Thread by @nishthagehija26

An unexpected story of how I moved careers into a TOTALLY unrelated field

(And maybe you can too!)

A thread

In Class 6, I wrote my first poem on “The Candle”

It went: “I begin my life to give it an end, ‘coz I’m a candle who has only light to send.”

That sonnet got selected for some best poem of the school.
IDK how :)

Few years later, I was the national topper in Boards in English subjects. In University, scored 90%.

However, by then (2012) the junoon of clearing CA was so much on the top of my head, that I almost didn’t consider this as a sign.

In 2013 and 2014, while preparing for exams, I used to take 10 min breaks after 90 mins, and walk in my small room, reading a book.

During those two years of incessant reading that I realised I LOVED writing so much!

I wrote my first book after giving CA exams in November 2014 (which got published in June 2015).

amazon.in/This-what-You-…

However, I had to get out of my hometown and go to Delhi , and “becoming a writer” wasn’t something my parents would let me get out of home for.

So when I cleared the exams in January 2015, I took up a job as an Internal Auditor in Delhi.

Honestly, it was fun.
Lots of travel, loads of money all of a sudden, and living on your own.

But, when the soul isn’t fulfilled, the body can’t keep it up for long.

So I started my daily blog in 2016, because @ThisIsSethsBlog said so.

It was weird, yet so intoxicating that in days occupied at work and managing life before and after that, I always used to dig time to write the blog.

There were times I was sitting in the office cafeteria and writing my blog on the phone.

“We must have the stubbornness to protect our gladness in the ruthless furnace of the world.” @GilbertLiz said in Big Magic

But I had already got into a car loan, so escaping it was scary.
By the time loan got over, I wasn’t left with liquid cash, thus depending on salary again.

But because I couldn’t not write, I wrote my second book in 2019:
amazon.in/Fit-Doesnt-fit…

After 5 years of two jobs and small freelancing gigs, in February 2020, I got an offer to write 6 books for CA related stuff, the amount matched up to 80% of my annual CTC.

So I resigned from my job in March 2020, thinking this would give me the space to figure out what’s next.

Only to know after resigning, that the book deal would eventually be cancelled.

But I had decided now – that if I have already resigned, let’s go and explore life as well.

In the moment, in the moment when you're already prepared and ready to take on projects, luck sneaks in from a sliced hole.

In no time, I got reached out by someone who had initially refused to work together, and now they wanted me to take on their social content.

Another acquaintance referred me for a personal branding project – totally out of the blue!

We all have such “out of the blue” moments, when we think we landed there because of magic.

In reality, we kept preparing the ground for years, for magic to enter and stay there.

Fast forward to a year later in April 2021, I was finally able to exceed the last drawn that I had left a year back, through:
- Relentless blogging
- Learning from tips and tricks everywhere
- Listening to what clients wanted, and more than anything else,
- Keeping my word.

If I want you to leave with life lessons from switching careers, here it is:

1. It takes years of hard work and tears of persistence to get to a place of few days of magic that change EVERYTHING!

2. Sending samples of work while pitching always works like a charm.

3. Struggle is always going to be there.

However, when you choose your struggle instead of struggle being imposed on you, you enjoy every moment of the process.

Changing careers is uncomfortable.
You have to forget what you used to be, to do what this career needs you to be.

At the end of the day, if you do not have YOU in the career, it is because YOU are something else.

You just know it in your heart,
The heart is just waiting for you to OWN it.

Fin.