“All progress that takes place outside the comfort zone” – Michael John Bobak
Learning begins at the end of your comfort zone and this has been the way I have lived with. Life was easy for me until I realized nothing big can be achieved being in your comfort zone. My problem was neither my skills nor my attitude but my habits.
I always thought of doing big in my life but wasn’t sure where to start from. I dreamt of being on the cover page of business magazines and wonder how these big people made it there. My attitude of thinking and making big was apt but my habit of not acting upon it was my drawback. It was then that I came to know about the
“law of averages”, it says that you’re the average of those 5 peoples you hang around with. Your thinking, your habits and your perception towards things is the average of that of those people. I wondered how can I improve my knowledge and inculcate the habit of those successful peoples I followed. I started spending more time reading books, watching interview interviews of businessman and industrialists. I started understanding their way of thinking, their objectives and the way they grew their businesses. This very thing influenced my life for better and now I know what my real objectives are and how to work for it and fulfill my goals.
After graduating from an engineering college, pursuing MBA for higher studies was very clear to me. And it was this time when I had to appear for CAT. But the second bad habit of procrastination which I developed during my engineering days was pulling me back. I used to procrastinate and leave thing for the last moment every time.
Twice I had taken CAT, and I wasn’t able to crack it. It was this time when I discovered the
“5 min rule” over the social media. The 5-minute rule states that “If you have a work which you think will take just 5 mins to complete, do it at the very moment”. Though a very simple idea, this idea changed my life forever. I started completing little task at the very moment I encountered it and things started becoming easy for me. I expanded this idea to 10 mins, 15 mins, half an hour, an hour and then gradually to 3 hours. I started finding myself taking regular mocks and gradually improving. This was the 3
rd time I was taking CAT and by the time I appeared for it had had completed 2 whole sets of study materials from different institute and attempted 45 ‘3 hours’ full mocks. I realized that the problem was not my knowledge but the practice to attempt the test which I was ignoring for long.
These two rules have changed my life and I believe if anyone inculcate the same in their life will be beneficial for them too. This time I came out with flying colors and converted one of the most prestigious B school, VGSOM IIT Kharagpur.
There is no doubt that big businessmen could make big decisions by following simple rules like those mentioned above. You need to be disciplined and focused at your goals and keep working for it. This is what the Aditya Birla Group has been doing for decades. One of the largest conglomerates in India has contributed in all walks of life. From fashion to food wrappers, telecommunications to online banking, cement industry to the chemical industry, fibres to carbon black, it is present everywhere and also impacted our lives in a big way. I am one of those million lives the group has impacted and left a footprint on. The group has made several wise decisions like merging of Idea with Vodafone to give India the largest and strongest network. Through pantaloons, it has made itself the first choice of every middle-class people who wants fashionable clothes at an affordable price and also maintaining world class apparel collections through Allen Solly and Peter England. The management team at ABG has done a wonderful job headed by Kumar Manglam Birla. And this is due to their efforts that everybody wants to be associated with ABG in some way or the other.
#VGSoM
#IIT Kharagpur
#ABGLPWooMeS2