Back in June 2008, I started my career in banking with a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. Due to scarce opportunities, I landed a base-level position as a business development officer, where my task was to upsell financial solutions to the existing customers of the bank. It was very exciting when I started learning about new products and practically utilizing the skills I had learned.
The fun part was it paid lucrative commissions as well, although it was a high-pressure-cooker environment to meet the targets and be a part of competing teams. I committed myself that I would be the one contributing the maximum share while achieving the team’s target — unaware of the fact that I was putting my skin in the game. Due to my contributions and helping my team achieve the targets, I was not only paid well but also gained a lot of respect among the whole department, which enhanced my motivation as well.
After six months, by the end of 2008, I realized that my performance was above average compared to my peers who had been working in the same role for more than two years, and I had felt some sense of bias as well. But with the beginning of 2009 — a new year, new challenges, and increased targets — I was strategizing to achieve my personal targets and even asked to increase my targets as per my potential, so I could challenge myself and continue my commitment to being the highest contributor on my team, with two clear intentions in mind: first, to earn well, and second, to be recognized.
Fast forward to 2011: after getting married in 2010 and having a daughter, I was promoted to the next level as a Team Leader and was assigned a new role. During this tenure, the company I was working for was acquired twice, and I experienced drastic and frequent structural changes. In this chaos, a number of people opted for new roles in different organizations, many were laid off, and few employees survived it all, including myself. This, I later realized, was not because of my performance, but because of my conviction and strong positive attitude toward embracing change — rather than the cognitive dissonance that held others back.
In early 2012, with new management in place, new structural changes started to arrive with evergreen lines like “we are like a family,” “think of yourself as a CEO of your team,” and my favorite, “your role is very critical” — along with lower increments in salary, extended working hours, and cuts in commissions, while expecting the same commitment. Which doesn’t really fit. As I was operating in the sales domain, which provided me with monthly commissions, I was not eligible for yearly bonuses as per the company’s policy — which totally made sense. But when suddenly commissions were lowered without any prior information, my belief in conviction was shaken badly. It felt like my cheese was stolen overnight. I kept managing my finances for two years and raised my concerns to management about the lowered commissions — not just for myself, but for my team as well. But after two long years, I was the only one with skin in the game the whole time. At this point, I decided, “I refuse to be used anymore.”
It was 2014 when my daughter started going to school and inflation caught up, and I started to feel the financial stress. Like every sensible employee, I raised my concerns to management, but all in vain. Then I started to pursue new roles in different organizations. Upon learning this, my senior management changed my assignment, and I was deployed to another sales team as team lead. This was exciting because it was the team I had joined when I started my career, and now I was given the opportunity to lead one of its teams. But the team assigned to me was broken. Out of twelve sales agents, it had only seven, and out of those seven, three were newly hired. I took it as a challenge and started training and building my team, and within one year it was the best-performing team across the board. All the way, I carried my two intentions with myself: one, to contribute the maximum, and second, to be recognized. In doing all this, I refused to be part of any office politics, and most importantly, avoided all small groups that were made based upon mutual, unproductive interests.
For the next four years, I gave my best — building new teams, training new team leads, and surpassing targets every year — because I stuck to my intentions to earn well and get recognized. Although I didn’t get the promotion I deserved, it was paying my bills and providing financial stability, so I ignored the extended hours and focused on performance. During all this, I missed precious time that could have been spent with family and friends, but I chose to provide better — unaware of the storm to come.
In 2018, one of the line managers resigned, and there was an opportunity. After ten years, this was my moment — I believed that all my hard work and sacrifices would be redeemed. But to my surprise, one of the team leads who used to work on my team, whom I had trained and elevated, was promoted as my line manager. I felt like I was falling from the sky into the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean and hitting the bottom. Ten years of hard work, commitment, and conviction — gone. I was unable to digest this decision and realized that I had been a Boxer in Animal Farm.
After every storm, when the sun shines. Upon raising my concerns with the topmost senior management, I learned the lesson of my life. After discussing the issue and my grievances with the departmental head, he told me that my skills and conviction were beyond this mere promotion. He made me realize that a person of my stature was not limited to the four walls of one small department of the company. Initially, it didn’t land well, but I decided that I would not continue in this organization anymore, and started searching for a new job, which took around one year. But to satisfy myself and answer the doubts arising within my mind about my competence, I pushed myself to perform to my full potential, and I was awarded Best Performing Sales Team Lead for 2018. And in 2019, my search for a new job was over.
And this time, I took a decision to change my industry to real estate, fully immersing my skin in the game for myself, with a mindset that I had already sharpened my sales skills, so why not go for the higher ticket size to earn more commissions. But it wasn’t easy in the beginning. I didn’t have experience in real estate, but I knew how to solve problems and close deals. It was a risky decision, because with no sound knowledge of the market, it felt like being in the middle of a war zone, bare-handed. I had to pay the bills and provide for my family, so again, I committed myself to proving my competence, as I had done in the last year with my previous employer. And within the span of three months, I was the top sales guy, earning 3x as compared to previously. I worked there for three years, learned about real estate and mortgages, and especially about dealing with ultra-high-net-worth clients. I attained a lot of success and met personal financial goals, though it had long, extended hours, and working on weekends was my new normal. But it was worth taking the risk — because I had realized that putting in only my own skin could save me, rather than expecting the same from the organization. All I needed was a platform to prove myself — not to others this time, but to myself.
In 2022, I got an offer from one of the largest banks in their mortgages department, and today, while writing my story, I realize that my destiny was already written — to work where I belong: in the banking industry, returning with an extra skill in mortgages and dealing with ultra-high-net-worth clients. My short experience in the real estate business rewrote my life, but only after giving me a tough time and the lesson of my life.
From this whole experience, I realized that putting your skin in the game only for your employer is worthless if you aren’t recognized. Although we all have to pay the bills, for me, financials are secondary — recognition is primary. I spent almost 11 years with my first employer, put in every effort to achieve organizational goals, and faced a lot of financial and personal stress — believing the evergreen lines — but it led me straight toward my professional grave. So what I learned here is that conviction can lead you to wonders, while it doesn’t matter if you are being recognized — your self-worth is enough to keep you moving forward. Never stop asking yourself: Am I the only one with skin in the game here, is management sharing the trenches with me, or am I just being used?
Your worth is only determined by yourself, so never let someone else write your story.
That was my story. Share your thoughts, and a moment in your life where you felt like you had been struck by lightning, but after some time realized that it was necessary to find yourself.
