Hi Sreeni,

Got your email id and hope you might help.

Sreeni, Just to give you a brief insight, I appeared for CAT-2009 and got 98.1%ile. Since I scored low in Verbal, I did not get calls from any of the top 10 colleges. Finally, I was offered admission in NMIMS-Mumbai, but I gave it a miss so as to give another shot for IIMs and FMS.

I appeared in CAT 2010 also but scored a mere 93%ile. Ambitious very much though, I do not know what to do and how to go with this exam. I am very much ambitious, start really well for things, but in the middle, I drop the enthusiasm and the will to take it to the end. Had been trying to tackle it all the way till now, but nothing seems to work.
Finally, on this day, I am a 24-year guy who is working with Tech firm @ Rs 3 lpa. Don’t know what to do and how to go for CAT this year with hardly 2 months left for preparation.

Please guide me how is it possible to crack this one exam so that my whole life could change. I hate technical job. I have always dreamt of making my career in Business world.

I aim to fly high but cannot see the horizon. Please help…!!

Thanks,
A CAT 2011 aspirant
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Dear friend,

To help you, let me narrate my story.

I gave CAT in 1990, prepared along with my brother. I was then doing my M.Tech from JNU. I did all the hard work; he did the smart one – built on my hard work! He focused on the end, while I am very focused on the means. He made it and I could not make it. I then joined TCS in 1991. I loved creative work and my work in systems programming at TCS was very interesting. Yet, while into my second year at TCS, I observed the seniors there in, and I figured out that, as you grow in the organization, it ends up being managing.

In 1992, I was charged again for getting into IIM – Babri Masjid incident happened a couple of days before CAT, and it was deferred by over two months. I lost steam, as I was neck deep in my project as the head. I worked in TCS for three years. I fought tooth and nail with TCS, not to go abroad, as I wanted to get into IIM. I continued my preparation with vigor to again go after it in 1993, and made it to IIMB.

Hailing from a humble, economically low-middle class family, with a father working in central government, who used to get a salary of 3-4K a month even a couple of years before his retirement, we realized that education is the panacea for our future. Though this realization dawned only after class 12. Parents helped all the way, by supporting whatever we chased.

I immersed headlong into making my career and life only after class 12. Being the eldest at home, I was always trying to figure out what next by myself. Unlike today, then only means of information was a newspaper, if you are able to afford one. Whether it is IIT or IIM, I got to know about it only when I entered a better institution at the next level. And I tried to catch up with what I missed, a couple of years down the line.

So, whenever I chose to do something, I was very focused and adamant at getting in. Whether JNU or IIM, I was very determined. I am very tenacious and go-getting once I set my eyes on anything. Perhaps the struggle I went through during the growing years and the outlook I got due to it, makes me a fighter. Mind you, inherently I am a lazy fellow. But set a goal, I will go after it like mad.

Preparation for CAT has been a grinding one. Single minded pursuit. Only aim was to be in IIM. For those three years of my pursuit, I did not lose my steam. Kept myself hanging there with immense drive from with in.

People used to ask me why I was so hell bent. Why not go abroad through TCS and enjoy life. Most of my friends from those days who took that path are doing well in life. I wanted to do something on my own and I was not wired to be in that programming and consulting space forever.

From June – December, I knew nothing but CAT and Office. Got to know Diwali only when I heard crackers being burst outside. Home being a one-bedroom government apartment that accommodated six people including four children who are into studies, I had to find a peaceful place to prepare. I prepared either at my office staying overnight or I requested the ‘chowkidar’ in the neighborhood school to open a classroom for me. I used to crash on the office carpet or on the bench of the classroom by 10pm. Got up at 2am every night to prepare till 7am, then got going for the day. This continued the whole of 5-6 months, every day. IIM happened and I learnt a lot about how I can succeed in life.

The journey as an entrepreneur / edupreneur for the last 16 years has been no different. It is a challenging day, every day. If we want to do things that we have never done before, we will go through the same emotions and grind.

It all boils down to, “How badly I need it”.
You need to ask, how badly you need it. I am sure you will find the drive and ideas to schedule your next three months to crack it.

I am sure you will. Attend my webinar – “Dream It! Do It!” I share all my learning from my journey that keeps me going, into this session that helps people push their own boundaries.

I hope, you are now determined to go after it with all your might in the next three months.

Dig deeper, you will find more reserves.

Best wishes and love,

Sreeni