Memoirs of GB Episode 80: Aspirations of a Gully Boy & Success recipe

Some of my friends asked me about Why I chose “Gully boy” as the title for this series. Going by real definition of what you see in the dictionary, the gully boy refers to?the boy who had come from the streets of a low-profile locality. To me the Gully boy is the one who grows up with lot of aspirations of a distance dream that he wants to achieve in life.

Both by dictionary as well as my own definition, during my childhood days I lived in a low-profile area surrounded by friends who were underprivileged, I have seen their life in close quarters, their struggles and sacrifices they made to live a simple life without any comforts. Some of my childhood friends took a job when they were just 14 years old, some were misguided and some still living a very contended life. I feel privileged to have known them and as representative of the life they want to live. ?

I still see myself as a gully boy but with half of my dreams fulfilled and other half I aspire to achieve in the rest of my life.?

You need to keep the spark alive, the important lesson to learn in life is to step up & grow Always keep asking these 3 questions, which propels the growth

1. What more?

2. What else?

3. What Next?

Success we all see is the tip of the Iceberg. Below the water line there are so many of layers which made us what we are today. ?The simple secret recipe to success is to lay this foundation strongly . The journey of ordinary gully boy to become extra ordinary professional is not an overnight success but carefully spending the years of our life in sculpting these layers.

Let me highlight those layers of success which made a great difference in my career and life.

1.?Risk Taking: Normally the people coming from a middle class have the aversion for risk taking, it’s not encouraged in the family and friend’s circle. We need to break this aversion and take calculated risk. In my career the most defining moments have come through by doing something when others feared to do that. I was the first employee to take an assignment in Riyadh , Saudi Arabia during the early 2000’s ,many of my family members and peers advised me not to take that risk but I can tell you that was the most enriching experience I had both professionally as well as on the personal front to work with diverse workforce across the globe who were employed to do a very challenging project for one of the reputed banks in Saudi Arabia. Its rich mix of culture and experience that shaped my mind to respect the diversity and talent across the globe.

?2.?Changes: Only thing that’s constant in life is change. The world evolves through change, there is always an option to stay comfortable in what we do everyday or adapt to the changes that world brings in. Almost every 3 years in my career ,I pushed myself to learn new technologies, whenever leadership wanted to disrupt, they called me to incubate new practices. I evolved from one technology specialist to multiple technologies and Industry solutions expert. I eagerly wait for the next wave to come and surfed that wave. Embrace the change.

?3.?Criticism: A good professional will be able to distinguish between constructive feedback and destructive criticism. Whenever you climb a step forward there will be people on both sides, one wants to help you climb further and other wants to pull you down two steps below. Pay attention to their intention and attitude, rewind and see how many times their advise or feedback helped in critical situations. Mind is like a parachute; it works only when its open to feedback but at the same time we must not fall prey to nay Sayers and toxic people.

?4.?Courage and Rejections: The best time to be courageous is when things start falling apart, when everyone around you is trying to find an escape route. People who solve for great challenges are rewarded and at the same time rejections are the reminders to push us harder to meet the criteria for acceptance. In my career, rejections made me stronger and whenever I was denied an opportunity that made me to work harder than ever before. Luck is nothing but when preparation meets the opportunity, rejections are the steppingstones to make oneself luckier.

?5.?Discipline: If you can attribute one single trait that differentiate the winner from others is the discipline. Whenever I was challenged to do a toughest assignment, I used to put my alarm at 4.30 am in the morning, I always believed a fresh start of the day will have answers to the toughest challenges. Single minded focus is the deadliest weapon to penetrate through toughest walls of resistance. I strongly believe human mind is infinite it has answers to all the questions in this world, but you must be continuously engaging the mind and soul to navigate through the maze. We must know when to enjoy life and when to be serious about life, whatever that hurts our life must be taken out, that’s the discipline. Knowing that smoking, unhealthy eating and drinking habits cannot become an everyday routine of our life.

?6.?Hard work, Persistence: No surprises here, neither I need to write about these ones. If one thing that can beat the talent that’s the hard work. I may not be the smartest or best qualified person in the room, but I will always be the most hardworking person, that’s all makes the difference.

?These 6 layers are the steppingstones for Success. They are augmented by good habits, passion to excel, Innovation, dedication and honesty makes every gully boy a successful professional and/or entrepreneur.

After failing to climb Mt Everest thrice, Sir Edmund Hillary said to the painting of Mount. Everest, "more and more you reject me, more and more I become determined that I would climb on top of you … because as Mt Everest you cannot grow but as human being I would continue to grow.

If you are tough on yourself, Life will be easy on you

If you are easy on yourself, Life will be tough on you.

Meaning : Never skip a day without exercise, without being kind , without be passionate in what we do. These things makes you tough enough to take on life as it is and you see life is very kind and easy on you from then on.

Success is a journey and not a destination, there is always something more, something better and something next that makes our journey meaningful and interesting.

Godspeed

Dinesh Chandrasekar DC*

P.S: All views expressed here are my personal views and opinion and have no bearing to the organization I work