From a person who worked as an accountant and studied like a regular student all his life and yet never let his dream out of his sight, from no where to the being the Co-founder/Editor of CricTracker, the journey of Ankit Mishra has been nothing less than an inspiration to many. Read what he has to say about his journey:
Take us back to the old days, share your life before CricTracker
The time before CricTracker happened I was trying to do a lot of things. I was a student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Commerce in Mumbai, parallelly studying for Company Secretary professional course. Along with that I also worked as an accountant and assisted my brother who had recently set up his professional practice in the same industry.
While doing all that I always found time, stole time on occasions, worked while traveling, cut down sleep time and what not just to follow my passion for cricket. Gradually the time I dedicated to CricTracker was a priority and here we are today.
What made you choose this industry?
From a very young age wanted to play cricket, the professional dream never took shape. All the while I was studying or for that matter doing anything, it was always on the back of my mind that it’d be amazing if I can ever work around cricket and make a living out of it.
I was a big-time reader in my teens, never missed my daily dose of the newspaper (back in 2010-11) which always started from the sports page specifically cricket and was constantly reading a book or the other across genre. That made me believe I can write as well. CricTracker was my first exposure to writing and soon realized it comes naturally to me.
It was never about choosing the industry, it was always about how I can be around cricket.
What was the turning point for you?
The turning point for not just me but for all of us at CricTracker was the 2015 World Cup. We were just a team of four back then but we worked with the dedication of 40. The hours we put in, the efforts it all paid off dividends and after the end of the tournament, we were in a position to turn our passion into our profession. Syed Sujjad, the CEO/Founder of CricTracker, Social Media Head Sai Kishore, other members and I decided to put a halt on what we were doing in our other lives and make this our mission.
Share some life lessons you experienced during your journey.
First and the most important lesson is to put your head down and keep going. We didn’t know how things would fall in place, how we will make it large or will this dream even materialize. That was all beyond our control. What was in our control was to put in the hard yard and we did that. Just with that, I’ve learned to believe in the process and not the outcome.
You can live a dream. From the time CricTracker happened to this day, I’ve been living a dream, the kind of life I always wanted to create, in terms of career, profession, my own development as well as financially. I’ve asked for it and have got it!
Learn – I am a firm believer that if you want to grow and progress in life you need to keep learning. I use reading and personal development as my mode for learning. This hunger to learn always keeps you on the track to improve from your current state.
Share some tips for people wanting to make their careers in sports niche in the Digital World
It is really important that you know what you want to do. I come across a lot of young people who want to work in the sports niche but are not sure how they can contribute. Unless you are clear on that it becomes really difficult to shape a career.
A practical tip is to combine your expertise and passion. Someone who is good with technology and has a passion for sports can work on developing innovation with tech, someone who can write can opt for a writing career and so on.
Also, give it time and have a vision on where you want to take it. Don’t try to shape your career based on how someone else has done it, you won’t become that. The best you can be is yourself, so that should be pretty clear in your head.
