1. He was twenty-two years old, had no money, had just graduated from college, and needed to find a job. He was told that it was a tough economy with the economic recession.

2. "Jobs are hard to find these days, Koustubh," people told him. At a conference he attended, he heard a business leader say to them; the hungry students,

   "I know you've been told that there are not a lot of jobs out there. But I want to tell you something very important. Listen closely. You don't need a lot of "jobs"... you only need to find one."

3. With a smile on his face and a positive attitude, he got busy looking for a job in sales. He had decided to look for a job but his focus was the education industry because he had heard they paid well and were global companies. He always had this vision of himself working in the International division of a big global company.
4. After several months of searching, he was staring at a pile of rejection mails that were gathering dust in his free mail box in the small village of Jharkhand. He was tired. Tired of being rejected and told he was too young or too inexperienced. He was starting to get frustrated and angry and blamed the business world and the system for not giving him a chance.
5. As he started to stare in frustration at his mail home page, the rejection mail on top of the pile caught his eye. He noticed it was from a company called Iok Education in Navi Mumbai. it read something like this:

"Dear Koustubh;

Thank you for applying for the position of Business Development Executive with our company. While we appreciate your application, we cannot offer  you an interview at this time due to your lack of experience for this position. We wish you good luck in your future."

Sincerely, Keshav

Head of Regional Business Development "

6. He stared at the mail and noticed a phone number at the very bottom of it. It was the phone number that must have been included in the template and a curious thought occurred at that moment: Why don't he call him?
7. Don't be ridiculous, his mind shouted back. You can't just call him. You'll embarrass yourself. You're nobody. He's the Regional Business Development for this big company.
8. As he was about to be discouraged and delete that thought of calling him, another curious thought appeared in his mind: What's the harm? 
9. What do you have to lose? 
10. Full of hope that the simple question filled him with, He picked up the phone and called the number at the bottom of the mail. No planning. No rehearsal. Not thinking about what he was going to say. Just called.
11. He was twenty-two years old, didn't have a job, did have a rejection letter, and worked at the Kirana shop of Marwadi immigrants who were trying to survive in the world. And He called the Head of Regional Business Development.
12. The phone rang and the secretary picked up. May I speak to Mr Keshav please, He asked. Who's calling, please?
13. Hi, my name is Koustubh and I am calling to speak with Mr Keshav.
14. What is this about, may I ask?
15. He would like to speak to Mr Keshav about an interview. How did you get our number, may I ask?
16. Well, he sent him this very nice email and his phone number was at the bottom of the mail.
17. What mail did you receive? What did it say?
18. With a smile, he read her the mail informing her that it was a rejection letter.
19. Well, honey, I'm sorry but I can't help you. He sent you that mail already.
20. OK. Thank you very much, Ma'am. He hung up the phone.
21. He was disappointed. But still, he was overcome with this little bit of joy. He had done it. He called. He hadn't been afraid. He had done it. Thrilled at doing this simple task, he couldn't wait to try it with someone else.
22. But just then He realized that if He could call her once, why not call her again?
23. And so, over the course of the next three or four weeks, he called the secretary of the Head of Regional Business Development, asking her day in and day out to speak to him. He said, just give him a chance ma'am. He only wants an interview. I'll work for free. He just wants a shot. Only an interview- He told her time and time again.
24. Weeks went by and she got to know him well and started to anticipate his calls. Until one day, instead of saying no, she said yes. She said YES! He got on the phone for five minutes with the head of Regional Business Development and asked him for an interview. He said, you know, you've been pretty persistent with his secretary and he can't say no to that. You have an interview in one month's time. Show up in our regional office in Patana at 8.00 a.m. on Friday and you'll have that interview.
25. He had done it. He was able to get an interview for a BDE job at IoK. Even after being rejected.
26. Now he had to prepare.
27. Curiosity is the spark. It gets you in the door. You have to walk through it prepared. It is fueled by learning.
28. He had a clear goal: get a BDE job at IoK. It wasn't easy because in 2025, IoK didn't hire anyone just out of college. It wasn't going to be an easy interview. He was excited, thrilled, nervous, and didn't know where to begin.

Luck byte

Nothing focuses your work like a clear and distinct goal. 

Make your goal as specific and compelling as possible.

29. Again, his curiosity led him to ask, "What kind of person do they want to hire? What skills or traits would that person have? If it is a strong salesperson, then what are the skills that all successful salespeople have?"

Luck byte

Remember, curiosity is not about me-it's about them. What do they need? What do they want? What makes a great salesperson? He didn't ask: What should He put on his resume? What knowledge should he have on the company? Because that's basic. But to be obsessively curious: learn and dig deeper on a more fundamental level. He asked: What makes a salesperson great?

