Going anonymous for my own safety and probably the first question I felt like answering, after my friend suggested to have a look at quora.

So, I am a 32 year old man, who has seen the harsh truth of life at an early age. Back in my early 20’s, I was an average person who was highly motivated and dedicated. After my graduation, I started working on my startup project, at first I was alone but later a close friend of mine became my partner. We worked very hard on our project for a year, with no source of income. Still cutting our expenses through pocket money and savings. After our project was completely ready we started to look for investors as well as customers. But for 6 months we had no one showing interest in our business. All things planned were going down the hill.

I committed to my long term girlfriend, that we would get married 2 years after graduation, as her parents wanted to get their daughter married too soon. She was pressuring me to get married asap, or else her parents will fix her arranged marriage. But, I was living the lowest life. I had no money to spare, no place to live, I used to sleep in my friends flat. I was completely broke. I requested her to give me time of 6 months and I will figure out something. I had lost my hopes with the startup. I told my partner to pause the business. And I started to look for a decent job. But was not getting any leads from there too, as it was time of extreme recession. I was completely destroyed physically, mentally and emotionally. I was not getting any way out. I slept many nights with empty stomach. Sometimes, I used to sleep on bus stands, when my friend used to work on night shifts.

Suddenly, one day, I get a call from my girlfriend, and she was crying furiously. She said, her marriage was fixed. And she wanted to run away with me. I was stunned at this point, no words to say, emotionless. I was already broken and this news shattered me into pieces. I remember, I sat in a garden that day, and cried like a baby. Because, she was my first love and I always dreamt my life with her. But, I had to take a harsh decision. I wanted her to marry that guy, because I was a living piece of failure. And at that point in life I knew, I couldn't do anything in life. I called her up and after gathering some guts I told her to marry that guy and forget me. She was broken too, but I had to let her go for her own good. I stopped talking to her completely. And one day I got her marraige invitation card from a mutual friend. I went to her marraige, I was standing at the extreme corner so that no one could see me. I wanted to see her for the last time. I saw her getting married and went home, at my parents house. I was sobbing all the way in the bus journey.

I reached home, directly went on bed and kept crying. I had lost everything at that point in my life. I was almost suicidal. I was extremely low. I rarely had a chat with my parents. I never came out of my bedroom. I just slept all day and watched movies. One day, after lunch, my dad came into my room with a big cardboard box, it had my name written on it. He sat on my bed, besides me. And opened the box and spread all the things around. I was in wonder, what is he doing? Why is he doing that? Then he said, “son, you see this things, these toys, these miniature models,etc etc. these all are the things you always dreamt of having as a child, but I was making only enough money to feed you, I couldn't afford these for you. I used to work extra hours as a assistant even after 8 hours in office, just because I could give you the things that you wanted. I could have easily given up, and not give you these things, but I wanted to see you happy”. My dad with a heavy voice and teary eyes said, “son, what can I do for you, to bring that smile back on your face?”. I wept like a baby that time on my dad's shoulder. I couldn't just stop crying. He made me stop crying, and said, “son, it doesn't matter how many times or how bad you fail, it matters how many times you rise and fight back. Go out and fight back again, be a man, be a warrior, become hard like a rock, so that nothing can shatter you again”.

So, I went back to the world again, ready for a tough fight, alert to dodge anything and everything. I became a rock. I called up my partner and convinced him to restart our project. We worked hard non-stop, day and night, restless. Made a well designed business plan. Pitched to hundreds of investors and customers. I was like a fireball, who was just moving ahead destroying all the obstacles. And one fine day, early morning, my partner called me and in an extremely excited voice, he said, “we made it brother, we made it. The USA’s company we pitched is interested in our project, and the first order is for fucking $26M”. At that moment, I was having coffee in a café and my eyes got teary of happiness. I took a cab, and ran into my office. I was filled with joy and a new energy, on my way to office I was thinking of gifting something to the man who deserved this success the most, I decided to gift him his dream car, “the Mercedes s-class” as money was not an issue, finally. I called up a friend who was working in Mercedes-Benz and asked him, if there was any S-Class available for immidiate delivery. He was shocked at first, but I promised to tell him the whole story later and look for a S-Class first. I reached office, and as I entered the office, my best friend came running towards me crying, and hugged me. I was surprised to see her in my office firstly, then she said, “your dad had a severe heart attack, he is serious”. I broke into pieces that moment, I fell on ground, totally blanked. For a while, I thought they are playing a prank, but they were true. I didn't know, what to do, my brain stopped working. My best friend and my partner somehow put me in the car and we were off to my family's place. We were about to leave the city, just then the guy from Mercedes called up and said that my S-Class was ready. I insisted my friends to let me take that car and make dad happy again one last time. We went to the showroom, picked the car, my partner did all the paper work and we were off. During whole journey I was thinking about my dad's words he said to me, the last time we met. I called my uncle on the way to enquire about dad's health, he said, my dad was suffering from heart disease from a couple of months, but never told you because I was busy fighting my own battle. He didn't want to be an obstacle in my success.

I reached the hospital, I saw my dad lying on the bed. He was unconscious all this time, but when I brushed my hand against his head, he opened his eyes, which was a miracle like thing. He was looking at me, I showed him the Mercedes-Benz keys and said, “dad, I have finally made it, you have always given me everything, which money can never buy. You have always bought me things, I always dreamt of, today your son has bought you something you always dreamt of” handing him the keys, there were tears in his eyes. I was there with my dad & mom ever since, I didn't want to miss any moment of happiness with them, I wanted to see them happy always. After two weeks, dad got discharged. We went home happily, in the S-Class. He was so happy, like a baby. I had never seen him so happy. After that we enjoyed every moment of life, and business grew up & up after that. There was no looking back.

P. S.- it's a long story, but, this is the story of my life. The journey which made me what I am today.

Edits are welcomed.