The Tale of a Few Cities
Backstory
In June 2017, I was entering my final year of law school. I had a great job lined up. So, I wanted to attend an event where I would meet people from outside India, learn and generally have a good time. So I chose the Young International Mediation Competition, which was held in Hong Kong.
Now Hong Kong had a rather curious visa policy for Indians (not sure if its still the same). The application was an online form that auto-generates a pass which allows you to enter Hong Kong. All you need to do is key in your passport details, and Voila!- most Indians get a tourist visa for Hong Kong.
Now unlike a visa-on-arrival, not all applications go through. So if your application is rejected, you need to apply for a full-fledged visa.
The Twist
I was confident about the application though. Everyone I knew made it through the pre-application process and even though my sample size was small, I was pretty sure that I would get an instant approval. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Turns out (and this was something that I found out later), that passports issued in certain cities (Kolkata, Chandigarh etc) had a much higher rate of rejection. Now this is something that I was never able to verify at scale. However, I suspect that was/is partly true as (a) the only application rejections that we had seen in our University were for passports that were issued from these cities; and (b) there were a bunch of online posts (not particularly trustworthy) documenting this.
“Bro- we are f***ed”
But back to the story. So my tickets are booked. Three weeks to the event. I now find out that I need to apply for a visa. I quickly go through the immigration website. My heart sinks. The average processing time- four weeks. My teammates panic. They think we don’t have a chance- I get a text, “Bro- we are f***ed”.
The next few days were frantic. I put together the application. I reached out to the event organisers to have it hand delivered in Hong Kong, hoping to expedite the process. I was hopeful, but part of me wondered if this final year trip would ever materialise and the prospect pissed me off.
Now I thought that I was disappointed at the system for the arbitrary rejection. The truth is that I was disappointed in myself for not having applied earlier.
Silver Linings Playbook
There was a silver lining though. A few days after the application was hand delivered, I got a visa application number. At this point, there are two and a half weeks to go for my flight.
Now the visa application number coming through was a clutch moment. I had a reference point. I could chase authorities all day with that number.
So that’s what I did. I wrote to every single minister/ senior bureaucrat in the External Affairs and Education Ministries. I wrote to the Consulate General of India in Hong Kong. I also took a few punts. I wrote to people who I hoped would help out.
Dr. Shashi Tharoor’s office was one of the punts I took. Here’s what I wrote.
Is it a good cold email? Not really. I definitely would not write it the same way now. But 24 hours later, I had a response.
Dr Tharoor’s office asked for a bunch of details in relation to my application. I sent them across and they said that they would have it sent across to the Chinese officials for processing. Suddenly I had a ray of hope.
Now a week and a half passes since this first exchange. There’s radio silence from the visa officials. I chased them every other day. Nada. Nothing.
Finally, three days before I flew out, I receive a text saying that my visa had come through. To say I was relieved was an understatement.
Now to this date, I do not know if the visa would have come through had I not written to Dr Tharoor. It’s a question I still think about.
The Take
Now why do I think about this so much? Its simply because working on a startup involves sending cold emails all day. Even in this case, I sent over 40 emails. One response came through.
But why did I keep at it anyway? Because the upside is incredible. The cost is negligible. And part of me believes that there are enough people in the world who are happy to lend a helping hand.
Dr Tharoor turned out to be such person. I am sure there are many many more.
Now sending out cold emails is something we are rarely taught. However they remain an incredibly powerful tool, especially when done right. There’s a brilliant thread by David Perell summing this up.
My take- “Cold emails are great. Most people hate them simply because constant rejection/ silence hurts.”
Trivia
On the theme of written communication- The telegraph was the primary form of communication in the mid-19th century. Interestingly, many executives in the then dominant telegraph industry did not perceive the telephone as a threat to the industry. They dismissed the threat as they thought that no one would want a device that did not leave a written record of correspondence.
I picked up this wonderful piece of trivia while reading about a young writer who cold emailed Bill Gates. The amazing story was covered in the New Yorker, a few years before I was born. It’s definitely worth checking out.
Until Next Time,
Sanjay
I hope you enjoyed this edition of the 3T’s. The format will remain the same. Takes, Tales and Trivia. The takes may get more outlandish and the tales will keep changing.
I would love to hear your thoughts! You can reach out to me on Twitter, LinkedIn or even on email. If you want more like this in your inbox, subscribe.
Insightful. Waiting for the next anecdote. Keep it up!