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I can handle anything, you want to test me – bring it on…..
Have you ever got into a crazy difficult situation at work or in your life where you tell yourself, its okay no matter what happens I will face it, I can handle anything bring it on.
I wrote this blog to motivate myself and recall the path I came through during this Covid period
COVID Initial days
2020 was one of the year we can never forget in our life, it just disrupted everything we had built over the years
Chinese new year was around the corner and Covid struck us hard
Due to the festival majority of my team members travelled to their hometowns in china to celebrate the lunar new year festival with their family and friends, this is the norm during this season.
Some of my team members got stuck in the heart where the Covid originated, including my fiancé.
From business perspective, we had to initiate BCP (Business Continuity plan) as part of the organizational agreements with the client.
Post the go ahead from our Internal Risk and management, I initiated a discussion with my clients updating them the situation of COVID, trust me I had no idea that this was so big….
little we knew about this virus, based on the initial risks and analysis, proactively advised the clients on the plan we had and received their go ahead to initiate BCP.
created several plans and appointed key members to govern and proactively connected with every team members on a daily basis to understand their conditions and support our business.
Life always wants to test you, isnt it?
Bonding helps
The bond between you and your team will get stronger during times like these, my team was there think and thin during this difficult times and I can never ever forget them what they did during those crazy days.
There were people who said Vinod, don’t worry I will find a way and will support our business more importantly our team! I am very sure you must have heard similar voices from your team members as well.
The only thing we could convey them was their safety is more important and work from where they were.
business went on smooth all credits to my team!
My Sisters Engagement
My only sisters engagement was planned to happen in February 2020, my flights were booked way early in January, due to the rise of COVID situation, majority of the flights were getting cancelled or rescheduled.
with only few hours left to travel, I got a message that the flights were cancelled and had to rebook the flight with another air travel or route.
the amount of stress during these times were enormous but somehow I managed to change the flights via shanghai and reached India.
In India there was no sign of COVID in the February 2020, during these early days the airport did go through the protocols like temperature testing, upon providing the details of my purpose they let me go home as I was completely fine.
I was so scared about my people around so avoided going anywhere unnecessarily, ensured to wear mask so the people around me are safe. (I am sure some might have been wondering whats wrong with this guy)
When you manage people or a business, you never take things for granted as you know the impact it causes if not taken seriously or due to carelessness.
I attended my sisters engagement with a small forum and immediately returned back to China.
Returned back to My Team
After attending my sisters engagement with minimal people, I planned to return back to China.
My brother dropped me at the airport, checked in, at the immigration a customs officer who was quite experienced told me “Do you really want to go back to China” while the COVID situation is so serious, cant your reconsider to stay back in India.
Well, I told him I do want to stay back with my family as it’s safe here, but I have to return to lead my team.
He said nothing is important than your safety but its your call!
The only reason, I wanted to get back was because of my team, they all were working so hard during this critical time and I cannot stay in a safe place while they are fighting the battle here.
The customs officer let me go…
After 5 days where I was stuck in a hotel in Bangkok, got the tickets to shanghai
With international roaming and hundreds of personal and business phone calls my phone credit ran out and was at negative when I reached
Reached shanghai around 1:30 AM. Thanks to one of the receptionist who helped me set up the Health Code registration for the first time, it was a relief to see the green code.
Took the 1st train from the Shanghai Hongqiao station and reached Hangzhou.
Little I knew, in a weeks time China had put a lot of control to eradicate this virus. Reached my community and found out they don’t allow anyone travelled internationally, finally my landlord came to my rescue and vouched to let me in and ofcourse went through the 14 days quarantine.
Working from home for couple of weeks, things had got much controlled in Hangzhou – our offices were slowly opening up with clear controls and following the guidance provided by the local council.
We went back strong, happy to see everyone after a long time. Though there was huge social distancing controls put in place
My Sisters Marriage
While I was in Hangzhou, my sisters marriage was planned in April2020, unfortunately due to COVID issues in India I was unable to travel hence her marriage was postponed.
After a few weeks of wait I convinced them to go ahead with the wedding to avoid further delays due to me
I couldn’t attend it but thanks to the technology, I was able to be part of it watching it from where I am.
My brother was the one who stood in my position and did whatever I was supposed to do there.
Rampdown
While we were recovered and stabilized the work. Our client decided to move out their work elsewhere.
Another difficult months ahead with tons of changes to work and people.
this was the most challenging time of all mentally, where I had to manage people, process and its transition smoothly.
[PS. I will be covering this in detail in another topic]
Conclusion
In a nutshell, these are the problems everyone will face in their career and personal lives, the only way to overcome these problems are by being strong and just say bring it on, no matter what, I will fight against it!
These are just some of my personal stories and challenges I had to overcome, feel free to leave your challenges you came across and how did you overcome it.