(Secrets about my first public workshop that I never revealed to anyone.)
I had booked a banquet hall in Hotel Deccan Plaza, Chennai for 26th April 2009 full day by paying Rs 10000 advance. It was one of the last swipes on my already overloaded credit card. I was already sitting on Rs 25 Lacs of debt – 3 credit cards and multiple personal loans because of bad personal financial management.
I had heavily marketed the workshop for 1 month (Fees Rs 5000 per person) but guess how many participants I got – ZERO!
The day before the workshop I was extremely disappointed and depressed because of my FLOP show right at the beginning of my self employment career.
I didn’t want the hotel advance to go waste so I called up 25 people I knew and offered them the full day workshop for FREE. They happily accepted the offer and the workshop was a SUPERHIT.
The participants generously offered to contribute Rs 250 each so that at least part of my Rs 10000 hotel advance would be covered. (A Big Thank You to all of them!)
It was a HUGE morale booster for me as the participants gave me positive feedback about my abilities as a trainer. I still made a loss of Rs 5500 odd because of the workshop material and all, but the experience I gained was priceless!
Between 2009 and 2011 I successfully conducted this same workshop 10 times with paid participants and a full house each time.
In the second edition of the workshop itself (in Aug 2009) I bumped into a business owner who hired me as a consultant and I made roughly Rs 40 Lacs over 3 years through services I offered him and his group companies. That was my bread and butter for those 3 years and it helped me clear a lot of my ever growing debt.
Meanwhile I tried my hand at lots and lots of things and for every one thing I succeeded at, I FAILED at three!
And then in 2012 I switched to Life Coaching. This too I struggled till June 2014. In June 2014 I did a 6 day Art of Living Course and my coaching practice took off like an ISRO rocket. (Till this day I don’t know what’s the connection!).
The rest is history. ( One Lakh Sixty Two Thousand Minutes of Life Coaching to 262 clients across the planet so far).
All this because I DID NOT GIVE UP and go back to a corporate job when I got Z-E-R-O participants for my first workshop!
From that day I decided.. whether it is your career, or your relationships, or your bank balance or your health or whatever.. COME WHAT MAY.. NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER GIVE UP!