Always Big in your life: The Aditya Birla Group-Ashutosh Shukla #IIM Trichy

Making it Big: An insatiable journey….

When I give a little thought about me and recollect the journey of my life, I am reminded of very motivating lines said by the famous french fashion designer and businesswoman Coco Chanel:

"Success is most often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable." -- Coco Chanel

I would like to give you a glimpse of my life. I belong to a lower-middle-class family and therefore financial constraints have been the everyday talks of my life. My life has been through various rough phases. I would like to state an event of my life.

This happened when I was the 9th standard. Till 8th standard, I was in my village and was studying in a Hindi-cum-Sanskrit medium school. But my family members decided to take me to the city of Lucknow for my further education. Therefore, I moved to Lucknow and got enrolled in Lucknow Public School. In this school the medium of education was English. So, it was a kind of new world for me. But then after a few months, I had the biggest tragedy of my life. Due to cardiac illness, my mother expired. She was a heart patient and had undergone major heart surgery. But due to sudden complexities, she developed serious problems. We did all that we can do to save her but it was God’s will and I lost the most precious person of my life. I haven’t recovered from that tragedy until now. I was shaken emotionally and it was a very challenging task for me to adjust to these sudden changes in my life. I worked very hard and I used to study for 17-18 hours a day. I used to write down difficult words of English and learn their meaning. I took extensive help from my teachers, class-mates and where required from the study material available in Hindi in understating various difficult concepts. Sometimes I was also humiliated by some of my classmates because I could not speak in English properly. But I had only one thing in my mind that no matter what it takes I would fight and overcome all these challenges. With my hard work and dedication, I was able to pass 9th and 10th standards with flying colors and I secure a meritorious position in my class 12th class examination. For this, I was awarded “Certificate of Merit” by my school.

I have been a self-dependent person from a younger age. Financial constraints were always an issue, therefore after my intermediate, I started giving tuition and coaching to support myself and my family.

After my graduation, I had to step up in life and take the responsibilities on my shoulder. I prepared for government service and after clearing the exam in the first attempt, I joined govt. services at a younger age. I took all the responsibilities of my family on my shoulder and started improving the conditions of my family. After establishing my family in a firm position, now was the time for me to take another step in my life to achieve the dreams of my life. I wanted to study further. Therefore, I wrote the CAT exam and worked very hard for clearing the exam. After successfully clearing all the stages I joined one of the prestigious IIMs of country i.e. IIM Trichy. This has been a dream come true for me.   

So, these events in my life have made me the man I am today. They have taught me the importance of hard work, dedication, determination and self-motivation in overcoming the daunting obstacles of life. They have also taught me how to handle myself during emotionally disturbing times and be a more sincere and responsible person. I was able to convert my weakness into strength and now I try to apply this approach whenever I face difficult times in my life.

 My journey has just taken an important turn and I have miles to go before I sleep, Miles to go before I sleep………….

#IIM Trichy #ABGLPWooMe