Steemit.Chat Contest #14 + Contest #13 Winners Announcement!

The 13th contest was about sharing the biggest setback that you’ve faced in your professional career and how did you deal with it? There were some good entries and it was quite interesting to read through them and select 6 winners.

I was a little late on starting the 13th contest and hence I’m closing it a bit early to stay on schedule.

Congrats to these Steemians who won Contest #13:

1. @devilonwheels - I still remember those days of life. I had taken a loan and did re-construction of my home to get it ready for my marriage. However, I was suffering from depression & darkness due to various things going on in life and family for long. Then, my father met an accident and eventually lost his job. I was the only earning member left in the family. To make things worse, in 2008, I was on a stage in my job to either go onsite or quit the job. It became extremely difficult to focus, prepare & hunt a new job with all the sufferings in life & software industry being at a low. A hefty loan to pay & support my family, I took up the challenge and went into a cocoon with no connection to the outer world. In a month, I came up with three job offers & rebooted my life in next 7 months.

2. @dexterdev - I started my engineering degree education in 2004 and everything was going well. In the first year my results were also great. Then came the horrible days. In the beginning of 3rd semester I started showing symptoms of bipolar disorder and everything went upside down. I had to stop by classes and was under treatment. I rejoined with my juniors later, but was an average student by that time. I was unable to focus on studies, but still managed to somehow complete my degree. And then came recession period of 2008. I was unable to find a job and so spent months preparing for masters admission. And finally I was doing again better in academics. After my masters I switched my field and now doing PhD in computational biology. I am so happy to share this to others because those who undergo any experience like bipolar disorder in India usually don't get back to life easily especially in India. But it was possible for me because of my mom's support and good treatment which I got. Best wishes for everyone!

3. @vdux - About 4 years ago, I was turned down for promotion when my new boss brought on his own person instead of promoting me. They wanted “culture change” and, since I embodied the previous culture, targeted me. On a few occasions, they actually humiliated me. I kept my head down and worked with both of them to find ways I could help them with the things they wanted to do. I learned new dialogue strategies and figured out how to act the way they wanted, even though sometimes it felt disingenuous. Once I had rebuilt trust with the new management, I created an opportunity for me to lead the communications team for our division’s training program. The new role put me under another supervisor and further away from my second-level boss. I now make as much as my former boss and work on cooler projects for higher-ranking managers.

4. @free-ion - Being fit is one of the most important aspects of my Job in the Army, If one is unfit he can cannot command the same from the troops under command. How can you tell a guy to do something which you personally cannot do! As lead by personal example is the foundation of leaders, especially in the Army. I joined the Army 2005, though I was not into sports before, the training made me fitter and athletic. But in 2006 while paying football I injured by knee to an extent that I could hardly walk leave aside run or play for almost a year. That was a major setback, I lost all self confidence, was afraid to task my troops since I could not perform. Depression took over me, I stopped participating in central functions and kept myself closed in the office day in and day out. Obviously this had to stop, one fine day I decided that enough is enough, I need to get out if this, but how? thats where I started referring to fitness videos and articles on the internet and that when i decided to make a paradime shift in my lifestyle , first I and formost I needed to incorporate a fitness schedule keeping mind my knee issues, Yoga came to my rescue, I started following various yoga plans and finally settled on with Yoga Guru Baba Ramdevs weekly yoga schedule. And within a span of 6 months i was stronger, Fitter and more flexible. I could now do 100 Surya Namaskars in a go. I even started running 2-3 Km everyday. Now I realised that in addition to yoga I need to also look into my diets for better results, while going through all types of diets, I came to know about raw till four diet wherein one just has raw unprocessed food for breakfast and lunch ( Mono fruit meals,Smoothies ,Salads etc). It was logical, our bodies are such that natural unprocessed food allows immediate nutrition while reducing the energy consumption for throwing out unwanted food waste. I referred to books such as forks over knives and saw videos on youtube for a Chinese experiment. I referred following nationearth.com/earthlings-1/, forksoverknives.com The 80/10/10 diet (The 80/10/10 diet is a low-fat, raw, vegan diet that focuses on consuming raw food and carbohydrates. Those on the diet break up their calories as 10 percent fat and 10 percent lean protein. The other 80 percent comes from complex carbohydrates). Last two years I have been following this schedule now, and yes there are changes. Now I am fitter than ever and Yoga Teacher , A avid runner ( I have ran 6 Half Marathons last years---yeah working to improve on it), started cycling ( Cycled for 500km from Manali to Leh). SO all in all last year has been great. Professionally I am much more confident now and take part in all extra curricular activities along with troops. Thats a welcome and satisfying change.

5. @hungry-nomad - A year and a half ago, my company went bankrupt and stopped paying our salaries. Most employees were fired and the rest of them resigned. Having recently moved out of my probation period I didn't have much savings left to survive. Even then I decided to stay and help them overcome the scenario. They had helped me at such difficult times and always stood by me that it would've just been wrong to ditch them when they needed me the most. So, I stayed and helped them cover up the losses by delivering all the projects to the clients. The next 5 months were tough as hell! I worked for 3 months straight without a salary. I cut down my expenses and wiped clean my savings. But today, the struggles and hard-work has paid off well. We have successfully launched our own product and I even hold shares in it!

6. @finance2nomad - I thought my career was over when I got into a severe argument with my long-time boss, mentor and friend. Having worked for him and his company for more than 25 years, my situation was stable and genuinely rewarding. However, after the argument he casted a public nightmare vote of no-confidence in me and I had to leave the company. At the time, this was a huge setback for me, however I learned that standing still and resting on your laurels is helping your competition overtaking you. This was the clear go signal for initiating change in my life. I started my own company and it has grown into a firm with more than 1 million euro of revenue and more than 15 employees. The unexpected curveball of my mentor publicaly rejecting me has led me to enjoy life in ways never deemed possible.

I read some incredible stories in the entries and it was a very difficult decision to make. I'm so thankful to everyone who shared a little bit of their lives with me and other users of the Contest channel!

Winners please be patient until the previous contest post pays out and I find time to send out the sbds. I’m travelling a lot and timelines can get pushed forward sometimes.

Contest #14

Let's get on with the 14th contest and it’s quite simple. I'm sure many of you will participate in this. We’ll run this in the official contest channel on Steemit.Chat.

Share your experience!

1. 1 Entry per person.
2. Answer this Question: What is the nicest thing a stranger has done for you?
3. Maximum word count cap of 150 words. I will consider longer entries at my discretion based on context.
4. Post a single comment in steemitchat-contest channel with your entry.
5. You have until the next Monday till this post pays out or my announcement in the channel closing the contest (whichever is earlier).
6. There will be 6 winners. I will choose 6 responses that I like the most. Winners will get an equal split of the SBDs from this post.
7. Multiple entries will lead to disqualification so kindly post a single comment in the chatroom!
8. Contest will take place in steemitchat-contest channel on Steemit.Chat.

You are also welcome to drop more Steemit.Chat contest ideas in this post or in the contest channel and you may get some SBDs if your idea gets selected for a future contest.

Let contest #14 begin!

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If you like my work kindly resteem it to your friends. You may also continue reading my recent posts which might interest you:

1. India Steem Meetup #2—An Incredible Meetup In Bangalore—IT Capital of India!
2. 4 Tips For Steemit Account Recovery & Wallet Security!
3. Let's Talk—Why Are You Not Buying and Powering Up Steem?

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