Being a teacher, it is imperative for me to update myself on a regular basis. Hence, i always ensure to get new ideas. And as the great Indian Vedas have very rightly said it, " Let noble ideas come to you from all sources and directions"; i try to learn from all possible sources. But two sources are so powerful learning tools that they overshadow every other tool. And they are : students and books.
I want to mention one particular experience that i had with a student many years ago. I was sitting in my 144 square feet front office cum class room. The year may have been 1993 or 1994. And this young boy, let us call him Rakesh, came asking for me. I asked him to sit down and observed him. He seemed to me to be an average boy passing through very struggling phase of life. He initiated the discussion. "Sir! Mujhe CA karna hai." I began the examination.
"What is your percentage of class 10?
"48"
"Oh! And how much is class 12?"
"47"
"Okay! And what do you do presently?"
"Sir! I have just completed B.Com."
"With 46%!", i mocked.
"Yes sir! Exactly!!", he replied.
"And what is your father?"
"Sir! He is a rickshaw puller."
The analysis was complete. And i had made up my mind. I decided to keep aside my commercial considerations and call a spade a spade. I said to him in very clear terms, " Dekho Rakesh! Mujhe nahi lagta ki tum CA kar paoge. Kahin Typing Computer seekh kar koi chhota mota job kar lo." He looked at me with a rude shock on his face. Then he nervously said, "Theek hai, sir" and left. I was very happy with myself for being honest, straightforward and saving his valuable time and money.
Time and tide wait for none. After about 6 or 7 years, when i was sitting in the same office at around the same time, a smart youthful person entered and asked, "Mujhe pahchana?" I could not and said so. He fired, "Aaj se 7 saal pahle tumne kaha tha ki mai CA nahi kar sakta aur maine CA kar liya hai. Ab Bolna mat kabhi kisi ko Aisi baat. Tumne bahut discourage kiya tha mujhko us din!" After applying some pressure to the memory, i was able to have a partial recall of the earlier case. I was shocked and ashamed. I desperately wanted to make up for my wrong deed. I decided to do some marketing. I smiled, offered my hand to him and requested him to sit down. In a very friendly voice, i commented, " I am sorry, dost, but you will have to agree with me that my bad behaviour in fact encouraged you to perform better to teach me a lesson." He agreed. And i then said, " So, you must agree that i also have some role in your success." He also smiled at this and we became friends.
Today Rakesh is state accounts head of a very prestigious newspaper. We meet once every year on Dussehera, when he comes to Ujjain.
And in this manner, every year i am reminded of a simple fact. Never underestimate any human being. Every individual have a tremendous potential of transforming himself or herself totally. First impression can be faulty, specially in the case of people with will power and commitment. And of course, the package you get at your first job is never reflective of your true potential. I am sure, every reader of this post has met at least one senior person who has told him about his initial salary of Rs. 50 or 60 per month and then compared with present day income of lakhs.
You are creating history! Every moment, every time. And never underestimate yourself! No one can make you feel inferior without your own consent. Not even your average first salary figures in times of recession!
21 comments:
Respected Sir,
This is very motivational fact you shared with us.I was also believing that the people who could not achieve things in their life earlier cannot achieve later but after coming to proton and by reading this superb blog i will change my wrong perception
Thank you for sharing such wonderful fact with us.
Respected Sir,
This is true that you are the master of your own destiny but circumstances make human being bound.
but then too "never stop keep trying" is the attitude that we all must keep.Thankyou sir for sharing a wonderful experience.
Regards
Rahul Singhania
Really Great inspirational blog sir. I think you played a big role.
Respected Sir,
This is very motivating post,and this is true that once you are committed to do something than with right efforts and proper guidance you can achieve the success.
With Regards,
Swapnil Subhedar
fall-08
good morning sir,
After reading this blog it is true that every task can be done if a person has zeal of making it and has a will power because it is a only thing which is forcing to achieve the goal.
if rakesh can do it, then why cannot we can do each and every task.
your truly,
saurabh bansal
fall 09
Hello Sir, u said very rightly about not under-estimating anyone but Sir sometimes it is very necessary to under-estimate some people and because of that they really under-estimate them self and change there way. What would you like to suggest for this type of people?
Good Morning sir,
It need courage to confess your mistakes,as you did.This biog also motivates me, because I am second division pass out in high and higher secondary.
have a good day sir
Sanjay Lulla
Respected Sir,
It is a very big learning that i got today after reading your blog sir that without getting hurt directly to heart we cannot succeed in life and we can't know our true potentials.
