A Day with an IIM Educatee !!

We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals. - Stephen Covey.

ME: Host - Prashant Sree
VJ: Guest - Vishal Jalan

Today we have a guest who has not only excelled in his professional work career, but also pursues his interest in moviemaking which made him get a nomination in Berlin Short Film Festival. It is none other than Vishal, who is now pursuing his management studies in crème de la crème Institute- IIM Indore. He is a versatile and creative individual who loves to takes initiatives and to bring innovations.He did his graduation from daiict, gandhinagar, Worked for 2 years with HP as a software engineer.

ME: Hi Vishal, I welcome you to the PERFECT show on behalf of my readers and thank you for agreeing to be a guest in the show
VJ: i feel privileged :)

ME: Thats humble of you:).,. Here we go, What r u passionate about in Life ?
VJ: I am passionate about many things in life... The most important one being looking for creativity and innovation in whatever i do... I want to bring something to this world which can affect million of people around the world for better and I strongly believe that I have in me to do so...

ME: Interesting.,. How do you do that ?
VJ: I have this knack of looking at things very differently... I always give innovative solution to problems.. my creativity is manifested by my movies... I have made around 15 short movies till date..One of them being nominated to Berlin short film festival. I also took part in bringing together IIM-Indore 360, a student portal for knowledge dissemination.

ME: Can you share something about IIM Indore 360 ?
VJ: IIM Indore 360 is a student portal of IIM Indore. 360° aims to live the vision of the institute of instilling pride in all its stakeholders by following the participatory model. We believe that every participant brings with him/her a wealth of experience and a diverse skill set. The participants at IIM Indore are actively involved in ensuring that the institute becomes a pinnacle of learning, where learning is not simply a part of life, but a way of life.

ME: I agree with you completely. Goin on to my 2nd Q, what have you learnt till now, which you would like to share with others ?
VJ: The most important lesson i have learnt in my life is that pursue things which interest you.. never go for a rat race... you'll only excel at things you enjoy doing... and are passionate about it.. if that passion and hence the interest is missing you can not succeed.

ME: Thanks for sharing that.
VJ: u r welcome :)

ME: Now you should be way different from t crowd, as some philosophers put it, Now if u can change anything in the world, what would you like to change ?
VJ: Now thats a tough one... :) I think the resources I have and the capabilities i have they tie me to certain extent and as said before...I want to give something to this world which would change the lives of many in this world.. it could be a product or an idea.. something which will reduce the divide... inequality and a world which is better.

ME: Right.,. Assuming that God gives u one wish which u can have, an specific wish of yours.
VJ: place to live in than it would be a world without boundaries... and discriminations... no racial discrimination... no castism a single world where human treats human as human.

ME: I appreciate your thoughts and t wish.,.Who is ur fav mythological or imaginary character ?
VJ: I have none.. I dont believe in them...

ME: Do you have any role models ?
VJ: I like steve jobs.. i like dhirubhai ambani... and how they could achieve wat they did but again... as i said i wont call them role models.. and i dont like this concept because by doing so you are constantly defining a domain of what you should be doing and what u can which i dont think is correct

ME: Hmmm.,. Thats a different & unique perspective.,. ;)
VJ: i strongly believe in so :)

ME: Ok, what do u want to evangelize in you life ?
VJ: Everything in my life revolves around that mission which i talked about before... and that i what i would like to be remembered for..

ME: what do u consider as ur charm ?
VJ: my confidence.. my sense of humour..my ability to understand people.. :)

ME: Talk of multi talented :) Ok, Your thumb rule for life ?
VJ: do what you like... dont do what others want you to do..

ME: Well said.,. Now, some offbeat Questions.,. since you have been a CAT Achiever ;), what do u think should be the strategy to bell the CAT ?
VJ: practice and lot of it... identify your strong areas.. fortify them... if something is weak.. dont go for correcting them unless it is major chunk in cat..for example if probability is not your forte... forget it.. instead of wasting months of time in this..strengthen other things.. no body does complete cat paper in the given time..

ME: Thanks a lot for the strategy :). Now, how do u inspire or keep oneself motivated in staying on course ?
VJ: I envision a future for myself.. i try to see myself there.. and this is wat works as the driving force..which keeps me pushing all the time..

ME: Thank you for that one..! Your favourite books till date ?
VJ: The godfather... god of small things.. the tipping point.,. freakonomics..

ME: Cool,., Thats it Vishal.,. Thanks a lot for being with us And for sharing your quite unique perspectives.,.
VJ: my pleasure :)

ME: All t best in your endeavours.,.
VJ: Thank You. :)

Attitude for Altitude

Iam sure that many of you must have heard the saying: "Attitude determines your altitude". On careful analysis, the words reveal much information, than which meets our eyes.

