There is a Tamil proverb which says: If you keep hitting it, even the ammi will move. (Ammi is a large grind stone usually not moved from its position).
In the early seventies we were one of the leading repairers of electric motors and were
catering to industries in and around Chennai.
My friend Ranga (Ramasubbu Ranganathan) joined us and he was assigned the task
of adding one major client over a particular time frame and the company was ECC,
a L&T group company.
The company was less than 2 Kms from our workshop and Ranga used to cycle down to
their office once or twice a week. After about a dozen visits nothing much happened. The Purchase Officer in-charge used to say "No, nothing has come up yet". Sometimes he would
say "Well, there came a motor yesterday and we gave it away since you didn't come" or something very much like that.
So our company Chairman Mr. P. Prabhkar told him: "Look, Ranga. Make it a habit to leave office exactly by 10 AM everyday without fail, If you have any urgent work, delegate it to Bhargav or somebody else. Meet Mr. Tully every day and just ask him if you could be of help to him. Spend a minute or two and come back."
Ranga did just that and we got our first motor after about ten visits. And after that with our timely service and good work we used to get regularly work from them. The daily visits turned to weekly and fortnightly visits.
We youngsters were thrilled. Our Chairman had taught us the mantra: Try and try and you will succeed.
Nothing succeeds like success!
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