Risky: To be or not to be? That's the question.

There are three types of people in this world – Risk seekers, Risk averters and the neutral ones, I prefer the second one. Taking the safest path was always my thing. Everyone knows that higher the risk, greater is the return. But I used to believe in “higher the risk, greater is the fall.” I used to avoid all those risks and be satiated with whatever little it gave me back.

No one can run away from taking risks all their life, me not being an exception. A big decision came knocking on my door. Even if I was afraid, I had to answer the call. One year ago, I was in a situation where taking the risk was the best thing I have ever done in my life. I completed my high school with great marks, but the thing that mattered the most was clearing JEE-Advanced in which I failed miserably.

I had not studied as hard as it takes to make my way through JEE-Advanced and eventually I ‘succeeded in failing’. But I was able to excel in JEE-Main and other competitive exams. I knew I had the potential to pull-off JEE-Advanced. The dilemma before me was whether to join NIT as I was getting a good college, or to prepare for one more year and reappear for the exam. Somewhere in my heart I knew I couldn’t settle for anything less than an IIT. But the risk here was, if I went for NIT then there was no more of IIT in this life and if I waited for another year, what if the results were even worse and I couldn’t even convert a decent engineering college and along with this wasting one full year of my life.

At this point of my life, I decided to take a chance. I declined to join NIT and took the risk of taking the exam again next year. These 12 months were the scariest for me. I was always worried that what if all my hard work gets flushed down the gutter and this decision turns out to be the worst in my life. But my fear was futile, I worked hard and it fetched me great results. I finally landed at IIT Roorkee, one of the most prestigious institutions in India.

Today I know that if I had not taken that risk, I would have been regretting it all my life. The only thing I lost was a year and had to wait to experience the so called exciting college days.

This risk being a success changed something significant in me. I am not afraid to take risks anymore. I now believe that one can make a risk fruitful if worked hard. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO & founder of Facebook and the inspiration for many once said – “The biggest risk is not taking any risk….In a world that change really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking any risks”.

I would just like to suggest the readers that there is no running away from risks. If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary. The risk of a wrong decision is always preferable to the terror of indecision. Any goal worth achieving involves an element of risk no matter how much you try to avoid it.

Don’t listen to those who say “you are taking too big a chance”. Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor, and it would surely be rubbed out by today. Most importantly, don’t listen when the little voice of fear inside you rears its ugly head and says, “They are smarter than you out there. They’re more talented, taller, prettier, luckier, and they have connections.” I firmly believe that if you follow a path that interests you, with the strength of conviction that you can move others by your own efforts and do not make success or failure the criteria by which you live, the chances are you’ll be a person worthy of your own respect as well as others’.

Guess who inspires me?

Let me keep this short and sweet, I know you have better things to do than just go on and on through a blog.

Inspiration! Well, inspiration can be deemed subjective. It varies from person to person, the type, the intensity and the genesis. The source of this potent property can be anything, ranging from men to objects, it could be a known personality or their own antecedent forefathers, a book or a motion picture. For me, the inspiration trickles from myself, colloquially known as, self inspiration.

How? Isn’t it obvious? Aren’t we all, at some level, self inspired? Inspiration only begins its useful work when our spirits are moved to thought and action. The self is the weak link between all things inspiring and inspired, thought and action. Blaming others for not inspiring us when we are not self inspired, externalises the problem. And we cannot inspire others if we are not inspired ourselves. To become self inspired, I have found it useful to build three reinforcing processes within me — evolving self, congruent self and courageous self.

Inspiring self is integral to the never-ending journey of becoming a better person. Without it, the inspiration we receive from others does us no good. I try to keep my eyes on the stars and my feet on the ground. The past cannot be changed. But the future is yet in my power. I don't believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be.

Today I choose life. Every morning when I wake up I can choose joy, happiness, negativity or even pain. To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue to make mistakes and choices, I choose to feel life, not to deny my humanity but to embrace it.

Let us do something that our future self will thank us for.

Risk: That changed my Life

It was 22nd March, 2013. I had just finished my 11th class school exams. Though they went superb, I was feeling very anxious and confused. Not enough time was left. I had to make a decision- a decision - on which my whole future was dependent. 

It started on December 25, my tuition teacher gave us a surprise (not a good one as one can guess from the context). He told us that he would not be teaching us from next year. In simple words he was going to leave the city and had joined an institute in Chandigarh. It was more than a shock I could withstand at that time. He was the best in the city (at least according to me). He was the one who created my interest in math and even today I owe a lot to him. OK, let’s come back to the context. Just after 1 month, the same announcement was made by our physics teacher.

I couldn’t think of being taught by any other teacher even in my wildest dreams. I cried a lot those days. I just could not understand what I would do next year.Then our physics teacher advised me to join the same institute (Chandigarh).

Then came the confusion. My father had been posted in Ambala for 3 years but we hadn’t shifted there and he used to come at weekends. Now, the decision was to be made. One choice was - the family would shift to Ambala (for me) and I will have to travel to Chandigarh daily for coaching which would cost me 3 hours daily. (There were no good institutes in Ambala and my father had simply discarded the idea of me living in a hostel at that time.) The other choice was very simple- I would have to study in the same city under some untrusted teachers. My father gave me the power (actually the tension) to make the decision.

I was very confused. Many people told me I would not be able to manage. The tiredness caused by 3 hour journey would not allow me to study and I will destroy my future instead of embracing it. There was one more fear inside my heart. What if I am unable to crack JEE? What if I get bad results in all the exams? All the efforts of my family would go in vain. Everyone would taunt my parents. What was the use of shifting for the girl? (Though I knew my parents would never think like that and would not mind listening such things for me but I personally didn’t want that.) Studying in the same city wouldn’t give me anything – I had this opinion. I tried hard to make up my mind for the new teachers but was unable to achieve it. Everything was messing up in my head.

Finally. I took the risk and on 22nd March I told my father that I want to go to Ambala.I went to Chandigarh everyday – up and down – back to Ambala with no less energy and enthusiasm to achieve my goal. And here I am, finally, in an IIT. So, there is no need of telling what I gained. In addition to getting into an IIT, I had a really great and new experience of studying in Chandigarh- the City Beautiful. I got to meet new 

people and discover myself more.

On the other hand, it made me loose many of my friends. I missed (actually miss) my sweet cousins and the love of relatives. I lost the joy of being together. I lost the happiness which I would have had if I were in my own city; the delight which would have got quadrupled had I been with my friends. But it doesn’t matter now since I have gained more than losing. 

At last I would just like to quote a few lines of Jim Rohn:

"If you are unwilling to risk the unusual,

you will have to settle for the ordinary."