“Behler-Young was looking for its first digital marketer, and after a few weeks of interviews, I found myself in the enviable position of having two job offers on the table — one from B-Y and a sales position at a different organization,” Dasgupta said. “After several conversations with my wife, and my then mentor, Dean Whittaker, I decided that it was more important for me to take the position that best fit my skills and passion.”

Dasgupta is approaching four years at Behler-Young, and he couldn’t be happier with his decision.

“Working at B-Y has been great,” he said. “The projects I get to work on and the people I get to work with really make coming into the office everyday a pleasure.”

Successful distributors really have two choices, they can continue to think they know what’s best and keep doing it the way they’ve been doing it, or they can look to other industries and realize that the only way to keep up with their customers’ evolving needs is to adapt.

“You have a choice — do you want to be Blockbuster or Netflix,” Dasgupta said. “For those of us who don’t want to go the way of the dinosaur, it’s exciting to constantly be pushing forward. If you can’t be enthusiastic about the opportunity to continuously grow, then I don’t think this is the right industry for you.” 

Dasgupta said individuals just entering the industry must have confidence in their expertise.  

“Everyone has an opinion, and those who have more experience than you in the industry will try to push you off of your stance,” he said. “Just remember, they may know more than you about the industry as a whole, but they don’t know more than you about your area of expertise. Also, remember that facts are a powerful tool. It’s difficult to ignore numbers.”

When not focusing on Behler-Young’s digital marketing, Dasgupta can be found enthusiastically cheering on Toronto’s numerous sports teams.

“I grew up in Toronto, so you’ll always see me supporting the Raptors, Blue Jays, and Maple Leafs, and all three teams have done nothing but disappoint me for most of my life as a sports fan,” he said. “I don’t know why I do this to myself, it’d be easier if I liked teams that were always successful, but it’s hard to turn off the emotional connection of cheering on a team as a kid and all the memories associated with that. So I guess I’ll just suffer on.”

After work, Dasgupta aims to spend as much time as he can with his 2-year-old daughter.

“She is my everything,” he said. “Few things make me happier than going into her room to wake her up first thing in the morning and having her pop up, flash me that toothy smile, and say, ‘Hi.’”

Dasgupta plans to continue his career at Behler-Young because he enjoys surrounding himself with like-minded people.

“I want to be around people who have similar approaches to thinking and problem solving,” he said. “Working with those type of people allow you to stack successes on top themselves, and it’s easy to remain motivated when you win a lot more than you lose. Not everyone is comfortable with aggressiveness, but like Dirk Beveridge has often said, and I’m paraphrasing, disruption is the key to growth.”

Every Wednesday, Distribution Trends magazine will feature a full profile on one of its 2018 Top 40 Under 40 winners. To see the list in its entirety, visit http://bit.ly/DT2018Top40. To see each of the full Top 40 features, visit http://bit.ly/DT2018Top40U40.