How to be a rock star in whatever you do in life? Align your passion with profession.

What was Sachin Tendulkar born to do? He was born to bat.

What was AR Rehman  born to do? To create music

What was Vishwanathan Anand born to do? To play chess

What was Amitabh Bachchan  born to do? To act

What was Michael Jackson born to do? To dance

What are you born to do?

According to the hindu mythology a human birth is the most sacred and we achieve this birth after a life cycle of 84 Lac birth and deaths. Your birth is not somebody’s mistake, it has happened by cosmic design. And each one of us has a genius, a passion like these people whose names I mentioned in my opening statements. Till the time we are unaware of our passion we exist, and the moment you understand what you have come here for, what is the reason you are born, that is the eureka moment after which you start living. Every moment is sheer bliss. In this era of never seen before competition if one is not passionate about what he does 99.99 percent chances are that he will fail.

Ask yourself a question “What if you inherited 100 Cr from a distant relative?” How will you then spend your life when you do not have to bother about food shelter and clothing? What will you do now fill up your days? If you get an answer that is your passion, follow that. I see a lot of young people today just want money. Please understand making money is not the final objective, if you are having passion for what you do money will come it’s a byproduct of passionate satisfaction. Being satisfied, healthy and happy with what you do is a life well lived. Unfortunately 95 percent people die without understanding why they were born? I reiterate in my seminars and to my students “Don’t start running because you see everyone else is also running.” Wait, slow down and introspect what are your special skills which you have been gifted with and how do you use them to get the best result from this life.

My journey till now.......

This is certainly not something that I read in a book or someone told me about, this has been my own personal experience. I started my career in 1997 as a sales guy for Tata British Petroleum selling engine oils and lubricants in Agra. My father was a doctor, mother a lecturer, elder sister also a lecturer so technically everyone was a government employee. Like most parents wishing a stable job for their kids my father was very keen that I also join public sector however being a bit of rebel, I was hell bent that I would not, however I relented after he took ill and was with him before I lost him in Feb 1999. His last wish was that I join army as he himself could not make it through the SSB, and as any proud father, wanted his son to do it for him. As luck would have it I was that very year selected for combined defense services and went for SSB where again I was selected so joined army in the prestigious armoured corp.

Indian army was the best thing that ever happened to me, however due to personal and family reasons I took a discharge after five years and decided to join the corporate once again. When I left army having an MBA degree was an in thing and a must for a good start in any company, so I did my MBA from MDI Gurgaon and on completion got selected for DLF and ICICI Bank. I worked for banks like ICICI Bank and Standard Chartered Bank for about four years. I came to Mumbai in the year 2007. Due to luck and some smart investment I had made enough money to sustain my family for at least two years if I did quit my banking job. By this time my better half had also settled nicely in her job, she was a principal in a college where she still works. Like any normal person in Mumbai the commercial capital of India I decided what everyone aspires for, to start a business.

After lot of brainstorming at home I decided to start a DSA/DMA for banks selling loans on their behalf because technically that was the only thing which I knew or maybe being an army officer could have opened a security agency. This DSA venture started rather well. For the first time in my life I felt things were not happening by default, I was in charge of what I wanted to do, make lots of money that was it. The only goal was to create wealth. After about six months I did introspection whether I was really happy and satisfied, though I was making money but frankly speaking “No, I was not happy”. I did not know the reason but something was missing. There are always some answers which you never get, this was one of them. I did not tell my wife about it, how could I, after all the entire decision was mine. Nevertheless I kept on tugging along.

One fine day, early morning I get a call from a close friend who is a corporate trainer and a speaker, he was a guest lecturer at an MBA college and he asked me to stand for him as he was running a high fever and he could just not have the event cancelled. I asked him “What am I going to speak?” He assured me by saying “Just go there and narrate any of your army experiences, kids would love it.” Not very convinced but since there was no way out, I agreed.

I still remember it was at 10 am when I started and some of the students on coming to know of my banking experience asked me some really smart questions on different verticals in banks, trends of the bfsi industry, retail banking, its future etc. I tried to answer whatever little I knew, it was turning out to be an enjoyable session, I do not know when I really went in a trance, after some time I realized all my hair follicles stood up, I was super charged with energy and loving each moment of the session. I was given an hour’s time but the session went for the next three hours. It was one “Wow” moment of my life.

Over dinner I just could not wait to share my experience with my wife. When I told her that finally I feel I have discovered what my passion is, and I intend shutting my DSA business to start teaching kids I still remember the shocked look she gave me “You’re nuts” is all what came out of her mouth. Jokes apart, frankly this was my Eureka moment, at the age of 35 years after having donned various roles of a salesman, army officer, real estate guy, banker, businessman I came to know I was always born to be a teacher. Had I started my life as a teacher I would have been more satisfied and enjoyed my life more nevertheless no regrets.  

Now that my little secret is revealed I must also tell you that the day I am not well and I take a class I start feeling better that is the power of your passion. I just love whatever I do now, training, writing blogs, content creation, every bit of this. Money has become secondary; if you are doing what you are passionate about money will follow.

Now imagine if you get to know what your passion is at 21, you will become a rockstar if you make it your profession. I am blessed to know some people who chose to follow their heart and do what they wanted in life, it certainly is a challenging choice to be made. It requires courage. A lot of people choose a life that does not deeply fulfill their deep inner yearnings because it provides security, predictability, safety and the approval of family and society. Our social system is driven by mind, fear and ego; we do not place too much importance on self fulfillment or our passion. We are more fixated about external success, money, security, stability and reputation.

Its very simple your heart is free and wild driven by love, whereas your head is practical and analytical and is often driven by fear, it will always tell you how to be safe, to make more money etc but this is not how we are meant to live, this is not what life is all about. I feel one needs to wake up and connect with what one wants, do that incase if you want to become a rockstar. Follow your heart and do what you love.