In the past 12 months, I’ve experienced both the highs and lows of professional life 🚀, alongside challenges like mental health struggles 💭 and eventually resigning from my job —all within the parallel world of remote work, which has become the new norm.

Looking back, this setup has negatively impacted my confidence, keeping me hooked to a laptop screen 💻, often in the comfort of informal, almost holiday-like attire 🩳.

The decision to experiment with building a business stems from a set of values I defined for my life after leaving my IT job 🌱. Walking away from a steady paycheck to pursue something with no guarantees is never easy.

However, one of my top priorities on that list is "Freedom" 🕊️—both in terms of the work-life balance I desire and the kind of work I want to be involved in.

I cannot stand the idea of someone approving my leaves and allowing me few days to go out on a vacation 🏖️ or anything for that matter. In some capacity, business gives the scope to do that and that’s more valuable than anything else, though that’s not the only motive anyway. We admire Freedom, only when we lose it! Isn’t so? 🤔

I’d never romanticize the concept of Entrepreneurship before anyone. It’s challenging as we don’t have the previous training to play this game.

We rely upon books 📚, podcasts 🎙️, LinkedIn, YouTube interviews 🎥, people in our contacts 📞 & online articles to see how we could do something tangible.

We’ve done ample mistakes since the day we’ve registered the company on January 30, 2021. And that‘s the sole reason, I had kept it a bit away from more people’s eyes 👀, as failures aren’t appreciated in Indian society !

My visit to Sambalpur University last month to be a part of their business incubation program and deliver a small talk was a little encouraging moment 🌟. Somehow, I’m not much of a fan of going out and talking about “Something” instead of doing it, because that creates the illusion of knowing it and the false feeling of being an Expert 🧠.

I’ve actively chosen to be a Private Person and put something on the public forum, only when it’s needed.

In this context to answer one of the questions asked recently to me, whether I’d be sticking to Bhubaneswar for the rest of my life? The answer is Probably No or I don’t know 🤷‍♂️. It depends upon the type of assignments we take in coming times.

Like anyone would agree with the idea of using air travel ✈️ to be in any city inside India under two hours & come back for a dinner with family. But, above all these, the core challenge for me is to evolve as a professional. That thing is of true value by any standard.

In recent times, apart from my interactions with people in the co-working space, I do visit an Open Mic community 🎤 here in Bhubaneswar in regular intervals.

That glorifies the art forms 🎨 and their relevance for a busy capital city. I do attend them in the capacity of an audience and sometimes I take one or two fellow people with me. :)

Maybe due to the kind of difficult experiences at the workplace 😓 & some tough life situations, I’ve turned brutal over time with a survival instinct 🛡️, while missing out on other emotions like love ❤️ & relationships. This creates an emptiness for sure.

These days I look out for a bit of silence in a conversation to carve out a deeper talk 💬. Sometimes the other person might be speaking to you out of immense insecurities or out of their limited exposure to the world.

If we just give them a little bit more space, we might discover a Gold Mine at the other end! 🏆