Please take your time to read this. I’m lost and desperately need some serious advice.
I’m a 23-year-old guy living in Mumbai, and I really need some advice because I feel completely lost right now.
My family owns three salons in Mumbai, and I’ve recently started working there. I’m learning the business and trying to build my own clientele. Since I’m relatively new, I’m taking things slowly because I don’t want to mess up my clients’ hair or lose their trust. In the last two months, I’ve managed to build a client base of around 30 people, which I thought was a decent start.
However, it’s not enough yet. For the past two days, none of my personal clients have come in. The salon itself is doing fine, but I still feel discouraged because I’m trying to establish myself.
Today was already going badly when a regular customer, an older gentleman, walked into the salon and saw me sitting free. He asked, “What are you doing? You look pretty free today. Is it because it’s Saturday?”
I told him I had left my previous job and was now trying to work full-time at the salon while preparing for MPSC.
That’s when he gave me a reality check.
He said that instead of preparing for civil services, I should focus on the salon business because it has a lot of potential. He also said that I was already 23 and should have figured out what I wanted to do with my life by now. According to him, people my age should be working so hard that they barely have time to rest. He said it was disappointing to see young people wasting their precious years.
Honestly, his words hurt because a part of me feels the same way. I also feel like I’m falling behind in life. But there’s a lot more to my story than what he sees.
After completing my 12th, I told my father that I had cleared an interview and been selected for an operations executive position. He refused to let me take the job, saying I didn’t need to earn money yet.
I eventually completed my B.Com in 2023. After graduation, my father himself encouraged me to join a Chinese LED manufacturing company as a salesperson. I worked there for approximately 2.5 years. I handed over almost my entire salary to my mother and was allowed to keep only ₹2,000 a month for my personal expenses. I don’t regret contributing to my family, but I often felt like I had very little control over my own life.
Later, my father paid a substantial amount of money to someone who claimed he could arrange a permanent government job for me. I wasn’t even consulted properly about this decision. I ended up working as a contract-based administrative operator at the Directorate General of Shipping, Government of India, earning around ₹16,000 a month. Eventually, I learned that getting a permanent position would require the proper recruitment process and that the promises made to us weren’t going to materialise. We never recovered the money.
I left that job feeling disappointed and uncertain about what to do next.
After that, my father told me to learn salon work. I spent eight months in Delhi learning the skills, and now I’m back in Mumbai, working at our salons.
I’m actually doing reasonably well with men’s haircuts, considering that I’ve only recently started building my clientele. My father is a professional in this field, and he’ll be teaching me women’s hairstyling and hairdressing as well. I understand that the salon industry can offer good opportunities, and I’m willing to learn and work hard.
But here’s where I’m struggling.
I’m tired of feeling like my life is being decided for me.
I don’t know whether I should continue preparing for MPSC, give the salon business my full attention, or look for a part-time job so I can earn something independently. Sometimes I even think about leaving everything behind and moving abroad to start over somewhere else.
I know I’m only 23, almost 24, and that’s still young. But when I look back, I feel like I’ve spent years moving from one direction to another without really choosing my own path.
I don’t have much of a social life. I don’t have close friends or even a female friend I can comfortably open up to about these things. I don’t have a relationship either. Most days, I just keep everything to myself.
Another thing that bothers me is that I’ve never really been in a position to buy gifts for my parents or siblings with money I’ve earned and saved for myself. It might sound like a small thing, but I wish I could do something for them without worrying about my financial situation.
I’m not saying my father has done nothing for me. I know he’s trying to build something for the family, and I understand that he believes the salon business is a good opportunity. But I also wish I had been given more freedom to explore my own interests and make my own career decisions.
Right now, I feel exhausted. Some days, I want to work hard, build the salon business, become financially independent, and make my family proud. Other days, I feel so overwhelmed that I want to quit everything and disappear from this routine.
I don’t want to spend the next five years feeling the same way.
So, to people who have been in a similar situation, especially those who had to choose between a family business and their own career goals: what would you do in my position?
Should I commit fully to the salon business and stop preparing for government exams? Should I continue preparing for MPSC while learning the salon trade? Or should I find a job, become financially independent, and figure things out from there?
I’m not looking for sympathy or someone to tell me that everything will magically work out. I genuinely want honest advice from people who have experienced something similar.
I just want to feel like I’m finally moving forward in my own life instead of constantly being pushed from one direction to another.