The Power of Falling & Rising: Lessons from My Own Career

One of those words I hope you all never experience in your career, “We’re having to let you go”. Yet, here I am — having lived through it, not once but twice. And to be honest, it shook me. Not because I didn’t expect challenges in my professional journey, but because I had always prided myself on persistence, resilience, and finding a way through.

But life has its own way of humbling us.

When I was asked to step away from a role I had poured myself into, it felt like the ground had been pulled from under me. For days, I couldn’t find my rhythm, I did not know what to do when I woke up. The confidence that once felt second nature suddenly felt like a distant memory.

But after all this time, as I sit here writing this, I realize that falling was the best thing that could have happened to me.

Why Falling Is Not the End

In our culture, we are conditioned to see falling as failure. We hide setbacks, skip over losses, and celebrate only the wins. But the truth is, falling is not the opposite of success — it is part of it.

When a small child takes its first steps, each stumble, each tumble, is a step towards balance. Somewhere along the way, as adults, I think that we forget that. We start treating our fall as shameful, instead of seeing them as a challenge, as progress markers.

My layoff reminded me that falling is feedback. It showed me blind spots, made me pause, and forced me to ask myself: What’s next? What do I really want?

The Rising Matters More Than the Fall

Falling tests you. Rising defines you.

When I looked back at my career, I realized this wasn’t the first time I had faced uncertainty. I’ve been in roles where targets looked impossible, where campaigns failed, where strategies had to be torn apart and rebuilt.

Each time, I found a way. Not because I had all the answers, but because I refused to stop trying and that is what rising is all about — the refusal to stay down. Resilience is not a trait you’re born with, it is a muscle you build and every fall is an opportunity to strengthen it.

The 3Rs Framework That Helped Me Rise

I call it the 3Rs of Resilience:

1. Reflect – Pause, ask yourself: What went wrong? What can I learn? What can I change within myself to become better and avoid this again, instead of “Why me”?. The answer to which we’ll never get. Self reflection can often turn pain into wisdom.
   
2. Reset – Starts with acceptance. Accepting that what has happened, has happened and that there’s nothing you can do about it. Accept what’s lost, and stop clinging. Resetting means creating space, giving way for something new.
   
3. Rise – Every Step Counts. You will stumble & tumble but it’s about stepping forward again, even if small. Rising is not about bouncing back instantly — it’s about taking one step at a time.

I’ve always used this framework, told my wife when she had a tough time at work and I believe that this has helped me not just in my career, but in life and I share it now because each of us will fall at some point. What matters is how we rise.

A Story of Shiva: Destruction Before Renewal

Spirituality & our mythology has always been personal and also a guide for me. I try to find learnings and meaning in every story and similarly I found something in the story of Lord Shiva drinking the Halahala, the poison during the Samudra Manthan (Churning of the Ocean).

The poison would have destroyed creation. Instead, Lord Shiva absorbed it, carrying the burden within himself, so that the world could continue. Out of that destruction came renewal — treasures, gems, and eventually amrita (nectar of immortality).

This story reminds me that sometimes we have to embrace chaos, even pain, because what follows is often transformation. Our own “falls” carry within them the seeds of renewal.