Part A - How ABG played a part in my life
“The one important factor that keeps me going is the kind of people I work with.” …..Kumar Mangalam Birla
Such is the environment created by ABG. Aditya Birla Group is a multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai and operating in 35 countries. Being active in 14 industry sectors, ABG finds its presence in almost every sphere of life including Fashion and Retail, Chemicals and cement. The range of products ABG offers ensures that no one remains without having at least seen a part of ABG if not directly using it.
I myself have seen ABG in and around my house since childhood. A memory that every child supposedly would retain from their childhood is the classic Hindalco Freshwrapp. I distinctly remember my mother using the Aluminium foils each day for my tiffin box to school.
Such was the beginning of my association with ABG. What I did not realize that time was the range of ABG products that will play a part in life even after the Freshwrapp. I eventually realized that the new home our family is gonna have uses UltraTech cement. Even today I go home anytime, ABG then surrounds me.
I still remember the first time I went to shopping alone, I got myself a Peter England sweater, something I keep with me always. Further purchasing from Pantaloons, Louis Phillip and Van Heusen ensured deep association with ABFRL.
Further by use of products like peroxide, ABG maintains technologically advanced and environment friendly products. BHIM by ABPB also offers more innovative banking features.
My association with ABG has hence been really special since my childhood to even today.
Part B - Overcoming challenges to achieve ambitions
“My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus.” ………Stephen W. Hawking
Ambitions and dreams don’t come without hard work and a roller coaster ride. It is of utmost important to live your dreams out without getting demotivated at any stage of journey.
Being from a place like Kota – a place of dreams for lakhs of students each year, my ambitions seemed to know no bounds. It was the magic of Kota, the support of parents and friends which eventually resulted in me qualifying IIT JEE Advanced along with excelling in other activities like Singing and Abacus.
Everything sounds so good until your achievements result in huge amount of expectations all around to continue t excel in anything you do. Over the years of graduation, I started realizing that something wasn’t going right with my grades degrading to levels unknown to me before. Expectations started taking over me while confidence started going down.
It was also during this time that I decided to pursue MBA from a top business school. I remember meeting a topper of my batch who was telling me that someone like me shouldn’t hope of top business schools at all and that cracking a high percentile is not for someone like me.
Even though all this coupled with family expectations demotivated at first, I got myself into my hobbies, started watching TED Talks to eventually get motivated. With a zeal to prove myself at any cost, I started preparing hard for CAT. The exam day sure was nervous for any of the exams I give but I finally came out with flying colours securing 99.86 percentile in CAT and 99.85 percentile in IIFT.
I finally made it to one of the finest business school in the country. Looking back at whatever happened in this journey makes me realize the importance of hard work, perseverance and most importantly a belief in yourself and over your ambitions. A man is certainly the best teacher of himself.
“Don’t ever let somebody tell you… You can’t do something. Not even me. You got a dream… You gotta protect it. When people can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it. Period .” …….Pursuit of Happyness