Perseverance pays

Suresh – 20th Batch – 98868-77905

Steve Jobs once said, “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones ,is pure perseverance.”  

Suresh comes across as a person with such pure perseverance. Born in a village in Bidar, Suresh is the last of 6 children. His father is a farmer and his mother, a home-maker. He has two sisters, both settled in Bidar, and three brothers. Of the four brothers, one is a farmer and two of them work in Hyderabad. It was a family that was  dependent on the monsoon for their livelihood. Suresh mentions that if the monsoon failed, they would just about make enough money to make both ends meet. Any ‘income’ was only possible in the monsoon months.

Suresh had completed B.A., B. Ed in 2009 and came to Bangalore in search of greener pastures. He underwent a lot of struggle to find a job. The most predominant reason for him being rejected at interviews was poor communication skills. He had studied in  Kannada medium until his degree. It was at this juncture that a friend’s friend told Suresh about Unnati.

While at Unnati, Suresh specialized in the BPO vocation.  The three biggest things he learnt at Unnati are:

a.English communication (and he speaks so flawlessly today)

b.Life Skills – hardwork, honesty.

c.Personality development.

Hi-data gave Suresh his  first job and he was offered Rs. 5000 per month back in late 2009. After a two-month stint, he joined Allsec Technologies as a customer care representative, representing Docomo. Allsec paid him Rs. 6000 a month, and he stayed on for 6 months. 

He then joined STPI (Software Technology Parks of India) and worked for 2 yrs. As an admin support staff (contractor), his salary was Rs. 8000 per month. In the two years at STPI, Suresh mentions that his salary did not increase so much, but his reputation with his peers and bosses did. He said that anyone completing the course at Unnati would be honest & hard-working! These are the two traits that any management loves.

What Suresh also did was to learn the nuances of the import-export foreign trade policies. So when it was time to move on from STPI, his colleagues & leads encouraged him to start his own business.

My interviews with students last 15 minutes at the most. And I speak for most of the 15-minute duration. But with Suresh, we went on for 30 minutes, and he articulated so well, in very simple and correct English, about the foreign trade policies, the removal of tax rebate ( as per government policy) and how that fetched him new business. I felt I was talking to an A-school management graduate.  

Here’s a gist of what he told me:

Due to a change in Government policy, some small organizations could not afford to stay in the STPI & wanted to exit from the union. This meant a lot of forms needed to be filled & government processes needed to be completed. There was only one agency doing this, and they would charge exorbitantly. Suresh spotted the opportunity & secured his first client for almost half the price offered by the other agency. He committed to complete in 45 days, and completed in 35 days. His first client gave him an incentive of Rs 15000. He also has another customer now.

Suresh now earns Rs. 25000 a month on an average. He says his business, ‘Raj Consulting’, did not need any investment. He says all that he is today was possible only because of Unnati. He is very thankful to Unnati, since he says Unnati has given him a career that his double degrees could not fetch him.

Suresh is now fairly established in his business. But he is not slackening. At the end of our conversation, he mentioned to me that he has another business proposition and wanted to discuss that also with me. His sincerity and smartness will undoubtedly take him places.

We wish Suresh the very best in all his pursuits! Unnati is very proud of students like Suresh!

Contribution by Sukanya Kuppuswamy ( volunteer )

Team Unnati