I am from a family having many lawyers, who are all based in the city of Jodhpur, Rajasthan. In my childhood I never imagined about pursuing chartered accountancy, law or any other professional course. As a matter of fact, it was only after my cousin enrolled himself from the CA Foundation course in 1994, I thought about registering myself as well, just to escape from the family pressure. But when I look back, I see this as a cause that that happened to me for some good reason.
Coming from a marwadi family with professional background, I quickly developed interest in the curriculum and cleared the CA Final both groups in the first attempt at the age of 21 years. Soon thereafter, I started working with one of the reputable CA firms based out of Jaipur.
My first salary was Rs. 4,000 per month. Even in the year 1997 this sum was not good enough to rent a decent apartment in the city. Being in the tax litigation team regularly demanded – long working hours on weekdays and on many occasions even during weekends; daily shuttling between residence, office and tax tribunal; managing voluminous documents, submissions as well as clients etc.
But the real question is – whether the salary was good enough or I was good enough to earn this amount?
To be honest, in the beginning of my career it was only the on-job learning that mattered to me. Candidly, in the absence of the practical or relevant skillset, I did not even deserve the said sum of money. In fact, earning Rs. 4,000 per month was like someone paying you for teaching you something.
I consider myself lucky to find a senior like Late Shri C.L. Janwar sir, who was a great professional and life coach. Working under him and his son Shri Sanjay Jhanwar, gave me the opportunity to shape-up and sharpen my professional abilities.
It is this strong foundation is helping me achieve heights in the career. After gaining right experience at the ground level as well as with one of the Big4 firms, we founded the firm Reina Legal in the year 2012. In a short span of eight years, Reina Legal has practice spread in four countries (India, UAE, Bahrain and Oman) and we four partners are together managing the monthly revenue in eight digits.
Basis my post qualification experience of more than 20 years that involves both job and practice experience – both as Chartered Accountant and Lawyer, I would like to give three suggestions to the freshly qualified professionals:
- Specially in the beginning of the career, irrespective of the peer or social pressures, don’t aspire for money. Instead, give weightage to the learning opportunities. I mean given a choice, prefer a career path that could give you better learning experience to the one that pays more but confines your skill. If you chase knowledge, money will chase you later.
- Another practical aspect you must keep in mind in this world do not expect anyone to give you on the job training. You may not be lucky enough to find a good guide or mentor. Nevertheless, always be an honest knowledge seeker by questioning yourself and then finding answers. This practice would help you at any stage of your career. Feel free to aptly discuss your doubts with others. Remember that even an expert could be fallible, and your discussion might add value. This skill, if used appropriately, can help you grow leaps and bounds.
- Howsoever lucky (or unlucky) you are, hard work and sincerity would never go unnoticed. In fact, even intelligence is not a substitute to hard work, i.e., even an intelligent guy needs to work hard in order to succeed in his career. Hard work and sincerity will never deceive, they will pay you back.
In my humble opinion if you patiently follow the above three mantras, sooner you will be able to achieve the well-deserved, satisfying and enduring success.
To conclude, I would like to quote Benjamin Franklin:
“An Investment in knowledge always pay the best interest”