One Hour Interview with A Man Of Value, A Stranger or should I call him Mr. Ved Prakash Sharma.

Long Lasting Lessons Letter

One Hour Interview with A Man Of Value, A Stranger or should I call him Mr. Ved Prakash Sharma.

Today Morning at around 10:17 a.m. when I was sitting in my office, I saw a person walking in, I offered him a seat. Few seconds later, He noticed me busy, in making notes and asked, “What are you doing?”

“I am making notes”, I replied.

“What do you study?”, he further asked.

I told him I am doing MBA. He then asked me about the authors whose books we are referring. I was bit embarrassed to realize that I hardly remembered any writer to say, yet I got courage to speak, “I study from class presentations, on their basis, I make notes.”

“You must study from books as well”, he suggested.

He started telling about his own Education background and how reached where he is today.

By now, he took my whole attention so perfectly that I kept my pen on a notebook and started listening to him.

While He was telling me many things, I kept introducing various questions into the discussion, to grab more knowledge.

1. How can I improve my Vocabulary?

“Read Roget Thesaurus, it is very helpful, you will find 56 synonyms for every word.”

He talked about how the GNA, LPU, TATA and Reliance grew in the business and from where they started. While talking about these giants, he told about Karl Marx’ Theory mentioning, “The more you invest, the more you will earn”.

He also beautifully used the concept of Mathematics while explaining the concept of Capital in Business. He stated, “PLUS and PLUS results in PLUS. PLUS and MINUS results in MINUS” He used this statement perfectly suggesting that there must be least withdrawals from business, rather you must reinvest it into the business.

He told that he did Sales work with Nirma for Rs. 700 per day and used to gain market knowledge while working. In addition he said tha currently he is a Professor at Senior Secondary School. Moreover, he gives 3 lectures at LPU twice a week for ILETS.

2. I shared my dream job and told him that my General Knowledge is Zero, and asked how can I improve?

“Competitive Master, Money Matters, India Today Magazines”

Based on my dream job, he recommended me the above three magazines and taught me ways about how to read a newspaper.

“Whatever you do, you cannot be perfect in a day, but still be consistent.”

“Have faith and keep walking, you will reach your destination.”

He also shared his personal experience about how he reached a destination of doing PhD in English Literature. (P.S. The same is revealed at the end of this letter.)

3. I told him that I am thinking to take “Marketing and Finance” as my Specialization but I always felt scared of marketing and NOs from sales. (P.S. I gave him an opportunity to take his opinion on the same.)

“Begger will beg, no matter how people treats him, he would visit to every home. Some will scold him, others would be harsh, cruel or ignorant with him and there would be few who would actually give him money but he will not stop rather, will beg and nobody’s reaction would define his work or stop him from working.”

He started his answer with this amazing example which really surprised me, yet he continued by explaining me how Finance is dependent upon Marketing and informed that he has read many books on marketing such as Kar Lo Duniya Muthi mein, Net Marketing and others from authors; Chetan Anand,  Manoj Bajpayee, etc. He also stated that Manoj Bajpayee is not only a good actor but a great story writer and also a good lecturer.

4. Later I mentioned my intentions about my ultimate dream and how I procrastinate it. I requested him to suggest me ways to work for it.

“Start with Imagination, sit in a peace environment for 30 minutes every day and only think about what you want to do, after few days when you will have complete mind set about what is the subject matter of what you want to do, you will automatically feel motivated to do it. Gradually, you will find a direction in your work and will not stop in the middle way until you reach your destination.

Same goes with life, if you remember when you were child, your Mother used to wake you up with force and give tea and make you ready for school. Gradually you got a habit of waking up by yourself and asking for tea before getting ready. Few years later, you started having tea after getting ready. Then finally the time came, when you started even making tea for your Parents after waking up and getting ready by yourself.

There are 4 Phases of Learning:-

-         Imagination

-         Focus

-         Self-Analysis

-         Experience

Once you achieve these 4 stages, you automatically enters into the 5th step i.e. Practical.

And make sure that you don’t think about all these, in your exam days, rather just focus only on the exam strategies and do well”.

His Journey Towards Excellence In His Own Words

“I was working with Nirma after doing BA when I met with a student who introduced me to Professor who recommended me to do MA in English Literature, so I enrolled for the same. But gradually things were different for me because I came to know I had to read 45 Books during the course but I was still working. I then, decided to talk to the same professor for suggestion and he advised me to prefer 5 Books for each subject. I agreed and used to take 2 Books on rent for every 15 days from Jalandhar and make notes out of them on every weekend. I got 47% in first year whereas Regular students got only 52%.

Therefore Professor recommended me to enroll for regular course but I told him that I cannot afford and then he agreed to pay for my fees. Hence, I agreed for half fees, and converted my degree to a regular program. I finally got 42% as I had to leave college for 2 months due to some personal reasons.

Later, I completed my BEd. in next 3 years and started working as a Faculty. One day, I met with a same professor who recommended me to begin my PhD. But at that time my Marks were less so he suggested me to retake two exams. After retaking those two exams, I was able to score 55% in MA and then enrolled for PhD.”

Moreover, he told that he has been working as a Lecturer from the past 24 years and is about to retire in next 3-4 years, yet he shared his future goals after that as well.

At the end, when he said bye and went outside the office, I looked out of the window and started waiting to see on which vehicle he just came. I was amazed to see him going back to home on bicycle, his respect in my eyes grew even more.

I hope you enjoyed reading it,

Thanks & Regards,

Rohit Sood