From My Diary - Choices I made ~ #2

This is the second post on the series "From My Diary - Choices I Made" 

In my earlier post on this series I wrote about my first professional choice. If you haven't read it by now please read "From My Diary - Choices I Made ~ #1

After I resigned from my first job and there after finishing graduation, I was now out looking for a job.

I applied for the post of 'Medical Representative' and got selected as one for a major Pharmaceuticals company named "Torrent Pharmaceuticals Limited"

By the way here is a confession I wish to make,  I never wanted to be an MR (Medical Representative), but here I was starting my work as an MR. Why?

Because the money seemed good, it was a field job, the company was well known and besides image of MR's looked nice. well groomed with Tie and shoes, meeting Doctors, first class travel everything seemed good.

I was always good with communication and people (that is what all said) so getting in tune with my new job profile was not a problem.

The job involved meeting Doctors, reminding them of our existing brands and briefing on new launches, and finally asking them to prescribe my company product.

To ensure that the prescriptions were honored, ensuring the availability of stocks at pharmacy store was also vital.

During the course of job I learned the difference between a General Practitioner (GP) and a Specialists and super Specialists. Up until then, doctor was a doctor. I soon got to know the various kinds of doctors and their relevant degrees and line of specialty.

The two things which I was not very comfortable with were the samples that we used to get and the morning and evening doctors calls.

As it is the homes in Mumbai are not very spacious and in that, to make an extra room for samples was something I did not like.

Also their should be continuity in the flow of  working hours. But then  since most of the doctors would meet only during mornings or evening hours depending upon there convenience or patients, we had no choice but to meet them whenever they allowed us.

Besides these two things I loved my work :)

I guess I was the only person in my company at least, who did the least number of evening calls.

It was over two years now on the job , when one day sometime in August or September 2001 ( I do not remember exact date now) my then Regional Manager (RM) Mr. Himanshu Desai came to work with me.

Mr. Himanshu had a very dashing personality and I remember asking him why he did not go into modelling ;)

Mr. Himanshu was the one who took my final interview during selection process.

He was to meet me at 10:30 am at Mulund station near platform no. 1 indicator. I was there before time but he came only after 11:00 am . After exchanging greetings the first thing he told me was this:
"I have heard lot of things about you and that has not portrayed a very good image of you." 

• You do not do evenings,
• Do not meet VIP doctors enough
• Only do the prescribed 10-12 calls
• Do time pass with girls, etc

Now what I could have said to all this as some of them was true. Well I always believed in smart working so as required was doing the prescribed number of doctors. VIP's I did not concentrate much was, because according to me they already had reached their saturation of prescribing the number of prescriptions for me. I instead believed in catching hold of new doctors. I used to meet them when no one else went to see them, because of this I not only developed great rapport with them easily but they were the first to prescribe my product first. As far as girls were considered, we had very few females working in this industry then and because of my easy going attitude they found it easy to talk to me. That does not mean I only talked to girls in fact my core group of friends were all males and we still meet as and when we can even to this date.

Anyway with the impression my RM had for me, we went on to work. We did few doctor calls, chemists visit and lot of waiting in between calls.

By the time it was 2:30 pm we manged to do about 10 calls. which included 3 VIP doctor calls

We went for lunch and it was then what he said made my day :)

He said,  "Nilesh I have been working with you today and I saw your style of working. You have great rapport with your doctors, the prescriptions are coming, the stocks is available at the medical store and your equation with your colleagues too is great. I must say I will have to change mu opinion about you"

Before he left for the day he said, Nilesh you work smart and I like the way you work, I want you to be an FM (Field Manger) start preparations for interview this coming March.

Now what do I say to that :)

So did I go for the Field Managers interview???

"NOPE", I did not.

Before it happened, I had already made up my mind to resign from my job.

Now why did I do that??

Well, after working for more than 4 years under someone else, I realized I was not cut out for a job. I did not liked to be answerable to anybody, nor was I interested in chasing  the numbers the so called big targets. I wanted to do my work my way as per my convenience. But above all, the most important thing which inspired and motivated me to resign was this simple logic :
" If I worked  even half of  what I did here for myself, I will end up making more money, and that too with less working hours "

I resigned in the month of October 2001, to venture in to a totally different industry of which I knew nothing except for the fact that I wanted to be a "SELF- EMPLOYED"

The job as an MR at Torrent pharma was good, money was good, company was good too, but yet again I wanted more, and this time too everybody in my circle and knowing advised me against leaving the job. 

My field manager even went to the extend of saying that I could choose to do both, work at your thing as part-time. What if  it did not workout as you think, at least with job financial security is there?

Yes the risk was there, but then I had read and  heard a lot and knew the "Risk of not taking the Risk" 

Was this next "CHOICE" which I made then was worth the risk I took?

To find out do follow or subscribe for my next blog-post "From My Diary - Choices I Made ~ #3" coming out soon...

What do you think about the choices I made in my this series so far ? Have you made any such choices which led to greater gains or did they ended up giving pain ?

Do write and share with me your story. You may drop a comment or write to me as an email on "nilesharma@gmail.com"

You may also ask me for any guidance and help if you need and feel that I can contribute with. I will be more than happy to help you if I  can ,from my rich and diverse experience.

Happy day :)