Ravinder Verma-My Three Mantras of Success
Ravinder Verma says, “I would like to call myself a person with too many hands – I am an Assistant Professor, Ph.D. Student, Writer, Short Film Maker, Consultant, Creative Designer, and a Marketer. I am also a Brand Manager at one of the FMCG companies heading the marketing department at PAN India Levels.
This sounds good, right? But let me tell you a secret. Life is just made up of three acts: Never Giving up, Visualization & Facing the Fears. This is what my life is made up of. Here is what it looked like a couple of years ago:
I almost failed in 8th grade– In fact, I barely got promoted to the next class.
It was tough to get admission further due to relatively low grades. Somehow, barely gracing the entrance exam, I got into BMM (Mass Media).
I got butterflies going on stage to give my presentations at the end of every semester. Obviously, I was made fun of.
Unfortunately, I landed up in a college where an MBA distance learning degree was given as a full-time degree. I wasted a year but did not give up. I then reappeared for the Entrance exams next year and got admission to a pretty good college.
This time, since it was a kind of repeat study for me – I started enjoying the process of studying. I came out first in college for all four semesters.
What Next? Job or Business? I chose the latter. Started a tours & travel business (this is the only business as a travel agent you don’t require any big investments – just a laptop and the power to show dreams to your customers, of foreign locations). My employees were untrustworthy – they ate up my business, and I was back to square one.
75% of Indians work at unsatisfied jobs. I became one of them. Do what you love, and the job will love you back. It should never be a Majboori. I took baby steps into Marketing and landed up working as Brand Manager – Head of the Department, then.
It took me four years to clear an interview and get enrolled in a Ph.D. Again, I didn’t give up.
I started teaching Economics at Cambridge University. Recently, people started calling me for Grads, and now I teach MBA students and take guest lectures across the country.
I wrote a book about marketing and struggled to get it published. Eventually, I learned about Createspace.com and self-published my book. It did well until someone reached out to me to help me launch the book properly. And that shot up the sales.
On weekends, I had free time, so I started learning filmmaking. I then made two films about social awakening. (Love You, Sweety, by Ravinder Varma on youtube).
I could go on and on about this. But life is too big to talk about, as one lives several lives. The only message I wanted to send was that the three acts of my life I mentioned above could help change your life too!”.