KEEP WORKING ON YOURSELF ! A story from an IIM Ranchi student.
This happened 3 months ago. I had my first “b-school interview” in 2 days. I was nervous while I was cautiously preparing for all the probable questions that I might have to face at the interview. My parents left for Bangalore to attend a family member’s function while I was home alone preparing to somehow ace the interview. I thought it will be a good idea to ask them to buy a Blazer for me meanwhile there.
My parents eventually agreed. My Mother is usually a person who doesn’t buy from the first shop that she steps into. But it was not the same story that day. She was quite satisfied with the variety in the display and was impressed with the patience of the store’s sales person. My mom selected the best blazers from the display which she thought might look good on me; Clicked pictures of it and sent me on ‘Whatsapp’. Finally we mutually agreed on one of those blazers and bought it immediately. I really did not know that this was going to be my luckiest Blazer for life.
On day of interview, I was nervously waiting outside the interview room wearing my lucky blazer and waiting for my name to be called. After 5 interviewees I was called in. The interviewers were kind and asked me a set of stereotypic questions which I answered well. All of a sudden, one of the interviewers noticed the metal logo on my blazer and asked me, what the brand that I was wearing is. I immediately replied Allen Solly. The next question was, do you know who owns the Allen Solly brand. Luckily I knew the answer and told them. They were quite impressed and that was my last question they asked me that day. After a month I received a letter saying I was selected for the b school. From then on I wore the same Blazer for next series of b-school interviews and I cracked them all. “Allen Solly” has been my most favourite brand of all.
Now to mention about how I faced the odds, I was not a public speaker until college. I used to be quite a shy person when it comes to holding the mike and talking. So when I was in school, we simply enrolled for an inter school competition for “Just a minute” event. With some blind confidence I went for it. On the day of the event, I was not very confident about how I will be facing the audience and what I will talk in just a minute. When it was my turn to hold the mike and talk I stuttered in the middle. I went kind of blank about what to talk next. I came up with some irrelevant things to say. At the end of 1 minute when I walked down the stage I felt thrashed thinking about my own performance. But guess what?
That is what helped me to become what I am today. Since that day whenever I get an opportunity to talk on stage all that comes to my mind is I have nothing to lose so let’s just go for it. We are not born with great talents. It is all about how and how much we can work on ourselves and get things done. Today I enjoy public speaking and I like talking before the crowd only because I chose not to be that shy person who stuttered. I decided to practise with discipline and here I am to prove that Hard work alongside discipline is all we need to achieve our goals.