Edited by: Jina Aryaan
Watching Manchester City win a match, and visiting the beautiful parks in Newfoundland with his daughters after a busy day being the Management Associate at NARL Refining, Rubin Deol’s life wasn’t always like this.
It all started when a little boy was born in village Khandoor on 24 July 1981. Walking to school with his heavy bag under the scorching summer sun, Rubin rewinds to his younger days when his favourite activity was playing with his friends on Khandoor’s streets, with the cool evening breeze rushing past their face.
“People rarely remember my full name, but they do remember my family name, Deol, with the Bollywood connection, that I don’t have though.” Rubin laughs.
Rubin’s college life was topsy-turvy. He got into the prestigious National Institute of Technology, NIT, Jalandhar. But his first year was a disaster; he failed miserably in his advanced maths exam, got into fights with his fellow students, and had hopeless crushes on girls.
Improving his academics, Rubin travelled to Warrangal, Lucknow, and McLeodganj with his college buddies and graduated in five years with a job as Jr. Field Engineer for Halliburton. He worked in Assam with Halliburton. Being part of a different culture, embracing a different lifestyle than the one he grew up in, and hearing about a tiger nearby their well-site was a life changing experience for Rubin.
After working for Halliburton, Rubin moved to Weatherford, and his job became Fly-In Fly-Out. He worked for a month on the well-site in different countries, and came home for the next month, returned to the well-site, and repeated the cycle.
“I was lucky enough to work in eight countries across four continents in these ten years,” Rubin said recollecting his work-trips to Vietnam, America, Angola, UAE, Iraq, Ethiopia, and many more.
During those ten years, Rubin married and had a little girl.
“Being married, before my daughters were born, with work for a month, and at home for a month was not bad, it gave us plenty of time to travel and, and acknowledge each other’s personal space. But after the birth of Reet, my older daughter, it was tough to be away from her.”
Rubin worked for 10 years after graduating from NIT. Further testing his capabilities, he got into University of Toronto and completed his MBA. Comparing his life at NIT and UofT, Rubin said that “UofT is more professional. Students are too stressed out about things which don’t really matter, but people are very dedicated to whatever they are doing.” UofT was more academically challenging as Rubin resumed his studies after a 10-year gap. But things worked out amazing, and he graduated with a GPA of 3.62, and a job at NARL.
“Being a student is tough when you have family to take care of. But my wife was very cooperative, and she stuck with her job in India. Together, we held onto our dream even though many people thought I was stupid to take this kind of risk, leaving my job and doing a MBA, including some of my very close relatives. I saw their true colours in these tough times. Anyways, all that is behind me now, but it gave me another life lesson: “a friend/relative in need is a friend indeed.”
Rubin has future business plans for himself. “I have worked too long for others, now it is time for entrepreneurship.”
Humbled by his experiences, both at work and travelling half of the world, Rubin learnt humility, and empathy from his colleagues. A self-made man, and proud of his achievements, Rubin doesn’t let his success get to his head. Believing how life ends in a full circle, he believes he may go back to his home in India after retiring from his work.
“Life unfolds slowly, and you will eventually be happy. But remember, happiness does not equate to money. Every day is a ‘-1’ day out of your life. Make it count, wake up with a purpose, even if that purpose is to stay in your couch and watch soccer. But never lose your purpose.”