Long Lasting Lessons Letter
One Hour Interview with A Man Of
Value, A Stranger or should I call him Mr. Ved Prakash Sharma.
Today Morning at around 10:17
a.m. when I was sitting in my office, I saw a person walking in, I offered him
a seat. Few seconds later, He noticed me busy, in making notes and asked, “What
are you doing?”
“I am making notes”, I replied.
“What do you study?”, he further
asked.
I told him I am doing MBA. He
then asked me about the authors whose books we are referring. I was bit embarrassed
to realize that I hardly remembered any writer to say, yet I got courage to
speak, “I study from class presentations, on their basis, I make notes.”
“You must study from books as
well”, he suggested.
He started telling about his own Education
background and how reached where he is today.
By now, he took my whole attention
so perfectly that I kept my pen on a notebook and started listening to him.
While He was telling me many
things, I kept introducing various questions into the discussion, to grab more
knowledge.
1. How can I improve my Vocabulary?
“Read Roget Thesaurus, it is very helpful, you will find 56 synonyms
for every word.”
He talked about how the GNA, LPU,
TATA and Reliance grew in the business and from where they started. While
talking about these giants, he told about Karl Marx’ Theory mentioning, “The more you invest, the more you will earn”.
He also beautifully used the
concept of Mathematics while explaining the concept of Capital in Business. He
stated, “PLUS and PLUS results in PLUS.
PLUS and MINUS results in MINUS” He used this statement perfectly
suggesting that there must be least withdrawals from business, rather you must
reinvest it into the business.
He told that he did Sales work
with Nirma for Rs. 700 per day and used to gain market knowledge while working.
In addition he said tha currently he is a Professor at Senior Secondary School.
Moreover, he gives 3 lectures at LPU twice a week for ILETS.
2. I shared my dream job and told him that my General Knowledge is
Zero, and asked how can I improve?
“Competitive Master, Money Matters, India Today Magazines”
Based on my dream job, he
recommended me the above three magazines and taught me ways about how to read a
newspaper.
“Whatever you do, you cannot be perfect in a day, but still be
consistent.”
“Have faith and keep walking, you will reach your destination.”
He also shared his personal
experience about how he reached a destination of doing PhD in English
Literature. (P.S. The same is revealed at the end of this letter.)
3. I told him that I am thinking to take “Marketing and Finance” as my
Specialization but I always felt scared of marketing and NOs from sales. (P.S.
I gave him an opportunity to take his opinion on the same.)
“Begger will beg, no matter how
people treats him, he would visit to every home. Some will scold him, others
would be harsh, cruel or ignorant with him and there would be few who would
actually give him money but he will not stop rather, will beg and nobody’s
reaction would define his work or stop him from working.”
He started his answer with this
amazing example which really surprised me, yet he continued by explaining me
how Finance is dependent upon Marketing and informed that he has read many
books on marketing such as Kar Lo Duniya Muthi mein, Net Marketing and others
from authors; Chetan Anand, Manoj
Bajpayee, etc. He also stated that Manoj Bajpayee is not only a good actor
but a great story writer and also a good lecturer.
4. Later I mentioned my intentions about my ultimate dream and how I
procrastinate it. I requested him to suggest me ways to work for it.
“Start with Imagination, sit in a peace environment for 30 minutes every day and only think about what you want to do, after few days when you will have complete mind set about what is the subject matter of what you want to do, you will automatically feel motivated to do it. Gradually, you will find a direction in your work and will not stop in the middle way until you reach your destination.
Same goes with life, if you
remember when you were child, your Mother used to wake you up with force and
give tea and make you ready for school. Gradually you got a habit of waking up
by yourself and asking for tea before getting ready. Few years later, you
started having tea after getting ready. Then finally the time came, when you
started even making tea for your Parents after waking up and getting ready by
yourself.
There are 4 Phases of Learning:-
-
Imagination
-
Focus
-
Self-Analysis
-
Experience
Once you
achieve these 4 stages, you automatically enters into the 5th step
i.e. Practical.
And make sure that you don’t
think about all these, in your exam days, rather just focus only on the exam
strategies and do well”.
His Journey Towards Excellence In
His Own Words
“I was working with Nirma after
doing BA when I met with a student who introduced me to Professor who
recommended me to do MA in English Literature, so I enrolled for the same. But
gradually things were different for me because I came to know I had to read 45
Books during the course but I was still working. I then, decided to talk to the
same professor for suggestion and he advised me to prefer 5 Books for each
subject. I agreed and used to take 2 Books on rent for every 15 days from
Jalandhar and make notes out of them on every weekend. I got 47% in first year
whereas Regular students got only 52%.
Therefore Professor recommended
me to enroll for regular course but I told him that I cannot afford and then he
agreed to pay for my fees. Hence, I agreed for half fees, and converted my
degree to a regular program. I finally got 42% as I had to leave college for 2
months due to some personal reasons.
Later, I completed my BEd. in
next 3 years and started working as a Faculty. One day, I met with a same
professor who recommended me to begin my PhD. But at that time my Marks were
less so he suggested me to retake two exams. After retaking those two exams, I
was able to score 55% in MA and then enrolled for PhD.”
Moreover, he told that he has
been working as a Lecturer from the past 24 years and is about to retire in
next 3-4 years, yet he shared his future goals after that as well.
At the end, when he said bye and
went outside the office, I looked out of the window and started waiting to see
on which vehicle he just came. I was amazed to see him going back to home on
bicycle, his respect in my eyes grew even more.
I hope you enjoyed reading it,
Thanks & Regards,
Rohit Sood
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