What “3 Idiots” did to me? and what it might do to you…only if you allow it ?

It brought tears of joy and sense of pride for following my heart when it comes to work.

Didn’t know what this movie was about. Just knew it will be about college and friendship.

Indeed it was. But it brought tears in my eyes, for many reasons than one…Though i never looked for any approval of my actions from the society…here watching this movie made me feel proud of some decisions I had made in my life. The movie was like a message of go ahead follow your heart.

Watching this movie seemed like gods way of saying…go ahead raj…you anyways lived fearlessly…go on explore more boundaries and break through them…

And also it brought me in touch with some critical decisions that shaped my life.

Decision 1. Attending just 45 lectures in 5 years of my college life…yes just 45. And reading Jung & Freud while pursuing B.COM.  lol 🙂

Having been bored to death till 10th in school, I was committed to not attend mindless lectures in college. Whenever someone used to praise a teacher, I would go to “check” the teacher out. And after discovering the boring style of teaching, i would stop attending any further. Thanks to Bhavan’s college which did not make attendance a part of evaluating a good student.

The belief behind the decision was ” You don’t need a teacher reading out from the books to secure your marks”. The deal with parents was, I won’t fail, but don’t expect too much. And it paid off. All years cleared with 2nd class like 80% of population of the college, but saved precious time by not attending lectures. Though I was doing commerce, I was busy reading Freud. LOL.

I loved Freud & Jung and being a commerce student didn’t stop me from reading and exploring their work. One day at a common friend, Sonali’s house who was pursuing her Arts with Psychology, I heard about Freud and Eric Berne and then next day, I was at the book shop buying all second hand books by them. And also some books on Philosophy. The regular routine was go to college. Do time pass with friends at canteen. And then sit under trees in the campus or reading room and read Jung. It was amazing learning time.

Decision 2. Learning English after my graduation, just to become a Copywriter in Ad agency as i loved the idea of being paid for thinking. (I secretly believed then, i can’t do anything but think)

All 5 years of graduation college years, i was learning the ways of the world. As i used to spend time only with friends at college campus, never thought of mastering English whether written or spoken. Though, today i write blogs or articles for newspapers, right after my graduation, I was not able to speak or write grammatically correct english. But what helped was an argument with a Sr. guy in our colony who used to work for AD agency. When I discovered Copy-writer as a profession, i got too excited. Just ideating and writing and being paid for it. 🙂 So went to him for some guidance. He crushed my spirits with a sentence “Don’t even think about it. You are from Marathi medium school, you haven’t done arts or literature. You can’t even speak English, forget writing it. It takes a lot to be a copywriter” So i said. “Well, i am creative and English i can master now” and i still remember his sarcastic laughter. And there you go. I took admission in KC college for ADVT & PR pg course and joined David Sasoon Liabrary at KalaGhoda. During the day, study english at Library, during evenings attend KC lectures. (That too if the mood is good and teachers are good 🙂 Well, now when I look back that was the best time of my life. Learning all by myself. 🙂

Decision 3. To learn whatever I wished or what I felt passionate about. And also whenever I wished. I discovered that Age, current profession, no relevance to past experience are just excuses for not learning and growing your fears.

In 99, at age 24 while running my own business in security systems, I heard about NLP for the first time. And there I was in the first batch of Masters Certification program from NFNLP US, spending close to a couple of lacs. It was way expensive then. But what the heck. My grandma used to say “Kharya Shikhanala mol nasate” means “True Education is priceless. No cost can justify it. And till date i believe that was one of best investment I made in my learning about mind sciences.

Decision 3. Not pursuing my MBA. Though MBA was a fad during those times. But I believed that again was a waste of time.

Sometime my corporate clients get amused when they ask me where did I do my MBA from. And I shamelessly say, I haven’t. Watching them turn surprised. Because here I am consulting them on their Revenue or Business model or Pricing Strategy. Or aspects of Org Design and Development which only the MBAs were supposed to know. I don’t disrepect MBA education, but I genuinely feel that doesn’t decide much about your growth in Corporate World as it is widely believed.

All my learning about Systems Thinking was hands on and learnt from Sanjiv, my mentor in Systems Thinking. And hence never felt that a business school is the first step to learn something about the business or corporate world. All it takes to learn is some books, some experts in the field, willingness to work even for free just to learn, and some dose of passion. That was a big discovery then and still now.

Decision 4. Quitting corporate world for reasons of my heart. The key reasons were a. To be with my friends b. To sit in barista and chill while at work c. To work just 10 days full-time in a month.

I was criticized, made fun of or was scared by many well meaning friends, when I said I wish to quit the fancy job to start my consulting and executive coaching firm. And my reasons were simple. I loved Barista, I loved Pune and all my dear friends were in Pune. And today I feel glad to be there with my best friends who have become my family now. Sam, Manisha & their kid Sid. I can do anything for them and vice versa. My discovery was that the biggest joy and fun can be shared only with friends. For eg. today, watching “3 idiots” with them was grand fun. And singing along with Sid the song All is well 🙂 was super fun.

Decision 5. Creating a multi-faceted career to honor my different facets. Not believing in traditional wisdom of career building by doing just one thing for donkey years.

My new visiting card gets people puzzled. As it expresses all aspects of my work. One side talks about all the corporate work and other side talks about all my work in area of counseling, healing & bodywork. Though sometimes people look at me with a lill doubt how can one person do all this, but as they begin to go deeper and interact further, even they get inspired to do the same.

It is actually simple to build a multifaceted career. Sometimes i wonder why many are not doing it.

While I was watching “3 idiots”, some scenes, especially the one when all of them are sitting and drinking and Aamir inspires them to follow their hearts, made me feel great about my decisions of following my heart.

Won’t tell you the story as I don’t wish to spoil your movie experience.

Also another thing it did is, it added Aamir as another fav actor in my list. But the best star (not necessarily best actor) in my list is still SRK. Am very loyal by design so can’t change that. 🙂

If there is only one thing you can do after the movie. I would give a free advice (which I normally don’t do, being a Coach:-) )

And that is . Drop all excuses and run behind your dreams, your passions, things that you love to do. Otherwise at the end of life, there is only a regret that often starts with a sentence… “I wish, I had….”

Money happens, Security happens, Everything happens once you choose. Its a false belief which says winning in rat race is more important. It doesn’t hold true for all of life. Sharing from experience 🙂

The movie leaves you with a secret which is the baseline of  3 Idiots “Choose excellence, success will follow” Having lived it, I sincerely agree with it.

Wish you a grand holiday season. May you start new year with some new decisions, that can change the course  of your life, for the rest of your life. Love you all. God bless.