30. So, he started with YouTube videos and free Pdfs. He set out on a journey to learn. Learn about what it took to be a super successful sales rep. To be a winner in the field of sales. He started reading books and journals and researching articles written by the best authors and experts in the field of sales.
31. Each evening, on the way back home from working at his parents' Kirana shop, he stopped at the back of the village temple and stayed there until closing time. In between serving customers and hauling the grain bags, he read pdfs in the back of the shop about behaviors and traits of successful salespeople. He read all about the education industry. About Iok and Grioki.
32. In preparation for the interview, he threw himself into deep learning and started to understand the core behaviors and traits of successful salespeople. He took lots of notes and filled more than three notebooks with ideas and examples of how salespeople became successful. Ideas on persistence, communication skills, adapting to the customers' needs, determination, positive attitude, and more. He didn't realize it at the time but investing that time studying provided him with a crucial knowledge of success He had never been taught.
33. On one sheet of paper, He summarized the ten or fifteen traits that He had collected through reading thirty or more books over the course of the four weeks leading to the interview.
34. Instead of just printing out a resume, He created a presentation that was titled, "Top 10 Reasons to Hire Koustubh". Each of the ten slides contained one trait that was important in successful salespeople. And under each point, He listed bullet points of how He learned these behaviors and traits based on his experience working in his family's Kirana shop or during his college days.
35. It was essentially a sales presentation on why they should hire him. It took countless hours studying for one interview for one hour.

The Interview

36. On the day of the interview, he was nervous but never more prepared in his life. The interviewer was a man named Omkar, who was the BDE for IoK in Ranchi. He had recently been promoted to Zonal head of Business Development after three years working as a successful BDE himself. He was not only knowledgeable and smart, but he was also charismatic and brutally honest. He was a tough Jharkhandi, born and raised in the Ranchi city.
37. After exchanging some initial pleasantries, they began the interview. He began with the basic question "Tell him about yourself". He answered in an unusual way. He said he had prepared a presentation for him and would like to present it. He didn't mind and asked him to go ahead.
38. He told him that in preparation for this interview, he had studied long and hard about what it takes to be a successful salesperson and read many books and came up with the top ten traits. He shared these with him and asked, "Would you agree that these 10 traits are very important to be a successful salesperson?" He answered yes and he started his presentation.
39. He explained how, over the course of his life, as short as it had been at the time, he had gained these exact traits through his experience in life, highlighting the specific trait and the bullet points that went with it.
40. For instance, He learned the trait "excellent communication skills" through working at his family's Kirana shop, interacting with customers, training the other staff and also dealing with suppliers and vendors who were older than him.
41. As he went through each trait, he tried his best to explain how he had these traits within him waiting to come out to serve. At the end of his presentation, he summed up by asking him, "So, Mr. Omkar, would you agree that he demonstrated that he has the skills and traits to be a successful salesperson?" He answered, "Yes".
42. "So, will he get the job?" He asked, politely but firmly.
43. He smiled and said, "I like what you're doing. Closing him. But I haven't asked you anything yet. Why don't I ask you a few questions and then we can figure out the answer to your very good close?" he stated.
44. They went through another half hour or so of questions and at the end, he asked him if he would give him the job.
45. He told him that he couldn't tell him right away because he wanted him to meet with someone else that morning.
46. After waiting for a couple of hours, he met with his regional Head and proceeded to present his case as he had done hours before ending with the same question: Do he get the job?
47. Both smiled and said, we'll let you know in a few days and thanked him with a firm handshake and bid him goodbye.
48. He left the IoK regional office exhausted that Friday afternoon. He headed home with a feeling of satisfaction that he had done all he could, although he was a little disappointed that they didn't give him a yes right away.
49. At about 8.00 p.m. that night, he received a call from the Zonal Head of Business Development, Mr. Omkar, offering him the job. He couldn't believe it. Without asking for the details of the offer, he accepted the job immediately with a feeling of joy and happiness.
50. He had done it. He had gotten a job at IoK, that too in the time of recession, difficult competition, and great odds. In a week's time, he received the official offer letter from the company. Only a few months ago, he held the rejection letter from this company in the same hand. A kid in Jharkhand who had worked at his family's Kirana shop, a poor Marwadi shop, had gotten a shot at a professional job in a global company.
51. The lesson in this story is that curiosity is nothing grand and mysterious. It is fairly simple and requires neither money nor connections nor any other resources but an eager mind willing to listen to the question that many of us think about: What if?
52. What if he called that number? What if he keeps calling?
53. What if he actually gets an interview? What is it they want?
54. What's the secret of successful salespeople? 
55. What does the customer really want? 
56. How can he serve better?
57. These questions were what He was after, and trying to understand the answer is what led him to be "lucky" enough to get his first job with IoK. And the same curiosity helped him to become a #1 sales rep in a field of thousands, to grow into other roles at IoK, create new departments, rapidly boosting his career in the one of the 30 largest educational institutions in the world.

Summary

58. Be obsessively curious. Curious about how things work. Explore "what if' moments, "why not?" thoughts. Let the curiosity of life and business lead you down a path of exploration, discovery, and understanding.
59. Ask. Read. Call people. Stop wasting time watching TV and get busy reading and learning about life.
60. Follow that spark of curiosity quickly because it only flashes for a second. Be alert to it and follow it down the rabbit hole.
61. Leave the outside world behind and follow the light down the dark hole of learning.
62. Be consumed not by the notifications on your cell phone or social media but by the desire to learn.
63. Curiosity creates a complex and intricate web of neurons in our minds, helping us learn and understand Information at a subconsciously deep level. Being curious opens up our mind to new learning, new contacts and makes our mind more fertile for new Ideas to develop.
64. Curiosity leads us down a path of discovery uncovering hidden jewels of opportunity.
65. Having a deep desire to learn for the sake of understanding, not for the sake of money, helps us to uncover opportunities that can create great prosperity and success later on, not only in the world of sales but in growing a successful career in the corporate world.

Curiosity Accelerates Success In Sales Career

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