one-month trial period, and they accepted me but the remuneration was a little low and I had to turn it down. But because of this, my cart had to shut down, and again I was left with nothing to work on.
After one month of doing nothing, I realized I had to do something again. I remember that was the time when I immersed myself in daily aggressive disciplines — reading, portfolio building, marketing. I once again started to care for each and everything about my life, like I need to do something which I don’t know what. I taught myself business of design, sales negotiation, presentation skills, and so many soft skills which created the better out of me. I started local traveling, networking, attending design events and so many minor things.
In July 2018, I was called again at the design agency where I had previously turned down, given a full-time opportunity which I accepted. But one thing started to dawn on me after some time, I rebelled against everything about design which happened there — I was ignorant. I was impatient about everything which made me frustrated on my office seat and I didn’t share with anybody, because of being paranoid. And I got an opportunity at a food-tech startup in Gurgaon, believing that everything will somehow go fine, I decided to quit. But in the light of the fear of getting judged, I absconded from that company by writing a resignation and not completing the notice period on the advice of my dad. One of the fault doings of my life, when I realized the importance of caring and relationships which are much bigger than being paranoid. I decided to take control of my life. I decided to become one of the most ethical people within me. I did become the most ethical & disciplined person talked about in the food-tech startup. I wrote an apology email to the previous company (design agency) this year in January.
This chronicle is a chronicle of caring, where I realized how important it is to have ethics, discipline, commitment, integrity, to actually build a strong relationship with anyone. Being hired as a designer is good, but being hired as a trusted designer who people can count on is limitless. This is something I learned at the food-tech startup.
EPIPHANY OF GRATITUDE
Everything falls apart in the face of death, everything — fear of losing, being judged, embarrassment. In the second wave of COVID, my life began to walk on a completely different path which I never thought that I had to walk upon. Doctors prescribed me depression & I saw my mother faint in front of me due to her bad health. Due to these, I began to contemplate life more than ever, which I still do. I realized a few things which turned out to be true to me about life. I’ll just share one of them, which is respect & gratitude. I realized I never expressed the same feelings towards my parents who have helped me in becoming who I’m today & the value of having them in my life — but I think because of DesignWhine, I have the chance.
Dad (Niraj Garg) — I’m standing afoot because of you today, if you hadn’t shown me the path on that night, I don’t know where I’d be today. Sorry for being angry with you for some time in my life.
Mother (Pooja Garg) — If you hadn’t saved money as dad struggled to. We would have died long back, seriously.
I HOPE I DID MY BEST!
And some other people who I’m grateful for — My siblings, extended family, Sourav Ghosh, Anupriya Saxena, Aanan Khurma, Aditya Seth, Darpan Sharma, Sudhanshu Tyagi, Anubhav Sinha, Shubham Dixit, Adarsh Kumar, Dhruv Bhattacharya, Lakshya Sangwani, and Wellversed Health (food-tech startup) Team.
CURIOSITY IS ALL YOU NEED.
From being an ignorant child to becoming the only financial contributor in the first pandemic. From being called a lazy guy to becoming a responsible, disciplined son. From dancing and dreaming about becoming a good-working-designer to handling 3–4 design departments all alone for straight 2 years. From having no presence even in school to having a global presence and respect in the design market. For any student, a person who’s struggling to fit in their career — I now personally consider curiosity to be the only factor to get into any field and thrive at. JUST GET GOING!
DAWN OF SOMETHING NEW — PRODUCT DESIGN
I recently got promoted as UIUX Designer at my current company Hapramp Studio which is kind of a new beginning in my professional life. And I hope to make the most of it and keep contributing to my family. Thanks, Hapramp Studio Team for granting me this position.