One of my friends who is preparing for his MBA confined in me his desperateness. He feels he has to improve on his quants. Yet he feels that managing time for MBA preparation apart his working hours, is too hard.And so each and every time, he attends MBA classes, he feels that he is of no hope. That he is not capable of clearing CAT. I understood his situation wherein you began to lose hope in yourself and then you began to stop making any efforts thinking that it
wont yield any results. Whereas in reality its the other way round. As he was not taking any efforts for preparation, he finds himself in a gauche. Which in-turn makes him lose his self-confidence. What i made him understand is that he has 2 choices.

One is that he understand the fact that he needs to improve his Quants skill and make conscious effort to improve that. Conscious effort in the sense that while measuring your improvement, you dont compare yourself to others, rather you see how much you have improved with respect to your previous performance.

Second is that he keep cribbing about his poor performance, and telling to himself that he cannot do anything, which invariably will yield only that. He will achieve nothing. Hopefully, he got my point and went back consoling himself that he must focus on what he wants rather than what he doesnt wants. Iam sure he has made a decision to give his best shot and efforst in his preparation.

The best way is to keep telling ourself : Attitude directly proportional to Altitude. No matter in what situation you find youself in as long as you retain the right attitude, you can be guaranteed of happy living.

Its a Wonderful Life !!

One of my friend had written a blog on a topic called "New", in which the freshness of "New" was described. What i liked about the blog was its reference to People finding life boring as they grow Older. Iam sure many of you will agree with the fact.When we are young, we see the world with all its splendour and the immense possibilities, but as time passes by, our vision narrows down. The blog suggested people looking beyond their drawn boundaries to find the joy in life.

Well, definitely one needs to unleash his true potential and open his vision to see the world in its true colors, and experience the unlimited joy and happiness. But the Question is how do u broaden your vision ? How do u make yourself see the world as a joyful and exciting place ?

Suppose we have a Magical Specs, which will help us to look beyond, what our eyes generally can perceive.Hmmm, sounds exciting isnt but chances of finding such things are remote. Which brings us back to the question, how do we broaden our vision...?

I had attempted to answer that Question, and here is my thought flows.
To appreciate Life one must appreciate oneself. As they say, If you want to change the world , you must change yourself first. This simple yet powerful thought escapes the understanding of many of us. We are continually failing to understand the impact we make in others life. Some might argue that it may not be so, if so let me ask a Question. When was the last time you went to your Parents/Siblings/Childrens and said you Love them. Do you really know how many care about you ? Except a few, not many of us have any idea about it, coz no one has come to us saying that they value our relationship, neither we express ourself to anyone.(except expressing to a gal;).

We seem to think that as one grows old , one is supposed to less expose his feelings. Alas, what we fail to see in this is that as we began to close ourself from expressing to others,we are inadvertently closing ourself to others. And once we began to live unconsciously in solitude, we began to lose interest in Life, the cause being "Our inability to realise the importance of our existence". Since we are blind to the difference we make in the life of others,we think that Life has no meaning and that it is boring, Ofcourse it has to be, Coz you have denied yourself
the chance to seek meaning in your life, by shutting yourself out.

We tend to look at the effect like "Life is boring,dull, uninteresting" and continue to get fed of our existence, same life, same routine, same this, same that . . . But what we should have been doing is to focus on the cause that is "What made life boring" , "Why does the same routine exist" ?

The individual's belief in himself has been well illustrated in the movie "Its a Wonderful Life" wherein the principal character decides to commit suicide,coz of the adverse circumstances he finds himself in and blaming himself for all that. Fortunately, his guardian Angel saves him by making him see the world without his existence, wherein he realises the difference he has made in the life of others in his lifetime. And then he gets the desire to live again, and finds himself enjoying life even he faces a possibility of being imprisoned. This happens coz, he realises his own self worth finally.

So the solution for renewed living : Find a purpose, which you can live for, one that will help you make a difference in the life's of others. It doesnt matter if you touch .000001% or 10% of people's life what matters eventually is what you lived for in your life and how your lived it. And before you do that,ensure you express yourself to as many of ur dear ones , your love and affection. And armed with your self-worth, go and live for that purpose.

Once you see your true potential, your true capability, life will never be the same again. I dont know if Guardian Angels may come to save us from adverse circumstances, but i know for sure that we can be a Guardian Angel to someone in adverse condition.

Signing off, wishing you all a Happy Living.,. :)

Its really a Wonderful Life !!