Life defining lessons from Shri Arun Kumar Singh’s address at the National Institute of Technology, Patna

In his address, Shri Arun Kumar Singh, C&MD, Bharat Petroleum had a special message for the students of National Institute of Technology, Patna on 21st May 2022. He is an alumnus of National Institute of Technology, Patna, graduating in Mechanical Engineering.

There were three major takeaways for the students: It’s our solemn duty to give back; importance of lifelong learning; and the need of a friend or a coach to take our professionalism even higher in our never-ending quest for greater excellence.

Law of Giving: Quoting Adam Grant in his book ‘Give and Take’, where he offered a researched back view that shows how reciprocity and success are linked, and that helping others ultimately drives our success, he exhorted that giving more than taking is far enriching for one’s career. He explained that bottom and top of the pyramid of any society or an organization comprise of those who are net givers. Net takers and those who balance the reciprocity are more likely to land in the middle.

Where would you like to fall on the generosity spectrum, he asked the spell bound students?

The Importance of Exposure: We learn throughout our life, and a lion’s share of it comes from learning, based on exposure. This amazing fact of life is captured succinctly in the 70:20:10 rule of lifelong learning. It states that as much as 70% of our learning comes from our experiences and exposure, 20% from collaboration and social interactions, and only 10% from formal training.

We should look for opportunities to expose ourselves with experiences that mean more job rotation, more travel, more geographies and learning about more cultures. Hence, all the changes that come our way are the gift of universe to give us more exposure.

Life Coach: It is not quite easy to pinpoint one’s own imperfections. So, how do professionals grow further after reaching a high point in their career – a coach who observes you. The answer is to be found in an analogy from the domain of sports, where even the best players in the world resort to professional coaching. Why do they do it when they are already among the best in the world - to iron out small weakness that they wouldn’t notice themselves. Life is a continuous learning and coach enables you. In college phase, a friend can also be a very good coach provided he is honest in giving feedback and one takes it positively.

Finally, in the closing, he spoke about our entire life being a continuous evolution and our journey itself, and not the destination, is our reward. He urged everyone to lead a kind of life that makes us better learners, better team members, better administrators and better citizens who can set examples for others to imitate and finally to be the harbinger of hope, to pass on the baton to the next generation.

#BPCL #lifecoach #learning #exposure #LawOfGiving