Former managing director of Google and Twitter, Parminder Singh, recently shared a life lesson he learnt from his time as a sales manager at Apple. Singh recently explained 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," Singh tweeted. Sen was then the marketing director for Unilever India and later the CEO of the marketing consultancy firm, Quadra Advisory.
"Let me first explain the embarrassment," Singh wrote on Twitter. "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." Singh said that many "devoted fans" of Apple wanted to visit the office and he would always evade their requests until he met Sen.
At that time, Sen was setting up Quadra Advisory and got in touch with Singh to buy Apple's Macbooks.
"I found him exactly how I had imagined him to be, sharp, witty, quirky," Singh recollected, adding that within a couple of days, Sen placed an order for iMacs and iBooks, and even accepted to deliver the keynote at the latest iMac launch.
On the launch day, as Singh accompanied him from the entrance of Hotel Le Meridian to the event hall, Sen told him, "Hey, I haven't ever visited your office. I would love to come over for a coffee." Singh replied hesitantly that his office was tiny. "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'," Singh told Sen.
To this, Sen 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, Singh wrote on Twitter. "The lesson has stayed with me ever since! Stay focused on the value you create. Everything else eventually falls in place," he said.
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