abhishekakula

[abhishekakula]

When we think of successful entrepreneurs, a few names that pop up instantly in our mind are Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs. Responsible for some of the greatest inventions of the 21st century, these guys have been exceptional in their respective fields and their prodigious contributions to Science and Technology have made the lives of millions of people a lot easier. But what saddens me is the fact that there is another person who was as successful as them but finds little or no mention nowadays when we talk about great entrepreneurs. I’m not sure if it is due to the lack of social media during his time or due to the low profile he liked to maintain. But one thing that I can be sure of is the fact that he is right up there with the guys I mentioned above. And maybe greater than them for the sole reason that he did not have the technology that these guys had at their disposal. The man I’m talking about is none other than Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart. Often my father told me about the popularity of Walmart in the US and the way they served their customers. But last Sunday, after reading an article about this gigantic retail chain, I felt that it was time I get to know more about them. So after checking a couple of books on Walmart, I finally settled on this book – Sam Walton : Made in America, an autobiography by the man himself. To be honest, I was never a big fan of autobiographies. I found them boring (yeah, you read that right). But after reading his story, I now regret not reading it earlier. Because halfway through the book, I was thoroughly convinced that this book would leave an ever lasting impression on me. Born in a small town of Kingfisher, Oklahoma to Thomas Gibson Walton and Nancy Lee, Sam was not one of those guys who wanted to live the rest of his life farming in the fields of Missouri. Instead, he wanted to be in the retail business. A business which at that time was inflated and was being taken advantage of. He wanted to change it all. He wanted to make the customer the king again. This sheer desire to serve the customer in the best possible way motivated him to to open the first true Walmart on July 2, 1962, in Rogers, Arkansas and introduce the discount system which would later go on to become a trend now followed by almost all retail chains in the world. And this certainly didn’t happen overnight. It took him 20 years to build this gigantic retail chain to what it is today. He built it from scratch and against all odds. But he succeeded at it because his philosophy was pretty simple, like I have mentioned it a couple of times already now, customer was his number one priority. What he did was he cut his operational costs, gave discounts on products and sold more items. In this way, though he was selling it at a low cost, he was selling more and hence making profits as well. This might not seem something new to us now, but the reason I made this point here is that he had this vision 40 years ago. Had he not come up with this idea, we would still be buying products at inflated prices. What he also mentions in this book again and again is that the more you give, the more you will get. And it is so true. Because at the end of the day, if you take care of your customers, they will revisit your store and in turn you will sell more. He also makes an important point that no matter how talented and ambitious you are, without the basic principles of hard work, commitment and passion, you cannot make it big in life. And these principles are the need of the hour for everyone because the advances in technology is creating a world like never before and it is important that we don’t forget our roots to stay grounded. He reminds all of us that it’s not about living a lavish lifestyle or driving luxury sports cars but giving something back to the society is what will give you a greater satisfaction. Walton was honored for his work in retail in March 1992, just one month before his death, when he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the USA. I personally recommend everyone to give this book a read as it will open up a new perspective towards life, one which you might not have encountered before. And for all the budding entrepreneurs out there who need some inspiration, this might just be the book which will get you up and running.

[abhishekakula]

How many times have you sacrificed something for someone you didn’t even know and didn’t expect anything in return? Well, the answer to that question would range from 0 to something that we can count on our fingers. But does it mean that there is no humanity left in this world? Of course, not. Because saying so would discredit the small population of people left in this world who are still waving the flag of altruism in spite of all the hardships and troubles they face in their day to day lives.

One such group of people whom we don’t give enough credit is the Indian Army. Amidst the extremely hot weather conditions in Rajasthan, where temperature shoots up to 50 degrees and while dust storms, sand storms, and the blistering heat combine to make the desert region an unfit place for habitation altogether, the Indian army patrols these long borders so that we people can live peacefully. Coming to the Siachen Glacier located in the eastern Karakoram range, temperature dips to -50 degrees Celsius which makes is almost impossible to live let alone guarding the border. Now the weather conditions I am referring here is something where we cannot imagine to live, even in our wildest dreams. But the reality is that these people are out there, working effortlessly, to protect our nation from its enemies. And what do they expect in return? NOTHING. They are only doing this because they love their country. They love their people and they want them to be safe.