Thank you sir
Proton Deepesh Agrawal
Fall 08
Hi Sir, It is the truth of life.
Many times it happens with all of us that we try to look the past and present and we try to forecast the future but in some cases (as it also happened with you) we often miss the will power and potential and commitment of an individual. This is the biggest mistake we make when we say "an ant cannot do any harm to an elephant". We must never under estimate a factor as variable as a human.
Respected Sir,
It was a great learning .We should not get discourged by anyone rather we shoul take lessons from othersand we should take others negative advice as challenge and work upon it with 100% efforts.
Thanks Sir for great learning.
Regards
Proton Shraddha
Good Morning Sir,
Your this experience was full of learning and motivation, and this again proves that each individual has unique skills and potential. It requires a spark, and you worked as a spark in this case. So its my plea to everyone, that realize your own potential.
Regards
Shailendra
Respected sir,
This is the electrifying motivational post.I learned from this great blog that nothing is miracle,!NBII! never believe in impossible.
Thank you sir for sharing such enthusiasm experience.
Thank you
Dheerendra vaishnava
fall 09
Dear Sir,
When I was in 10th class, I was very poor in mathematics so my father decided to send me for a tution before few days of exams. And unfortunately I was not able to tell my tutor the ‘Logarithm Table’. He said me on the first day that you can not pass the 10th exam. I left the tution same day with full of frustration.
I passed 10th exams with 55% marks and 12th exams with 73%.
Here I want to tell two fundamental beliefs or I should say wrong notion of people here. First is that if somebody is underestimating you or your potential then actually he is your friend, and unknowingly he is helping you by criticizing you. These critics will always remind you that what you have to achieve?
And second is if somebody is criticizing you than please mind that you have something important in you to criticize. ‘Nobody kicks a dead dog’
And my suggestion to all my friends that please accept your critics because it will not harm you at all.
With Regards,
Ravi Jain
Entrepreneurship class
Respected Sir,
I agreed with your post that never underestimate yourself.
Sir, i would like to share my past life and recent life that when i was in 10th std.percentage is just 50.83% and in 12th i got 60.93% on that time i am gujarati medium so,my english is very poor. i thought that i cannot speak english or communicate with other in english.after that i joined BBA very first day when i heard that BBA is english course i just shocked.and thought how can i pass. but when i completed my BBA i got Distinction Class and now i can speak english as well as communicate with other people. so, i learned that we should not underestimate ourself. "Nothing is Impossible"
Thank you sir for sharing such wonderful thought with us.
With Regards,
Proton Bhavik Savaliya
Fall '09 (Ahmedabad)
Respected Sir,
This blog was an eye opening lesson for me. It motivated me a lot and inspired me to work hard and get my goals achieved.I like one thing the most in your blog i.e., your blog shows us the way to leave our life and gives us many learnings which will be helpful for us in future. Thank you for sharing such an experience.
Regards
Proton Ankur Verma
Fall 08
Nice learnings Sir!
Will help me even to furthur polish and mentor.
Hats off to "Rakesh" who converted discouragement into positive challange.
Clearing CA is really "CLEARING CA"
One should have determination, patience, dedication and continuity for accepting any task and materializing it within time with atmost perfection.
Manmeet Arora
Dear Sir,
This inspirational fact has actually motivated lot of us. And the learning that never understimate any human being.Critics are very important in a person's life, hence one should take them positively.
Its time for positive change!
Regards
Proton Rajshree Gupta
Respected Sir,
After reading this blog I felt that you had done the right thing and what I learn is for making things possible one needs to create passion and need to have a feeling for that. It was all about how you take others advice.
Thank you Sir, for sharing your experience.
With Regards,
Rahul Khadiwala
Fall '09
Dear Sir,
The blog is very much motivational, inspirational and thought provoking. But after reading it I am in a dilemma. Sir you have here used a question "and what is your father?", but sir few days ago the language development faculty at PROTON business school taught us that "what is your father?" is a grammatically wrong formation. So sir please help to sort out this confusion from my mind.
Yours sincerely,
Gautam Gunjaria
Fall 2009 intake
Dear sir
thanks for sharing this with us this is very motivational and inspirational and it really gives me a new look to think on such matters.
Regards
Rajat bhavsar
pt ujjain
Respected Sir,
This blog is based on real fact that people having lots of dreams but initially may be he or she is not able to get that dreams but the important learning is that we never underestimate to any one because no one know's the person to whom we are underestimating might be in future he may be superior than us or may our boss.
Regards
Sumit Khandelwal
Spring 09
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