Inspirational! Indian Who Worked At IBM, Twitter, Apple & Google Shares His Most Valuable Life Lesson

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.¡±

First He Shared His ¡®Embarrassment¡¯ Of Working At Apple

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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¡­ pic.twitter.com/Hb54Yj7Trf

¡ª Parminder Singh (@parrysingh) August 18, 2023

¡°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.¡°

Also Read: Why Apple & Google CEOs Fight To Hire & Retain Two IITians

The Lesson He Learnt

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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."

The Side Effect Of Working At Such Iconic Companies

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.

Also Read: Warren Buffett Regrets Not Investing In Amazon, Google & Microsoft

How Twitterati Reacted To His Post

indiatimes

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."

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 ?

¡ª Rahul Sen (@Rahul13Sen) August 18, 2023

He was wonderful. I would meet him every week to take down his column on marketing for The Asian Age. And it was an education for me. It would be the entire day, and I learnt so much more than just what he dictated for his column. He would ask my opinion, imagine, a 22 year old.

¡ª Kiran Manral (@KiranManral) August 18, 2023

What a story. Thanks for sharing ??

¡ª Ankur Warikoo (@warikoo) August 18, 2023

Such a great lesson to learn from here Parminder ji. ????
We should not evaluate people materialistically but basis the value they bring to the table.
I learnt it early from my mentor that Leadership is about leading without titles and asking the right questions irrespective¡­

¡ª Prateik Das (@PrateikDas) August 18, 2023

Lovely story. I was lucky to interact with him once, and also with Irfan Khan, longtime PR & Comms head of what was Hindustan Lever then. They don't make 'em like them any longer. I studied across the road from their office & always looked up at that building with high regard.

¡ª Ashok Lalla (@ashoklalla) August 18, 2023

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