I wanted to earn 1 lakh

I had just received my 12th-grade results. I did quite well. Nothing earth-shattering, but good enough that I was honored as one of the top performers in my district. And still, I applied to about 5 colleges and got through none. 

I had written the NLSIU entrance, and I didn’t make it. 

I had written NUJS entrance, and was on the waitlist, but didn’t go for it. I would have made the cut, but I didn’t feel prepared to go there because I knew my English was terrible. I should join a graduation course in English Literature to learn more English, I thought.

I was kind of nervous about studying in a law school in English as up to that point I studied in Bengali medium schools. I wanted a trial run or more time to prepare for studying law in English. I thought being on a waitlist was the sign that I needed that preparation.

I didn’t consider that writing any other law entrance was worth it. 

I had written 2 entrance tests for English departments, at Jadavpur University and Presidency College, Kolkata, and didn’t get through either. So I didn’t bother to apply anywhere else.

My parents initially thought I had things handled, but when they saw I am not taking admission in any college, they panicked. They asked me what’s the deal.

I said well, I am going to write the law entrances again next year, and I will make it. I need not take admission anywhere.

They were not convinced. They insisted that I must take admission in some college, even if just on paper. It would apparently help me to explain the drop year after my board’s exam better.

I didn’t understand why I must take admission in a college I wasn’t really interested in, but I trusted my parents and went for it. However, as I was late, admission to most colleges was closed by then. My mother took me to meet an old professor of hers, Prof. Sabuj Sen.

Sabuj Sen was a famous professor from Narasingha Dutta College, a hundred plus-year-old college in Howrah, my hometown. The college wasn’t known for the highest level of education, but it was the staple place where those who didn’t have stellar marks found a place anyway. 

So I was taken to meet Prof. Sabuj Sen. He looked at my mark sheet and appreciated it. Then he asked me, why do you want to study law? I said I heard people who graduate from top law schools earn 1 lakh per month. I also want to earn that much.

It was an honest answer. But Prof. Sen was disappointed. He was taken aback visibly. He asked me “what will you even do with 1 lakh per month?”

You see, I come from a society where the pursuit of knowledge, art, and good qualities was always prioritized over the pursuit of money.

Anyway, Mr. Sen helped me to secure admissions in that college, in the night section which I preferred. I attended the Shakespeare classes as well as the history of the English language for a while until the first-semester exam which I did not feel was worth writing. I prepared for law entrances and made it to NUJS next year as a 2nd topper in the merit list. 

And that was that. I still wanted to earn 1 lakhs per month. It was the dream back in 2005, which came true sooner than I thought. I hit that mark several times while doing freelance work as a law student in the 4th and 5th year of law school. I was paying income tax by the time I was in 3rd year of law school itself!

When I joined a big law firm after college, the salary package was well beyond 14 lakhs per annum, and I had a side income too. It helped me to pay down my entire education loan in 5 months straight, pay a bit to my family which was building a house, live a pretty good life in South Bombay and save for 3 months rent and living expenses because I was going to quit at the 1 year mark to pursue my dreams of setting up the world's greatest legal education company.

I will tell that story another time, but the point I am making is that it’s pretty awesome to make good money. It solves a lot of problems. I highly recommend it.

You do not really have to stop at 1 lakh. I think it's a bare minimum. If you can get to 1 lakh, you can get to 2, and then you can get to 5. 

However, 1 lakh is an achievable, manageable target. If I could do it back in 2010, when the value of that money was at least double of what it is now (thank you inflation!), you can certainly do it in 2020. 

I hope you are familiar with the concept of inflation, right? India has about 5-10% inflation per year. That means if the price of something was 100 rupees last year, it probably costs something between 105-110 now, on an average. Whatever you could buy with 1 lakh back in 2010, you can buy only half of that, or even less, by now.

That means if you could charge INR 5,000 for drafting a certain contract in 2010, you can probably charge at least INR 10,000 or 12,000 for the same right now. Earning 1 lakh per month is becoming easier by the year!

So yeah, feel free to revise your target upwards of INR 1 lakh. It is more of a symbolic number. If you can get there, you can go further.

All the best.

If you take any of our diploma courses, and you do all the assignments and attend all the classes, I firmly believe that you can easily earn 1 lakh per month by the time you are done with the course. Hopefully, before you are done with the course. 

You see, we do not only teach amazing and marketable legal skills that clients and employers will be happy to pay for, but we also take weekly free classes, teaching you how to improve your profile, create a great personal and professional brand for yourself, and how to find clients.

Take the 1 lakh per month challenge if you are not already there. What kind of lawyer does not even earn 1 lakh per month? 

Not you.

 You are going to earn more than that. Let me help you with it.