Choosing to Challenge — A Choice for the Better

To say 2020 has been a difficult year would be an understatement. Each of us has faced challenge after challenge, both on personal and professional fronts. And yet, don’t challenge and adversity help us know what we are truly made of? That is perhaps why the theme for International Women’s Day this year is ‘Choose to Challenge’.

There is a huge difference between facing a challenge that life throws at you and one that you choose to take upon yourself. The first constitutes handling every situation with poise, dignity, and level-headedness. The second is more tricky, for it involves pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and taking up new roles and responsibilities for the sole purpose of self-development.

For as long as I can remember, I have belonged to the latter category. Growing up in a family of businesspeople gave me an early insight into taking initiative and leading from the front.

So, when it came to setting up my own venture, I chose to deviate from the conventional business modules and build a company that would contribute to women empowerment. Having faced many difficulties myself as a woman entrepreneur, I wanted to help other fellow women entrepreneurs benefit from my experiences. From employing women to help them create alternative sources of income, to sharing flexible marketing approaches, I created solutions and chose to challenge myself at every step of the journey.

It was not easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is. The secret is to overcome the fears that limit us. As a rule, we are highly reluctant to step outside our sphere and challenge ourselves to do something new. However, if we don’t, we become nothing more than passive spectators as life passes us by.

The moment we choose to challenge ourselves, we become hyper-aware of our situation, our strengths and weaknesses, and our best course of action. We take responsibility for our thoughts and actions. We consciously make decisions that positively impact our lives and those of the people around us.

In challenging myself, I found new and unorthodox ways to manage business. Furthermore, it also helped me be ready to weather external challenges, such as the global pandemic. Setting up and running a small, independent business already comes with its own set of hurdles, which were further exacerbated by the COVID-19 situation.

With the economic fallout, we lost several valued customers, as the focus shifted from marketing spending to basic operations management. Cashflow was severely affected due to a lack of sales. Our team had to push through collaboration barriers as the work-from-home culture set in. Data security concerns, employee engagement, work-life balance went for a toss as we found ourselves scrambling to coordinate in a post-lockdown world.

However, instead of getting discouraged by these problems, we chose to be motivated by the challenge and instill agility in our company values. We aligned our business model and our service verticals to the new normal and strove to create new revenue channels within our limited resources.

Through all these years, one thing has become evident, time and again. Be it small or cataclysmic, challenge brings change, and change is what leads us towards development. We can choose to lead the same life day in and day out, or we can choose to challenge ourselves and redefine the meaning of our existence. We can bend and grovel beneath social norms or we can choose to challenge them and fight for what is just and right.

Many reforms in women empowerment, such as gender equality, equal pay for all, and inclusive work culture are the result of someone challenging what they were told to believe and voicing their opinion.

They did their part in starting the journey. Now, it is our turn. On this International Women’s Day, let us all choose to challenge ourselves to change for the better, to create and live goals that we will be proud of, and contribute in whatever way we can towards empowering the women of the world!