Resilience and Persistence are Key in the Entrepreneurial Journey

AUTOLAB – our baby, started with our belief that with our experience in the automobile industry for long years (RP Hazarika too had been part of Hyundai and has spent 14 years in the automobile parts business) we can provide the same level (and in fact more) of service quality to automobile customers who want another choice apart from the OEM dealers. However, these customers do not want to take risks by taking their car to the many road side garages that are dotting the city. 

After clearing Class 10 from Don Bosco School, Guwahati and my Higher Secondary from Cotton College (in 1999), the first of many decision-making instances presented in front of me. Should I be a doctor or an engineer (thinking back; actually, in our times we hardly thought beyond these after being a science student) was the first decision to be taken. After clearing the engineering entrance (by securing relatively average marks) I wondered whether to study at Assam Engineering College or retry the next year for a seat in any of the prestigious RECs? (IIT was anyways out of the consideration for me). Finally I settled to study Mechanical Engineering from Assam Engineering College, Jalukbari. Before you start wondering about how I became an entrepreneur I must reiterate that it was just the power of an idea that had seeded in my mind through casual conversation with my classmate.

We were two friends getting philosophical under a tree (our Bodh Vriks–the Enlightenment Tree that we now allude to it as) inside the Industrial Estate of Bamunimaidan. This in short was our Adda place. The flagship engineering colleges of Assam were not good in terms of placements and we instantly realised that we were not interested in a job. We will create jobs! We wanted to do something in the IT industry- our goals were getting cleared.

I got the first taste of working in a Start Up – not exactly what is defined as a 'Start-up' now a days; after I graduated with Honours in Mechanical Engineering (in 2003) from AEC and started working for a MSME – Brahmaputra Automobiles Private Limited. This MSME manufactured scooter parts like floor, stands, engine guards etc. To me BAPL was a start up because its owner was an engineering graduate from Jorhat Engineering College and instead of going for a sage and secure job, he opted to open an industry in a state like Assam – which is not so famous for its industries. This again motivated me and ignited an unseen flame inside me. Working there made me realise that I was a better salesman rather than an engineer and this gave a new twist to my life.

I pursued my post graduate in management specialising in marketing and finance from Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management in 2004-2006 and then enrolled myself to a corporate journey specialising in network expansion, network management, training, mentoring, advising, manpower management, marketing and primary sales with some of India's best automobile giants – Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Motors and finally Maruti Suzuki India Limited. I pursued my corporate stint till 2019. It was thirteen long years of travelling, meeting and knowing many businessman, professionals, skilled and unskilled workers etc. and more importantly getting to learn endlessly from the many challenges and hardships that came our way.

These years had hardened me and made me think and introspect. I felt that I was ready to live my dreams. I had touched 40, but still felt like a teenager. Finally with the belief that I was prepared with the entire arsenal (owing to my experience) I embarked into the entrepreneurial domain with the zeal of a young boy. I relocated to Guwahati from Ahmedabad just before Diwali in 2018. I had started a multi brand car servicing centre along with two of my friends – Firoj Hussain Choudhury (whom I knew from my Maruti days) and RituParna Hazarika (who was my junior in AEC), in the summer of 2018 and had fondly named it – AUTOLAB.

AUTOLAB – our baby, started with our belief that with our experience in the automobile industry for long years (RP Hazarika too had been part of Hyundai and has spent 14 years in the automobile parts business) we can provide the same level (and in fact more) of service quality to automobile customers who want another choice apart from the OEM dealers. However, these customers do not want to take risks by taking their car to the many road side garages that are dotting the city. With the promise and commitment of providing value for money service we embarked on the journey and the journey still continues with thousands of repeat customers who have now become our friends and well-wishers. Without the many friends and family, we have made in the last four years and their best wishes, surviving the many storms un-scratched would not have been possible.

Talking of storms – as soon as I landed in Guwahati after the 'Jump of Faith,' Bandhs and Dharnas in the form of CAB/ CAA agitations greeted me. I and my partners did not lose heart. Also our past experiences had hardened us and we knew that better days would come. Hence we waited with shutters closed for a month or two. Our resilience paid. Things became normal and we went for a business trip to Delhi to develop parts suppliers for luxury cars in the month of March, not knowing that our return flight to Guwahati was to be one of the last few before a long long time.

The unthinkable, the never heard of before, something that can never be anticipated happened – we were stuck by a nation wide shut down! Covid happened.

Business during Covid taught me one major life lesson – We cannot plan anything and everything. We, as entrepreneurs can survive and thrive only and only if we are able to face/ dodge and take head on anything and everything that time and circumstances throw at us. Using all resources at one's disposal to find solutions is the cardinal attribute of an entrepreneur.

Only four years in business has taught me far more about life than the many years I had spent in the corporate world – simply because of the fact that in business unlike a job, I alone am responsible for my existence.

Pulakesh Rai Choudhury.

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