It was tough to hear about the economic slowdown immediately after registering for a new company. TheGritConsulting was registered on 31st Jan 2020 and while I was busy settling administrative works, Singapore raised DORSCON alert to orange which created additional challenges. Ongoing discussions with potential clients were put on hold unexpectedly. More bad news followed which put tremendous pressure and forcing me to review our company business model to meet constantly evolving uncertainties of the market.
Other factors around day to day life also affected my peace of mind, adding on to my already mounting inner fears.
Health condition:
As a chronic kidney patient on daily medication, my condition is managed under regular reviews of a specialist. In February 2020, I was requested to undergo an ultrasound scan out of the blue. While waiting for the results, I received a call from the hospital requiring me to undergo a CT Scan as part of further investigation of my medical condition. This took a toll and dragged me to start thinking more about the worst possibilities. Frantic searches on the internet got me into more scary thoughts about my condition and diverted full attention to my health. The results of the CT Scan are still awaited, keeping me worried at times.
Online Lectures:
I have been teaching Project Engineering at the Chemical Engineering department for the past many years at University. With this Covid-19 situation, all face to face classes were canceled and moved online with recorded lectures.
The biggest challenge faced was to review all the lecture slides and presentation material to suit online delivery. Having a face to face class interactions is considered as one of the best approaches to convey message since it is much easier to explain the concepts during interactive sessions. Also, as teachers we can gauge understanding of the students through some discussions during the class. Now the class is not in front of you and most of the time we hardly had 30% attendees in online lectures.
This was another stressful exercise to be run in a limited timeframe of ongoing classes.
Website development:
One of the important steps recognized while approaching the clients was to have a company website in place. Hence, a web designer was engaged to develop TheGritConsulting website in an agreed time frame. Unfortunately, after wasting almost 3 months, expected results were not delivered despite being charged the full amount. My comments on the draft were not considered and the site went live without my knowledge. This frustration drove me to learn to develop a website on my own.
I soon came to realize that it was not as tough as I thought and in fact the process turned out to add on to my journey to learn something new. Do check out the company website at www.thegritconsulting.com which is up and running.
Thanks to some of my wonderful friends in different parts of the world for their valuable comments to improve this website. Please have a look and share your comments as I am open to improve and learn from your experiences.
Training delivery certification:
With current situations around Covid-19, it was observed that many working professionals were not neglecting their training needs. Singapore SkillsFuture is one of the well-recognized platforms for upgrading skills through training programs and we wanted to be part of it as training providers. It is required to have relevant qualifications, experiences, and valid credentials to be a certified training provider.
I had many years of teaching experience at schools and universities in Singapore and Brunei. A few years back as appointed program director, I had developed and delivered an Oil & Gas training program at University in Brunei for students. The objective was to bridge the gap between academic and industry expectations for fresh graduates. This program helped students to develop industry skills and improve their employability. This program was well recognized, and I was invited as a speaker at QS World Conference to share details. The synopsis was shared at the World Economic Forum under Sustainability talk. Later, I developed and currently running the Project Engineering module at University in Singapore at the Chemical Engineering Department.
With all the above contributions in academia and many other training modules delivered in industry, I applied for the certification. This was not an easy process of preparing submissions and attending assessment reviews.
After a series of steps to be followed, finally I received my Institute for Adult Learning Singapore (IAL) certification to deliver registered trainings in April 2020.
Short training/ talks:
As part of reviewing our company’s proposed business model to meet the current changing environment due to the Covid-19 situation, training needs targeted at upgrading skills were identified as one of the key areas which fall under our strengths.
Graduating students and fresh graduates are worried about their future with a lack of direction while working professionals are concerned about losing their job. On the other hand, employers are concerned about increasing efficiency and productivity even in situations of the reduced workforce. We strongly believe that at this juncture it would be helpful to gain insights on topics such as:
a. Managing job interviews.
b. Negotiating salary in current situations.
c. Preparing for your first job; understanding cultures, office politics, systems, etc.
d. Communication for Engineers in day to day life; importance, pitfalls, solutions, approach, etc.
e. Planning for Long Term career path; avoiding pitfalls, carving out your career path out of a role you did not want, researching the industry, approaching industry leaders to seek guidance, etc.
f. Importance of relationship-building to grow in career.
g. Value Engineering in projects; Understanding concepts, implementing on projects, recording and follow-up ideas, closing out the final reports.
h. Improving efficiency and productivity.
i. Other topics.
Overcoming fears and stress:
During this lockdown with no new business prospects, fears of failure started developing in my mind. With no income since the past many months, health condition without clarity, cancellation of proposed work assignments, website not delivered after paying and Covid-19 made every hope shut down, I started to dwell into negative thoughts and reached a point where I could not concentrate on anything anymore.
My stress was developing into early signs of depression where I could sleep for almost 14 hours a day. This continued for a few days and I started feeling weak as if no energy were left in me to even stand and walk.
One fine morning while sitting alone, I asked myself what do I want? Is this what I quit my job for? Am I not dwelling into some sort of negative thoughts that may pull me and my health down? This was an awakening to do something about it otherwise could lead to some unpleasant results. I gathered myself and stood up to do some simple exercise to sweat out. After 30 min workout and shower, I felt better to realize that maintaining positive energy is so important to live on.
Most of the time stress is developed by our own internal fears of not achieving something. The best way to manage stress is to set the expectations right and work towards your goals with a healthy mind.
There are many things in life we do not have control over, and sometimes frantic internet searches add to our own stress levels without being qualified to predict the actual results.
I decided to stop pressurizing myself about the health conditions and to consider “no news as good news” since it is being monitored by my specialist and most of the time any serious condition would be dealt with urgency.
The usage of technology to work remotely is getting accepted in all the industries and will set the path forward for the future. This painful learning of online tools will not go waste and add to my knowledge.
Making some adjustments to the original business plan had helped me to understand the dynamics of a continuously unpredictable life. We should be prepared for surprises and to be ready to accommodate ourselves with flexibility.
Today, I feel more confident to go through this trying phase which made me more capable of handling challenges in the future. I will keep sharing more with you about my journey of life in the near future.
Thanks for reading.
Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments.
Regards,
Ravish Maqsood
TheGritConsulting Pte.Ltd.
Singapore