"G" for GALLANT: MODEL YOUR HEROES

One very good way to figure out what you want in life is to think about the people you most admire and learn from them. You can use this exercise for any aspect of your life, but for our purposes, you should focus on people whose careers you admire.

Try this simple three-step process for turning your hero worship into an actionable career strategy in college and beyond.

Step one: Identify your heroes

??Write a list of the people whose careers you admire in some way—your heroes.

?Your list can include parents, family, friends, celebrities, people you’ve read about in the news, professors, alumni of your school, politicians, CEOs, historical figures—anyone.

?Select at least 3 people, but it is better to list as many as you’d like.

?Write down what you admire about this hero.

?Here is a simple chart to help you get started:

??Hero - Reasons I Admire This Person

Step two: Follow in their footsteps

Do some further research on Google and LinkedIn:

?What did they study? - What degrees did they receive? - Where did they work / do their first job? - awards they won - Who were their mentors - What networks and professional organizations do/did they belong to - which companies they worked in - What do they typically tweet / blog / write/speak / YouTube / Instagram about?

?Learn as much as you can, and then use this information to brainstorm a list of opportunities, internships, companies, and people you might consider looking into for your first job after college

Also, look for patterns that might give you a hint to what you might want to do:

?Do the majority of your heroes have MBAs? Did they work for private companies or Govt organizations? did they start a company themselves or work for others to start with? did they work for social justice?

Your heroes will likely provide clues to your own ideal career path and the choices you might want to make along the way

Step three: Contact them

This is not a joke. This may look difficult but do-able. Moreover, what do you have to lose? These days with LinkedIn and Facebook and connections becoming easier, you should be able to connect with your heroes.

Do you know the story of the 12 year old Steve Jobs cold calling the HP founders for his school project and getting not only what he wanted but also an internship at the HP factory? Unless you ask for it, you will not get anything and if you don't, what is there to lose?

Remember the story of Jaiswal - the Indian cricket sensation asking Sanju Samson for some time to look at his batting? Jaiswal had a lot of courage doing it. Sanju Samson was a true hero by spending his time watching an unknown kid and then going ahead to support Jaiswal. But, that is how things happen.

So, try reaching out to your heroes!

The idea is to figure out what your heroes do, love, act, and study - so that you can also try doing them and model yourself after them - to see whether you like doing things that your heroes did.

In our next week edition, let us look at G for "Gritty" and we will see how critical it is to be gritty in the face of failures and that never give up attitude helps you win in your life.

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