What are the odds to get a chance to live a human life? I know it sounds little philosophical and spiritual but let’s just talk about it for a moment. It is 400 trillion to 1. We all get one life, and many of spend it in a negative aura just because we were not able to win or succeed in some situations. This is not the way to enjoy life. I personally feel if you are not enjoying your life then you will never be successful or satisfied in your life.
The motto of my life is “One life, no regrets”. And I live my life like that. And the title says “You win some and you ‘win some’”, because I think I haven’t lost in my life at any point. It’s just that I may not have been able to perform at all times. But that’s part of life. You win some, and then you don’t win some, you learn and you win again.
Now quoting some examples or some challenges that I faced in life and eventually I performed and got through it.
It was back in the year 2016, when The Art of Living foundation was celebrating its 35th anniversary in Delhi on the Yamuna Banks. Many people do not know this but there was one more event going on at that time, “The Global Leadership Forum 2016”. This was a two day event where the world leaders gathered deliberating the need for decisive leadership to create trusted communities and a connected world. I was part of the transportation team and we had to receive the dignitaries on the airport and then to usher them to their respective stays. Unfortunately, the taxi service partner we booked was unable to deliver the 100 cars he promised to deliver. So there we were, just 3 young men on the Delhi airport to receive the dignitaries and we have no cars or drivers or money at our disposal. And to increase the difficulty of the things, I was at the airport for first time in my life. Had no clue, how things work here. Irrespective of all this, I had only one thing in mind. That if we are not able to get the people to their respective stay, it will send a bad message. Now these dignitaries included, former prime ministers, CEOs, and congressmen of US. I immediately went to the helpdesk of taxi services available at the airport along with one more volunteer. Almost talked to everyone and was able to cut a deal with the MERU cabs. He provided us with 50 of his best cabs and explained the driver to not ask fare from the guests. Meanwhile, worked out with the finance department and told them to pay the cabs when they reach the hotel so that our guests do not face any inconvenience. On that day, the lessons I learned were that no work is small. Initially I was not happy when I was assigned to the transportation department. But I guess, I would have never known the fact that I can crack deals if that had not happened. The other thing which I learned on that day is teamwork. Had those two volunteers not been there with me on that day, I wouldn't have had the courage or the energy to perform such rigorous task.
The above example was more of responsibility, below mentioned instances was a part of personal growth. I learnt cooking when I shifted to Bangalore for a period of ten months. I was working in Amazon. The only thing I missed there was good vegetarian food. I started off with simple recipes like, pulses, fried potatoes, veg cutlets and then took it to some standard tasty dishes like paneer, chole, rajma and all. Being able to cook made my life so much easy there. After a whole stressful day, cooking the food of my choice at friend’s apartment for both of us made me forget all the tension and anxiety.
Being a part of one of the biggest NGO of the world, The Art of Living Foundation, from 2011, I have had the fortune to manage many events, both big and small. Many a times volunteered in courses, yoga events, dandiya functions and a lot more, where my responsibility was usually crowd management and catering. I got a big responsibility in 2016, when I was made the supervisor for the transportation department during Global Leadership Forum (GLF). All the event/ people management skill I acquired since 2011 came in handy when the responsibility of transportation of foreign dignitaries was given to me and my team. It was a great experience.
In the year 2016, when I was waiting for the results of my final year, I got this great opportunity to work for a private firm which had a contract with The Medanta hospital. The work was to seek out people who want their transplant operation to be done in India and convince them to get it done in Medanta. I was given the task to look out for these people. Initially, I was clueless on it. Then I took a moment and thought, what would I have done, if I have been in this state, where I needed such attention for my medical condition. Facebook struck my mind at that instant because that was the platform which was majorly used by people to communicate. Then I started by facebook promotions, and converted three enquiry calls we got to confirmations in just four months. From there I learnt that I am a sales person. I used the same skills to sell myself to the interviewer for the Amazon job.
These were few instances in my life where I was face to face with situation where I could have caved in and let my pessimistic attitude take over. But I took charge and got out it.
In the end, I would just like to say that challenges exist in life to groom us into a better version of ourselves. Accept them and get through them to face new ones. There is only one life and there should be no regrets. Just go out and conquer.