From London School of Economics Classroom to Audemars Piguet (a Billion Dollar Company)

As a learner, I have always had interests and curiosities about different entities and situations in life. I always thought that the things that make me curious are the ones that I am really interested in. Well, later in life I discovered both of them have different meanings and different connotations. Interests entertain you as a person, your likings and dislikings, your personality and choices whereas curiosity is like finding an answer to something, solving a difficult riddle that makes you think outside of the box. Your interest can be a certain genre of books, travelling, sports whereas curiosity is that itch in your brain that makes you uncomfortable, an unanswered question that makes you stay up for nights, a mystery that you are dying to solve.

You STOP your learning process when you say, “I know everything”.

Being curious means that you know nothing, that you are trying to know everything that comes in touch with you, things that entice you, things that make you uncomfortable. One of the most electrifying facts about being curious is that it calls for action, to do something or if not doing, daring to do, or if not daring to do, asking out.

Later in life, I realised I am more interested in being curious. I realised that life is all about answering your curiosities, and if you find an interest in those curiosities, you become an everlasting learner; someone who is passionate, someone who is dauntless, someone who is experience-oriented, someone who is always ready to take risks and chances.

One such curiosity that always made me question people’s choices and made me uncomfortable is luxury items. I am not a very big fan of luxuries but the idea of branded items, expensive products and exorbitant entities have always intrigued me. Being an observer, I have always questioned people’s choice of buying the luxuries, the motivation behind it and the reason they associate with their choices. From a marketing and entrepreneurial lens, I question how the companies selling these grand, splendid items are able to trigger the interest of an individual towards their products and retain their customers for long.

So, one day I find out that the CEO of a luxurious brand of watches, Audemars Piguet, considered among the most expensive brand of Swiss watches, is coming to the London School of Economics where I am pursuing my Master’s degree in Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship. I get to know that he is bringing a watch of worth £280,000.00 with him for the talk. Being a marketing student, the question of how these luxurious brand of watches are able to attract and retain their customers has remained in my brain as an unsatisfied itch for ages now — the curiosity has developed itself as a monster now demanding a call for action that day, to ask a daring question from the CEO himself. I comprehended it as a perfect chance to satisfy my curiosity; to attend the talk and get the mystery solved.

Now, I find myself in a room where I am surrounded by unknown people, people I do not know, nor do they know me. But my focus is on my curiosity, my hunger for learning and my thirst for knowledge.

Curiosity spurs action, knowledge kills it. — Isaac

To be honest, I was not really interested in what the CEO was talking about — his company or the journey of bringing Audemars Piguet among the top selling brands of watches. I believe that the success stories are personalized, that everyone has a different way to get successful. My idea of success is to fail. Your idea of success may be persistence. Someone else’s idea of success might be loyalty or being fair. Hence, I preferred sitting back, reflecting on my curiosity and building up an act of courage to be bold.

And now, the talk has ended, the CEO has stopped talking, the storm for him has settled down as he asked if anyone in the room had a question for him. The storm for me started building up, I am afraid, my heartbeat is getting faster with the ticking clock, my hands shivering with the idea of being judged by people who do not know me. It is a do or die situation for me. I should rather run out of the room instead of embarrassing myself in front of these people who are going to nudge me with their judgements. But, this storm is just in my head — my brain is telling me to stop, to step back, to not dare, to shut up.

Do. Or do not. There is no try! — Yoda

Keeping this in mind, I raise my hand with a million voices in my head making me afraid of my own choice, my own curiosity. But you know what I did? I chose not to ‘not do’. I chose not to just ‘try’. I chose to DO.

Sometimes you find yourself in a situation where you are trying to make a difference, taking a chance and daring to be out of your comfort zone. That is when you are actually taking your life in your control — making every next moment bow before you. I took life in my hands when I decided to be bold; to embarrass myself in the room of unknown and to step out of my comfort zone forgetting about the circumstances. Now, this takes your energy; both physical and mental. Physically you observe your heart pounding, your hands shivering or you experiencing a temporary cataract. While mentally, your brain is constantly pushing you back, you hear a loud ‘NO’ in your head telling you that ‘you are going to make yourself sound stupid in front of others’ and you are spending your mental energy to tell your brain to stop. You are going against the odds, fighting your fear, forgetting about the consequences and being fearless. And at that moment, you are becoming the best version of yourself.

I stood up and asked him, ‘Would you mind selling me this £280,000.00 watch? I want to see your sales approach on how you sell such an expensive watch convincing people to actually buy it.” In reaction, I hear a wave of hush inside the room, pin-drop silence.

The philosophers are wrong: it is not words that kill, it is silence. — Elie Wiesel

At that moment I realised, my silence would have killed me so it is better to get killed by someone’s words than to commit suicide. I was expecting him to throw me out of the room or to tell me that how can I not know the sales approach of the brand. People buy AP watches blindly and if I don’t buy it that is none of his concern. The silence of people was killing me differently, I was trying to take a step ahead, to comprehend what they would be thinking of me; stupid, witless etc. My inside assumptions were making me lose confidence while on the outside, I was doing my best to be bold. To not care about people’s judgement. To be a rock that breaks waves. It was a battlefield; my behaviour was fighting with my thoughts and assumptions. However, I now see the CEO, Francois-Henry Bennahmias, looking at me with a smile. He starts to speak up and what he said changed my view of asking questions.

He who asks questions remains a fool for five minutes. He who does not ask questions remains a fool forever. — a Chinese Proverb

The CEO invited me to visit his Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland to discuss his sales approach and make me learn how the company has developed along all these years in retaining their customers and bringing the brand to the top. In a room full of unknown people, I intrigued them all to know me now just at the expense of a question. My curiosity rewarded me with a lifetime experience of lessons that it takes courage to dare. The world does not remember people who think too much or those who feel too much. The world remembers those who actually do something, who step out of their comfort zones, fight their inner fear and jump the high cliff not knowing what is going to happen next.

The most talented place in the world, where you find all sorts of talents, is a graveyard — there is so much untapped talent that died because they did not try.

Life is unpredictable but our actions are in our control. Life will take you to unexpected turns, turns that you would never have imagined you would ever take. Life, as we know it, is not in our control like the debatable rivalry of fate and destiny. One time, you think, you are controlling everything that is going on around you but the other times, you are in the control of how life is driving you around twists and turns.

And that is how my curiosity drove me from my crowded classroom to sitting in the headquarters for a billion dollar company. Watch the vlog below: