Sometime in the 80s/90s, the Governments in India stopped hiring people as "direct Government employees", excluding certain sections. They were lucky. The entire system got screwed, but that another day, another topic.
But, all people do not come under the "Lucky" category. There are talented people and people who have "uncles" in high places. Government employees in India get their jobs through influence. Another story, for a later day.
A few officers (In India, they have an exam for everything except ministers !), who are smart, talented do work with external agencies/ companies for certain projects as they do know that the employees of the organization can do almost nothing :)
So, when I meet this officer about 10 years back, he really liked my work and could not believe the price but was not sure about giving me more work. When I asked him why, he look at me and says, "All you young and talented people run away from the country to the US/ Europe for education and work."
I was taken aback. It was a sort of compliment (I was 29, at the time, no beard, long hair), and broke! and, for anyone to assume that "I" had the money for a plane ticket, was amazing. Anyway, I did tell him that I had studied abroad and come back to start my own company. He again repeated, "That is ok. You are too young. You will get tired and run away."
I did realize much much later that the reference to "tired" was the fact that absolutely nothing moves in the government. Irrespective of money or your uncle having influence. You will have to massage everyone's EGO. Every single person's.
Back to the story, I luckily caught the use of "young" twice! Then I asked him how old he thought I was. He replied 21/22. When a broke guy gets a compliment, they never forget it. After convincing him that I would not run away, he half-heartedly agreed. He was smiling too.
From that day, I cut my hair, wore formals, grew a beard. People have perceptions. You can either devote your life to trying to convince everyone to change or you can transform, build a relationship, and slowly make them understand.
