Chapter I: Aditya Birla – Making a Difference Since Forever
After donning the school uniform for 14 years, I was about to begin a new life in a completely different world – college. Having browsed and observed the pictures of my acquaintances who were a few years elder to me on Facebook, I knew it is essential to get my fashion game right.
Not having the required set of clothes in my wardrobe was the challenge I was facing. My father, on the other hand, had his own set of issues to deal with. Coming from a North Indian family, it is either essential to organize a lavish, grand wedding for one’s daughter or find answer to a rhetorical question: “what will the world say to us?” My father was pooling in resources to do the former. I, being a good son, yet the youngest and the only unemployed person in the family, had only a handful of tasks – obey elders, limit materialistic desires and reduce unreasonable expenses.
Now one would have expected a heated confrontation between a father and his son, leading to arguments and unending claims like “He just doesn’t want to understand me” from both ends. Fortunately, we were able to escape that conundrum; thanks to Pantaloons. Located 03 Kms from my residence, in the posh area of South Extension in New Delhi, Pantaloons was the only outlet that had top-quality clothing line for regular wear, that too at an affordable price. After getting acquired by Aditya Birla in 2012, Pantaloons became and is a brand in itself.
My father and I went there, paid for two round-neck and collared t-shirts each but obtained three of each kind, thanks to the ‘buy 1 get 1 free’ scheme. Along with two pair of jeans and a couple of casual shirts, we incurred a total bill of Rs. 3300. That was the price we paid for setting up an entirely new wardrobe for the entire summer season.
Some say ‘win-win’ situations are rare, others say it works only on paper; yet here was an example where both parties won. Over the years, the disposable income of my family increased as I too, entered the corporate world for a brief time, before pursuing my studies again. As a result, my purchasing patterns and spending has risen too – from retail stores to branded outlets – from Pantaloons to Allen Solly for casuals and Peter England for business formals. However, what has not changed and has only got stronger over the years, is my trust and reliance on Aditya Birla Group.
Chapter II: How I overcame challenges to achieve my ambitions in life so far
Born with clawed toes, it took me complete 27 months to complete a successful trot from one bedroom to another. Nobody knew back then that this entire process of identifying and overcoming deficiency would set the tone for rest of my life.
Since middle school, I remember being deemed as a student with the maximum potential; yet I could not even bypass the 80% mark and always ended with 77 or 78%. I had stepped in class 12th when one of the seniors from school, with whom I used to commute, scored 93%. He was devastated. Upon discussing his dissatisfaction with him, I found he was unhappy because his target was at least 95%. That day I realized I have not been failing in surpassing 80%. Rather, I have been scoring pretty well, just missing out on a trivial 2 or 3% which I later learnt in statistics as ‘Margin of Error’. I was simply setting underwhelming targets. My efforts were doing justice to my target which in turn was not doing justice to my potential.
Result: After setting a target of 97% in Class 12th Boards (cut-off for Economics Hons. in SRCC) I ended up scoring 92%.
Key Takeaway I: Set outrageously high targets.
After ending up in a course but not the college of my choice, I realized, doing well academically is a habit. I cannot become academically exceptional unless I put in consistent efforts on a regular basis. Doing well in academic year ‘x’ and getting complacent in year ‘y’ won’t help. And so, after completing the 2nd year of my graduation, it was time to prepare for management related competitive exams. Target: nothing less than a prestigious management institute.
Result: Abysmal performance in CAT, cleared NMIMS’ written entrance test but failed to convert the CD-PI call.
Failing to convert that year, left a deep scar and I was shattered. However, in that brief period, I learnt something success does not come easy. As learnt earlier, consistent efforts were needed to be put again, in a new academic year. This pushed me to gather myself and start preparing again.
Key Takeaway II: High targets may not lead to high-end results. It is okay to fail; however, it is important to shed the failure and start afresh from scratch.
The entire process of preparing for competitive exams along with a fulltime job in a Big 4 was difficult, hectic and mentally exhausting. Today, when I reflect on those 10 months, I find it to be the toughest phase of my life. In this process, I learnt the art and value of perseverance. Every day I would work for 09 hours in the office and also study while going to and coming back from work in the cab and at home while I would spend the weekends on attending classes and solving and correcting practice papers.
Result: Scored a 95 percentile in XAT and cleared NMIMS’ selection process.
Key Takeaway III: Being persistent and honest in efforts leads to success.
I know there will be results in future which will not go in my favour. Consequently, there will be more takeaways to grab, more experiences to learn as well as share and make others learn. All of this together, will ultimately add to my expertise in the art of winning.
#NMIMSMumbai #ABGLPWooMe