Thank you Pappa for teaching me the value of hard work

I call my father "Pappa" or "Seth." Most of you know that many address their father as Pappa, but what about Seth? I call him Seth because he owns a shop, and in Hindi, Marathi, or Bhojpuri shop owners are addressed as sethjee, that's why some of us in our family started calling him Seth. But this post is not about various titles that one can give to their parents, but it is about some very important lessons that Pappa taught me, the most important was the value of hard work. Pappa by his own example taught me that there is no substitute for hard work, there are no shortcuts. His story is very interesting as well as inspiring.

After finishing high school, Pappa moved from his home town Bhadohi in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh to Pune to work in a factory (Vanaz Pvt. Ltd.). While working in Vanaz, he built a small house, put us in a reasonably good school, and had a stable job. Suddenly in the late 1980s, the company for which he worked for more than a decade started facing financial hardships, and it decided to offer a voluntary retirement scheme or the option of continuing working on a reduced salary to its workers. Pappa took the option of VRS and he started a dairy-sweet shop in 1989, investing all the money which he received from VRS. He never had any previous experience in this sector.  I still do not know why he chose this business, I must ask him, I am also curious, why dairy and sweet, among various other choices. It was a risky move, especially with three young kids to support. The area of Pune where he opened his shop was not that populated that's why he could buy that shop with whatever money he had. Today that shop is known as Pankaj Sweets, a well-known place in that area for sweats and snacks, but this was after years of work by Pappa.

Since the day he opened the shop, I saw him working tirelessly to build its reputation, and sales, earning customers' trust, and loyalty and making it a reliable brand. He used to get up around 5AM and work until 10PM every day, 365 days a year, without taking even a single vacation. Many times, he never even got time to go home for lunch, I or my brother used to take a lunch box for him to eat at the shop. He also used to delegate the responsibility of the shop to us since we were kids, he had no option, as there was no one else to help him. This taught us a few important lessons and also allowed us to see his hard work and struggle firsthand. Pappa did this for many years, actually, he followed this routine until my youngest brother started helping him out regularly and eventually took over the management of the shop. Still, he goes to the shop regularly, he just cannot keep himself away from the action. He also taught me that no work is small or big, and one can learn anything if one is willing to put in the required effort. He used to do everything at our shop, starting from sweeping the shop, cleaning floors, washing utensils, working in the shop's kitchen, managing sales, keeping books, and doing all business transactions. He acted like a one-man army. I never saw him shying away from doing any work if it was necessary for the day-to-day operations of his shop. This is another valuable lesson that I learned from him. Watching Pappa work so passionately towards something under uncertainty about what is there for us in the future, especially when there was no one who was traveling the same path that he chose was really something special, not everyone gets a chance to witness something like this in their own family. People who get such a chance are lucky to learn some valuable lifelong lessons and I am proud to say that I am one of them.

I learned quite a few important lessons from this phase of my life. First, if you believe in yourself, don't worry even if no one is following the path you want to follow, trust your instincts and give your best, chances of success are high. Second, there is no substitute for hard work, no point in looking for shortcuts, just focus on your goal and work towards it tirelessly, hard work towards your goal has its own fun and reward. Third, destiny favors risk-takers, if you waste too much time thinking and calculating you might miss the opportunity and it may never come again, so be brave, and take your chances. And the last one, unless your mission becomes your passion, nothing changes in your life. I saw Pappa demonstrating these lessons for me. Many times, we look towards so-called celebrities and successful people for motivation and inspiration even though we can find it within our own family or immediate surroundings. I am lucky to have a few people around me who motivated and inspired me and Pappa is definitely one of them. I and he do not agree on many points, our political and social views differ drastically but that does not stop me from admiring his certain qualities which I appreciate and aspire to learn. Thank you Pappa for everything that you did for me, especially thank you for teaching me the value of hard work.

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