ABG - The Rich and Memorable Relationship! | Siddharth Chaturvedi, DMS IIT DELHI

PART B: Taking On Challenges as a Learning!!

Being from an upper-middle class family in India, one thing was sure regarding what I needed to face to succeed – Competition and Challenges. My parents were pro-active enough to appraise me of this fact so that I start to prepare myself for what was about to come. And yes, challenges came in every hook and corner of anything I wanted to achieve. I succeeded in some, and failed in others as well. But the one thing which I learnt by going through all these challenges was that, the worst way in which we could fail in a challenge is by not accepting the challenge in the first place. Because whether we succeed or fail in any challenge in our life, the most precious thing which we gain from it is the experience and learning which we take away from that challenge.

One thing in which I think I was extremely fortunate was getting an opportunity to participate in singing competitions since my childhood. And that taught me to focus on the process and work hard, and not worry too much about the outcome. Losing many competitions initially as well as seeing the excellent quality of other participating singers really made me doubt myself. These losses also made me question whether I should take more challenges or not. But facing more such losses eventually took the fear of loss away from me, and generated a belief that I could be as good as any other participant if I just work hard on myself. Also, my attitude changed towards learning from any better singers I came across and improve myself. Thus every loss turned out into an opportunity for me to improve myself. Finally, I did start winning many of the competitions I participated in, as well as won a National Level as well as District Level prize in a singing competition.

 This learning which I had from winning and losing in these competitions also transcended into other aspects of my life and eventually became a part of my personality. It changed my attitude towards working towards any challenge I take up in a structured manner, and try to improve as I go along the journey. It made me realize that going through the grill and getting the basics right is much more important, since that is something which is in our hands. The result is just an outcome - sometimes positive and negative at other times!!