Are you feeling like you have not achieved enough in your life? Achieving a certain level of career success is hard. Very hard.
I have taken a lot of decisions in my life which has led me here. But one of the biggest decisions that I took was…
To leave my hometown.
To stay away from home, from parents, and relatives. Until 2012, I lived in Salem, a small Tier 2 city in Tamil Nadu.
Live was comfortable with parents, home food, college friends around, and a sense of comfort and familiarity.
But life was also dull. No events, no meetups, no startups, and nothing interesting was happening there.
One fine day, I decided to move to Bangalore.
(Chennai was another option but Chennai was too hot and too humid).
I came to an event called AdTech in Bangalore and at the event, I spoke to 20 companies and asked them if they had some jobs for me. I told them I knew digital marketing and that I can help them with SEO.
I got 3 business cards and one looked like a hot lead. I followed up with them and one company called me for an interview after 2 weeks of follow-up.
I got a job and I made the move.
For the first 3 months, I was feeling uncomfortable. I had to figure out everything for myself and I was shocked at the cost of living in a bigger city like Bangalore.
But within 6 months I got adjusted to the new reality. New place, new kinda people, and a new language… it was all new to me. Uncomfortable, and felt like fish out of water, but I started liking it.
When you are in a new place, with new people, survival instincts kick in.
I knew I had to work hard to survive and I did. I worked in a few companies and eventually started my own agency in 2017 out of a small 1000 sq. ft 2bhk in Koramangala.
I don’t think the DigitalDeepak and PixelTrack brand would have grown to what it is today unless I moved away from Salem.
Now if you are reading this and if you are staying in your home town, you will have a natural -VE reaction to it. You will start looking for examples of people who stayed in their hometown and succeeded because that’s what you want. Your lizard brain is uncomfortable about new places and resists change.
Your defense mechanism is kicking in. Don’t argue with this point.
Your DNA has its own agenda. Your parents have their own agenda for you. And society has its own agenda. Mostly, they want you to get married and have kids.
No one cares about what you want – except yourself.
Most people who succeed in life, leave their hometown, their comfort zone, and their parents, and sometimes they even leave their kids and wives to pursue what they want.
If going after what you want is immoral, it is immoral to the world. Not to yourself. The most moral thing you can do for yourself is to focus on yourself and what you want.
If you do not sacrifice for what you want, what you want will become the sacrifice. (read that again).
It all comes down to your choices. Your priorities. That’s what makes you who you are. Are you ready to sacrifice your goals because you want to stay where you are and feel uncomfortable to move away from your zone?
America is successful because it is a country of immigrants. People have come to America from India, China, Israel, Pakistan, Germany, Spain, and so on. It is a collection of the most motivated people who have strayed away from their comfort zone to look for new opportunities.
When you live in an alien land with alien people and language, it is a constant reminder for you that you have to work hard to survive. You have to be alert, and on guard all the time.
Take my word for it, your big decisions in life will contribute more towards your success than any small trick or strategy to get traffic and leads.
If you live in a small town, move to bigger cities. If you already live in Bangalore, Mumbai, or any big city like that, then move to another big city or move away from the country in search of opportunities.
The best part is that you can always come back to your hometown. But when you can, you wouldn’t want to. You would’ve become the native of the place you adopted for yourself.
Once you are 20 years of age, you need to move out and explore. Your parents might miss you but your parents want you to make a life for yourself and they will be proud of you eventually.
Never try to please other people.
You can only satisfy them temporarily. In the long term, you will have resentments because you did not go for what you wanted.
The only person who cares for what you want is YOU. Be an individual. Be independent. Financially, emotionally and spiritually.
You are born alone in this world and you will die alone, why do you seek the company of others?
You can enjoy the company of others but don’t seek it. When you are an individual, others will seek that company with you and that’s enough.
You see, commitment goes both ways.
You can keep your commitment to others, but you will be breaking your commitment toward your own growth and future. And you will feel bad about it later in life because you did not prioritize yourself.
And then you will blame others that prioritized their own needs over yours. But come on, everyone will prioritize their own needs and try to manipulate you into getting them what they want.
Remember, the only person who can prioritize your needs, is yourself. No one else. Once you understand the harsh reality of this world, you will know what decisions to take.
And finally, never postpone your decisions.
There are no right decisions or wrong decisions.
You take a decision and make it right. That’s it.
So decide now.
Leave.
Leave your home town.
Leave your parents (but still love them).
Leave your relationships (if they are toxic).
Leave your friends (if they are boring).
Become independent.
Become You.
Build You.
Nothing else matters.
Cheers,
Deepak Kanakaraju
