Is this even a question? I wake up in the morning and turn on the internet on my mobile phone, courtesy Vodafone. Whenever I have to attend an important meeting, give a presentation to my class or sit for any interview; I look for my VanHeusen formal suit in the wardrobe. Once I had to buy supplies for the renovation of my house, the first thing that we picked up was cement, and not just any cement, Ultratech Cement. Whenever I go shopping, the first store I go to is Pantaloons. Whenever I want to pamper myself, I dress up in a cute outfit from Forever21. My major aspiration is to gift my dad, a full business suit from Louis Philippe with my first salary. When I was in Jhansi, and there were very few big brands over there, my go to place was People, where I could feel that I could get the true value of my money.
I guess it’s pretty evident that Aditya Birla Group is not just big, but a mammoth in my life. The number of touchpoints that ABG has with my life is probably more than any other brand, and this is the main reason why people relate to ABG in a more familiar way. Many might still not know that the brands that they love and adore, are a part of the ABG group, but once they realize this, it might come as a huge shock as to how their lives are completely intertwined with the group. As for me, this realization came quite early, and I am really glad to be a part of the ABG family.
How did I overcome challenges to achieve my ambitions in life so far?
For the most part, life has been an easy going affair for me. I have always had the support of my parents, my friends and my seniors to help me sail through different walks of life. But sometimes, it is up to me and only me to decide how I wish to tackle a particular situation. Both my System 1 brain, i.e. the intuitive part and my System 2 brain, i.e. the rational part, have played an important role in deciding how I deal with a particular situation. First story goes back to 2010, after my 10th standard board exams. I had to choose a major and both of my parents and friends said that I should go for Biology since it has been my forte since the beginning. I liked Biology, but I didn’t want to pursue a career in that. Explaining this to my parents had been the most difficult task. But I kept one thing in mind, if my goal is clear, I must try my level best to ensure I reach that. I put all my rational tools to good use and prepared a scale to show to my parents as to why Biology wasn’t my cup of tea, and why going with Maths was the way.
Then the same thing happened in 2012, when it came down to choose what branch I wanted to specialise in. My parents wanted that I pick up one of the core branches (EE, Mech, Civil) so as to land a safe, government job. But I clearly wasn’t interested in that. I wanted to be an IT professional, and this was clear from the start. Thus, for four years I had to work with the mind -set that if I fail in this, I couldn’t blame anyone, but me. But fortunately, I was gifted enough to intuitively recognize what is right for me and what isn’t. I passed the college with flying colours, landed a good profile in a product based IT company and made my parents proud.
Third story goes back to 2017, when I decided that I want to do an MBA. I decided to join a coaching centre, on weekends so that it doesn’t disturb my professional life. But the project I was working on was based out of Jaipur, and we were assigned to complete the rest of the development and maintenance offshore. I was in a huge dilemma where I would have to either compromise with my work or my future career. Like many others did, I could just have the talk with my manager, and simply refused to go, which would jeopardize my relationships with him and I didn’t want that. Therefore, I decided to work in Jaipur on weekdays and return to Noida, where I was then working, on weekends. It surely took a toll on me, I would be very exhausted from the travel, but it finally panned out well. I got to attend a premier b-school and still have a healthy relationship with my colleagues from the office.
These are just a few stories that have inspired me to follow my heart and that is how I overcome any situation.
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