As a youngster, my direct point of contact with the Aditya Birla Group is through the Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd (ABFRL) which houses many premium brands in the country. I would consider myself an unofficial brand ambassador of ABFRL because I love what brands like Peter England, Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly provide us with and would let the world know that I am wearing these brands. I prefer Louis Philippe when you are looking for the Royal look and expecting the rich quality of both the material and the design. I prefer Peter England when you want to buy quality clothing, but you are on a shoestring budget.
As a child, Aditya Birla Group was a huge part of my life more than I knew then. This was because of its Food and Grocery retail chain, ‘MORE’. ‘MORE’ used to be the only supermarket available near my house and I would end up buying something from MORE every single day of my schooling life. It provided me with a variety of options from chocolates to aerated drinks to bag of chips to daily essentials, all under a single roof and it was the first one of such kinds to be available in my locality. Now, that ‘MORE’ has been sold by Aditya Birla Group, I miss the place where I once grew up eating food from.
I am surrounded by at least one of the products of Aditya Birla Group at any point in time. It can be the UltraTech Cement, the largest cement company in India or it can be the Hindalco Industries, the non-ferrous metals production company. Aditya Birla group is the largest producer of Viscose staple fiber and produces acrylic fiber and these are the raw materials of several clothing companies. Approximately one in every three people in India using Vodafone Idea Cellular Network prove the scale on which Aditya Birla Group is working on. Aditya Birla Capital holds under its name, several financial brands, and services that provide expertise in life insurance, asset management, equity and commodity broking, wealth management. So, at any point in time, I am surrounded by several products of Aditya Birla Group and as a customer, it has always provided quality products and extended exceptional services and has always lived up to and beyond its expectations.
HOW I OVERCAME CHALLENGES TO ACHIEVE MY AMBITIONS IN LIFE?
In my lifespan of 22 years till now, I have had the opportunity to experience two important events which have made a striking impact and taught me the importance of ‘perseverance’ as an individual and the ‘benefits of teamwork’. I have been a sportsperson throughout my life. I was a natural athlete. So, I had to work little to win the competitions during my schooling. I was the individual champion, a district-level athlete and was also awarded the ‘Best Outgoing Sports Person’ in school. But college was a different story. As an athlete, 400 meters dash was my favorite event. I have been the Champion of that event for 5 straight years. But in college, during my first year, I lost for the first time in that event. I felt devastated. Then, I started to develop fear which later manifested into self-doubt about my abilities to win again. I lost motivation to practice. I direly needed to win again but couldn’t get myself to work. Losing for the first time drained all my energy and the confidence out of me. The miracle moment happened when my father was watching an interview of Roger Federer and I overheard Federer saying, “No matter how bad you fail, you should always learn to pick yourself up and start working from the basics again and this applies for winning too and all of this starts with you losing the fear of losing” This was the life-changing line and the first thing I decided to do was to lose the fear of losing again. The right combination of discipline, hard work and the desire to win pushed my limits and I beat all my rivals in the very next year. This taught me a lot about perseverance.
The other occasion from which I learned the value of teamwork in overcoming hurdles occurred during my 12th grade when I was the captain of the school handball team. We were the champions at the zonal level and were to represent our school at the district level. Our team consisted of academically sound members as well as academically struggling students. Since 12th grade was academically important, the school management decided that the team members who didn't have a good academic record would not be allowed to participate in the district meet. We as a team decided to teach, assist, mentor the academically struggling team members to improve their academics so that they could participate in the district meet. Through dedication from all the team members, the struggling friends cleared all their examinations. Hence, the school management allowed all the team members to participate in the district meet and we were crowned the champions at the district level. After winning and all that happiness and success, we all realized how a team can achieve humongous success when they coordinate and support each other. I learned that when we work as a team, our efforts become stronger and our struggles become weaker. These experiences helped me learn and acquire the right skills and developed the right attitude in me to overcome any difficulty in life.