So the reason why I have come up with this topic today is because I want everyone to realize how our soldiers are ill treated in the society, albeit they sacrifice so much for the country. Recently, I was standing in a bus station in Hyderabad, waiting for my bus to arrive. My semester exams had ended a couple of days ago and I was on my way to Mumbai to meet my parents. The bus was scheduled for 8:30 pm, but due to heavy traffic, I received a message from the driver saying that the bus is delayed by 30 mins. This made me even more restless and I started looking for a place to sit. Finally, after much effort, I found a seat and sat there. Sitting next to me was a man in his early 30′s with 3 bags of luggage and full of excitement. He caught me staring at his baggage and said “Hi, where are you heading to?” I told him that I was going to Mumbai and asked him about his destination. He said he was going to Belgaum and that he was very excited as he was going to meet his family after 3 long months. At this point, to be honest, I was a bit worried because even though he spoke politely, his appearance made him look like some kind of a goon. For this reason, I intentionally cut off the conversation. But after a few minutes, he asked me why I was going to Mumbai. This made me more nervous but I replied calmly because I didn’t want him to notice my nervousness. He then asked me a few more things about my parents, education and other random stuff. I was really getting worried now and I asked him who he was. And the moment he told me whoe he was, my whole perception about him changed. It was like, in a fraction of seconds, he transformed from a villain to a hero. He was a SOLDIER. A soldier on his way home for a vacation, having served his country relentlessly for the past six months. So the thing is, I had seen many soldiers in my life since I live very close to the army base in Hyderabad but not once had I spoken to any of them. So I asked him where he was stationed. He told me that he was in the Chattisgarh camp. Then my curiosity made me ask him about his life as a soldier and the various challenges he faced in his day to day life. He told me that he was posted in the jungles of Chattisgarh, which is 100 kms away from the main city. He also told me how they were made to work continuously for over 40 hours without any sleep, surviving only on dry fruits. Then I asked him if he ever felt sad about it. He took a deep breath and answered my question. He answered it in detail and with so much emotion that I really felt ashamed of myself and the society I live in. He told me that its not the work that makes him feel like sad but in fact he loves serving the nation. The only thing that makes him sad is how we people treat the army people. Now that was something I had not expected. He then explained that on one occasion,  he was traveling by train to his village and his ticket was not confirmed. So he asked his fellow passengers if he could just sleep on the ground in between the two seats since he was very tired. But the passengers, instead of helping him out, refused to allow him to sleep on the ground thinking that he might steal something as army people receive low salaries. How small minded right? Just imagine being in that situation.  He then put his hand on my shoulder and said “Son, always remember, we army people will put our lives in risk to save people, but will never steal anything”. Saying this he took out his mobile and showed me the photos of his colleague, who was shot last week in an encounter. He told me that the guy was very hardworking and had big dreams about serving his country and that he was close to him. The guy was 25 years old. Just 25. Can you imagine how his parents would have felt seeing that boy’s body? Well, we have no idea because all we do is eat sleep and party. On top of that, we do things that disparage them. Shameful.

In the mean time, his bus arrived and he prepared to leave. I stood up immediately, gave him a hug and said thanks for everything. This made him really emotional. It was quite a story that day.

 All I am saying here is that these people aren’t expecting us to worship them. All they are asking for is to show them some respect. Can we not do that? Can we not do that for them who are risking their lives in order to save ours? Of course, we can. Because at the end of the day, we are all INDIANS. We are all human beings and we all deserve to be respected. JAI HIND!

[abhishekakula]

Ambitious. Passionate. Hard Working. 

We often find many intellectuals, teachers and our own parents stressing on how important the above three qualities are for a person to become successful in life. But, I always wondered what if a person has all the three qualities mentioned above and still fails at some point of time. And what if he is so devastated by it that he has no hope left? That’s when we require someone or something to act as driving force which helps us to come out of despair. That little ray of hope which lights up a darkened room. But what is it and where do we get it from? Well, after assessing the past few months of my life , I think I found the answer to that question and I would like to share it with everyone.

In April 2018, just after my 6th semester had ended, I was wondering what I would do after engineering. So I explored a few fields and narrowed down my options to two i.e Masters in the United States or to do MBA in a top B school. To be honest, the sole reason I planned to do Masters was because I would be earning in dollars and it was an easier path when compared to the latter one. But for MBA, I had the passion and determination. Having come from a Banking background with my father himself being an officer, somewhere down the lane I felt that MBA was my thing. So I got enrolled in TIME institute for CAT coaching classes. For the first few months I studied for 6 hours a day with great zeal and determination and I can proudly say that I had all the three qualities in me. But just when I thought everything was going well, I fell ill. This was in the month of July when I was diagnosed with ulcers in my stomach. That’s when the pessimist inside me woke up and things started falling apart. I couldn’t accept the fact that something like this had happened to me at such a crucial time. I started getting depressed over small things. I started thinking negatively. In spite of the doctor assuring me that everything would be fine, something inside my head was shouting aloud that it wouldn’t be. I was so concerned about my health that I didn’t even feel like studying anymore. Even the doctor couldn’t understand what my problem was because all the reports were normal. Then after counselling me for an hour, he came to a conclusion that it was all in my head. I had become a Hypochondriac. A state where a person has abnormal chronic anxiety about his/her health due to extreme stress and pressure. That’s when I realized that there was another important quality, probably the most important of all, which I lacked. OPTIMISM. If the three qualities mentioned at the start together form the engine of car then optimism is the fuel which drives it forward. Such is the importance of it.

All my life I had been a pessimist. I used to think that being a pessimist helped me in being scrupulous as I would  cover all the negative aspects. But I was wrong. I was wrong all these years. Had I been optimistic about my health, maybe I wouldn’t have suffered from Hypochondria. But that wasn’t the case.  Being a pessimist might work out on a short-term basis, but I am pretty sure you will go through a phase in which you are under extreme stress and this pessimism will only add up to your pile of misery. And it happened to me. Happened to me in the most crucial stage of my life. I realized that no matter how fit you are physically if you are mentally not strong, you will breakdown at some point of time. This realization made me change my perspective about certain things in life. I started seeing things in a positive way. Now, unlike before, I try to remain sangfroid in pressure situations which helps me to be more calm and composed. This idea of optimism has ignited the much needed spark inside me. Now thankfully, I have come out depression and back to being normal.

Come January 2019, the CAT results will be announced and I know that I won’t get a seat in a good college. But I ain’t sad about it because even though the result was not the one I desired , I learned something from the process. Something which has changed my perception about life and I am thankful for that.