A Redditor from Mumbai recently shared a disastrous story of a man who brazenly followed his dreams only to end up losing a whopping capital of Rs 40 Lakh. Sat at a local tapri shop, the chai stall owner, Ali, approached the Reddit user and enquired him about a possible job opportunity for a friend who was going through the tough times.
Ali, then narrated the story of his friend, who dreamed big while working a telesales job in Malad, and decided to leave his “9 to 5″ job.
Here’s what happened next…
Shattered Dreams
The Mumbai man, according to the now-viral post, took a two-year gamble to open a Mobile shop, leaving behind his stable “9 to 5″ job that gave him a steady monthly income of Rs 26K along with incentives. The man opened the shop in a high-profile locality, happy that the dream he had visualised was now a tangible reality. He decided to go all in – leave his job, invest his life savings into a dream, and hire a team.
“Dude left his stable job (last drawn 26k + incentives), dreamt big, opened the shop in a high-profile locality. Hired a full team, spent bomb on fancy repairing gear, went all-in hoping things would take off,” the user wrote.
In months that followed, the man who had dreamt big was faced with reality. His “dream job” bled money. With no cash to pay salaries, the hired team had to be let go. And just like that, his and life savings were all gone.
9-5 Isn’t ‘That’ Bad
The OP narrated the story in hopes of conveying a message to the hustlers out there who dare to dream big but in the process get carried away and end up in a miserable place where they are broke and desperate to pick up any job in hopes of coming out of the well of bankruptcy.
“We see these hustle stories everywhere “Go big or go home,” “Follow your dreams” but rarely do we hear about the flipside, about betting the house and losing it,” the user wrote before adding, “I’m not saying don’t dream, just dream with your eyes open. Take risks, sure, but also know your limits. Don’t throw in your lifelong savings in one shot. If things go wrong, trust me, there are very few people left to clean up the mess.”
OP further wrote that a proper planning or perhaps a safety net would be ideal and that there was no shame in being in a stable job, especially when you are the only earning member of the family who brings food to the table.
9-5 In Pop Culture
Wake Up Sid
The 2009 Bollywood movie directed by Ayan Mukerji showed a spoiled brat Siddharth (Ranbir Kapoor) who was fresh out of college and had no aspirations. His father, a wealthy businessman, makes a deal with his son that if he joined his business and did the conventional “9-5″ job, he would reward him with a luxury car. Sid, with no interest in his father’s business or desire to show up like the other “boring” people in the corporate setup did, decides to follow his passion in photography.
3 Idiots
In his final year of engineering at ICE College, Farhan Qureshi, portrayed by R. Madhavan, confesses to his father that he skipped a job interview, realizing he would be an unhappy and ineffective engineer. Rejecting the conventional corporate “naukri” to meet societal expectations, Farhan chooses wildlife photography instead. Though it means earning less and living in a modest apartment, pursuing his passion promises true happiness and fulfillment, far from the typical engineering career or a nau se paanch.