Apple, Twitter, Google and IBM. These are some of the big and iconic companies in which Parminder Singh has worked. In a post that is going viral, Singh recently shared a life lesson he learnt from his time as a sales manager at Apple.?
Singh explained through a long tweet how a marketing legend helped him overcome his ¡°embarrassment¡± of working ¡°out of a humble 10x10 cabin in a business centre.¡±
¡°I was incredibly proud of working at Apple, and a bit embarrassed! Till I met Shunu Sen. Let me first explain the embarrassment. Representing Apple opened access to CEOs, movie stars, top politicians, the who's who! I proudly interacted with them, but was secretly apprehensive that they might want to visit my office. Because I worked out of a humble 10x10 cabin in a business centre. Devoted Apple fans, often wanted to visit. And I usually replied with an evasive, "Yes, sure. I'll arrange that sometime."
Shunu Sen was a marketing legend with stellar accomplishments as a Marketing Director for Unilever India. He was now setting up his company, Quadra Advisory. "Come meet me. I want only Macs for my company", he said on the phone.?"I found him exactly how I had imagined him to be, sharp, witty, quirky."
''Do you know who is the singer?'" he asked, as he saw me tapping my feet to the music playing in his office. 'Meat Loaf,' I replied.?
"'Nice! I think we can do business together!' he said. And within a couple of days, he placed an order for iMacs and iBooks.?A few months later, I invited him to deliver the keynote at the latest iMac launch. To my delight, he accepted.¡°
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Singh went on to mention in the tweet that Sen had started using a wheelchair. "On the launch day, as I accompanied him from the entrance of Hotel Le Meridian to the event hall, he asked the dreaded question,?Hey, I haven't ever visited your office. I would love to come over for a coffee."?
"I hemmed and hawed, wondering if my business centre entrance is even wide enough for the wheelchair. It was best to be upfront."
"Shunu, I wouldn't like to disappoint you. It's a very small office. Let's meet somewhere outside."
"He suddenly stopped his wheelchair. Looked up at me with those peering eyes through the large glasses, and said, 'Sure. But never measure your worth with the size of your office or the grandness of your title. Your worth is measured by the value you create for your employer, society and the world.' And then, he wheeled on to deliver a brilliant keynote. The lesson has stayed with me ever since! Stay focused on the value you create. Everything else, eventually falls in place."
Earlier in 2016, in a Linkedin post, Singh said that the?privilege of working in these iconic companies comes with an unintended side effect. One is often confronted with impossibly tough questions like,?¡°So which was the best one to work for?¡± or?¡°How do they compare?"?
To this, he replied by briefly mentioning the values he learnt from these iconic organizations:?Apple: Healthy Obsession for Perfection,?IBM: Systems beget Solutions,?Google: It's all about People,?Twitter: Passion for Greater Good.
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Singh¡¯s tweet has already garnered 5.39 lakh views on X, with many users mentioning how inspiring the post and story were. Here is how some of the users reacted to the post. Singh has over 28,000 followers on X.
Even Shunu Sen's son replied to Singh's post, saying "Shunu was my dad, so many thanks for your totally cool story ... big smiles and a tear from us family he left behind. Ps ... Bat out of hell came from me."
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