Rakshith Prajwal: A Story of Second Chances and Coming Full Circle
Rakshith Prajwal: A Story of Second Chances and Coming Full Circle
Some people walk into your life once. Others walk in, walk out, and walk back in—until you realize they were meant to stay all along.
When I first started SPURGE Rentals, I had hired just one Sales BDM to handle calls and reach out to potential rental clients. We were small, scrappy, and figuring things out as we went.
Then one afternoon, something unexpected happened.
The Knock on the Door
A college kid knocked on our office door. He had a file in his hands—his resume. He kept it simple: “Is there any opening in this company? I’m looking for a job.” He had just finished his graduation and was hungry to learn, to work, to prove himself.
I remember him clearly—skinny, wearing spectacles, clutching that file like it held his future. And in a way, it did.
What struck me wasn’t just his initiative to walk in uninvited. It was something else. You know how sometimes you meet someone and within a few seconds, you just know? There’s a vibe, an energy, something different. Rakshith Prajwal had that.
He was different from the dozens of people who sent emails or made calls. He showed up. He asked. He was ready.
I thought he could work as an associate to my existing BDM—helping validate leads, supporting outreach, assisting with closures. I hired him right there, in that same moment.
The Early Promise
Rakshith joined and immediately proved my instinct right. He was regular, punctual, and had great communication skills—both verbal and written. He learned the outreach process quickly and started gathering genuinely interested prospects. Within a few months, he even closed a few deals on his own.
I felt vindicated. My gut feeling about him in those first few seconds had been right.
But then things took a turn.
The Manipulation
The BDM under whom Rakshith was working started coming to me with complaints. “He isn’t doing good,” he’d say. “I’m doing all the work. Those leads he’s getting? I’m the one processing them. We’re wasting money on him.”
I trusted my BDM at the time. He had been there longer. He seemed experienced. So I said, “Okay, let’s give it one more week and see.”
A week passed, and the complaints continued. “Bro, we don’t need him. We’re just wasting money.”
So I made the call. We let Rakshith go. It was communicated to him properly, but he was out.
I thought I had made a reasonable business decision. I thought I was being prudent.
I was wrong.
The Snake Revealed
Fast forward a few months, and I discovered what a snake that BDM really was. He had been colluding with staff and clients behind my back. He was directly responsible for a massive fraud deal worth ₹2.74 lakhs with a client in Hyderabad—a deal that cost me dearly.
I fired him immediately.
The irony wasn’t lost on me. The person who convinced me to fire someone good had himself been rotten all along. He’d gotten rid of Rakshith because Rakshith was capable, sincere, and—most dangerously for him—honest. The BDM had felt threatened.
And I had fallen for it.
The Text That Changed Everything
Time passed. I had hired another BDM and wasn’t actively looking for more sales people. Then one day, I received a text from a prospect asking about an order. The name sounded familiar.
I checked my records. It was someone Rakshith had reached out to months ago.
That’s when it hit me. I had let go of someone genuine because I’d been manipulated. I had made an oversight, a mistake I needed to correct.
I texted Rakshith and asked if we could meet for a general chat.
He agreed.
The Return
We met and talked it through. I didn’t make excuses, but I was honest about what had happened. And Rakshith, to his credit, understood. He saw the bigger picture.
He joined back.
This time, he stayed for 18 months. He grew in the role, became better at what he did, and proved—yet again—that my first instinct about him had been right all along.
But then he made a decision. He wanted to start his own venture—a Ramen Cart. His own startup. His own dream.
I respected that. As an entrepreneur myself, I understood the pull of building something of your own. So when he told me he was leaving, I wished him well.
The Entrepreneurial Journey
Rakshith took a year to work on his plan. But entrepreneurship is hard. Sometimes ideas don’t materialize the way you envision them. Sometimes the execution doesn’t match the dream.
After a year, Rakshith came back. Not because he’d failed, but because he’d learned something valuable: sometimes the right opportunity is closer than you think.
When he returned this time, I didn’t put him back in the same role. I moved him to Stocky Pro, another venture I was building. He’s now handling both Product and Sales there, wearing multiple hats, growing in ways that suit his strengths.
The Journey Continues
Rakshith Prajwal is one of our oldest employees—though his journey with us has had gaps, detours, and unexpected turns. He’s been fired (wrongly), rehired, left on his own terms, explored his entrepreneurial dreams, and come back again.
Through all of this—the ups and downs, the mistakes on both sides, the learning and growing—we’ve synced up. We understand each other now in a way we didn’t before.
Some employees have a linear journey with a company. Rakshith’s has been anything but linear. Yet somehow, all those twists and turns have brought us to a place of trust, mutual respect, and shared purpose.
And I’m hoping he’ll continue working with me for a very, very, very long time.
The Lesson
If there’s one thing Rakshith’s story has taught me, it’s this: trust your gut, but also be willing to admit when you’ve made a mistake. Give second chances. Understand that careers aren’t always straight lines. And most importantly, value people who show up—literally and figuratively.
That skinny kid with spectacles who knocked on our door years ago? He’s still here, still showing up, still proving that sometimes the best hires are the ones who walk through your door when you least expect them.
Here’s to the journey, Rakshith. And to all the chapters still unwritten.
Rakshith Prajwal — Product and Sales at Stocky Pro, One of Our Oldest Employees, A Testament to Second Chances