My experiment with poverty eradication through education& life coaching!
I still remember the day and moment when my principal in the primary school had taught and explained the poem titled ” Bahaut Badaa hai , Yeh, Shansar, Pah le Mere Ghharka, undde, Jaisa thaa, Aakaar, tab main, yehi, samajhti, thi bus, itna sa, heee, hai shansaar” in an inspiring way through the life, dream, and aspiration of a bird in the poem. He used to say, the world which you can see and perceived today is not the real world. It is much bigger and beautiful than what you can see today. And, to see that bigger and beautiful world, you have to do hard and smart work to grow yourself first. You have to go out of your comfort zone. You have to leave your fear aside and take action to see the bigger world like the little bird displaying the courage to go out from their nest, moving from one branch to another and finally flying in the sky! You all are little kids full of energy in your home, you have come out from the home to school. I am here in school to prepare you to fly in the world and see the real big and beautiful world and add more value to the world through your own work (Karma) at a later stage. There is no limit to growth. The only sky is the limit, just like a bird has limitless scope to fly in the sky. The impact of these learning at a very tender age become permanent for the rest of life.
The journey from a kid studying in the village primary school to getting a decent job in the corporate world was a big win to break the vicious circle of the poverty and deserved celebration and pause for a while to enjoy the moment, but it was no way the end of the sky to fly- What is next from nest to branches and from branches of one tree to another tree and there are so many trees to climb, I remember the teacher pointing toward the different subjects which one has to undergo at a later stage. Being human, our ultimate duty lies in planting and growing tree NOT only in climbing the existing one in the world. Someone must have planted the existing one in the past which we enjoy today!
You have limitless opportunities in your hand being outside the vicious circle of poverty! Your mind is free to chart out the way forward for how you want to live your life without being worried about the basic needs of survival in day to day life. You can lead your life as a professional materializing the dream of other visionary leaders. You can envision to create your own start-up to a real entrepreneur instead of being an entrepreneur just to buy the job. You may choose to serve as a social leader. And, over a period, you may want to be a spiritual leader depending upon to what level you can leverage your talent and capabilities. The choice is yours!
Since very beginning to carry forward the teaching of my teacher imparted in the early days of life and selfless services which he had given to my family and me. I was determined that someday I will pay him back by repeating the same with others what he did for my family and me. And, as an experiment, I started the same in my early stage when I was doing my schooling in Jawahar Navoday Vidyalay Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh. As Mother Teressa urged in her Nobel lecture, “I want you to find the poor here, right in your own home first. And begin love there. Be that good news to your own people”, I was determined to adopt one family not from outside but amongst my relatives only to begin with. Accordingly, I selected one family, who were daily wager with two kids. Education has never been a priority for them except just to learn how to read and write. The simple goal of mine at that the time was to help their kids to acquire quality education. At least one of the kids of the family must be educated to break the vicious circle of poverty. During the summer holiday, I used to guide people in my village and their children how they can prepare themselves for better opportunities available to transform their life—providing coaching to kids used to be one of the key activities during the holiday. But in addition to quality education, family members need continuous emotional and financial support from time to time, especially when they are extremely poor. Like, breaking the mental block that the poor people like them will not be able to afford further expenses for study. They are not aware of the opportunities available around them. I was creating hope in them that you can do what appears difficult—showing path on how to overcome the challenges ahead etc. For this, the poorest of the low-income family need stakeholder centred coach free of cost for an extended period. When I was in 11th & 12th Class, I had a conversation with family members of a kid who was studying in just 2nd Class in the primary school regarding how they can transform their life over a period through the quality education of their kids. I offered to partner with them free of cost. I coached one of their kid for the entrance exam of Jawahar Navoday Vidyalay from 3rd to 5th Class on a regular basis during my holidays. I helped them to succeed in getting admission for quality education free from day to day struggle for basic needs. After completing the 12th, there was a challenge on how to finance further study. The family was guided for capitalizing the various opportunities available. And the kid got admitted in engineering college under the economically weaker section. Somehow, with financial support on a returnable basis without any condition by me. There was no time bar, no interest, and it does not matter if not money returned to me. The family was able to support the four-year engineering and two-year Master in Technology education for the kid. Finally, the kid got selected in Indian Railways and is working as Junior engineer. Therefore, it took around 20 years to transform a below poverty level family into a middle-class family through education, emotional & material support, and guidance from time to time. After my own life struggle, this was the biggest success for me. It gives a sense of achievement in response to calling of my teacher, “Help others to help yourself”, who was not much educated in terms of degree but was not less than any internationally renowned stakeholder centred coach around the globe. He invested his time and energy to understand the problem and issues of my family at that time and accordingly provided guidance and support from time to time till I was successful in my first endeavour of getting admitted in the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya for education up to 12th Class from 6th Class onward. Rest of the endeavours in my life were and are part of the seed which he had sown in my tender mind at an early stage: – The unfinished story which he himself could not write due to prevailing constraints at that time but wished to be written someday through his pupils! The only return I expect from those who got helped in their journey to fight the war against poverty to help others (At least one family) to break the vicious circle of poverty to contain and break the chain reaction which propagates vicious circle of poverty. Poverty breed poverty. A poor family unintentionally produces poor in their life. For example, if poor parent failed to give a better life to their kids say four in numbers, directly or indirectly, four new poor families are ready in the same situation. However, if this chain is broken somehow with the help and support of relatively blessed people like you readers, this chain reaction of poverty breeding poverty will not only stop but will also help to trigger a new chain reaction of eradicating poverty over a period! Therefore, action and inaction regarding the poverty eradication will determine what kind of world we are going to create around us! The choice is ours.
A system based on deep connect, customized guidance, support through role models who have already created a story for themselves can be a game-changing way to eradicate poverty! Someone has done for me; I have done for one, and he succeeded, and he may do for one more. But what to do to make it a movement?
Doing for one, you do not need a system, on case to case basis you may devise an action plan and do what you plan to do. But to make it one to may, you need system and process to help you scale. Based on my own experience while doing for the one, I can say that the following things need to be ensured before embarking on the journey-
To give life to my aspiration as mentioned above, to add more value to the world which I inherited, I envisioned to create Navodayans life Design Academy to empower people to make them successful irrespective of who they are or what they do in their current situation.
My life’s ultimate purpose is to become a catalyst in empowering people to succeed them in their endeavour to make a positive difference in the life of Self, Society, Nation and Humanity as a whole through various innovative product and services. Accordingly, I am on a mission to help people to learn, do, earn & coach in their niche. It’s a long journey to educate, engage and empower. To begin with, awareness creation amongst people as to how anyone even poorest of the poor can do wonders in life, I have authored a book, “Being in the driving seat what makes ordinary an extraordinary:- ESCAPE Velocity Model to achieve the greatness in life.” This book will not only inform the people about their potential but also inspire them to action in life to transform their life. And, I will be there to support all those action takers through one to one life coaching session. So, for what you are waiting to grab the book, “Being in the driving seat what makes ordinary an extraordinary! And embark on the journey to design the life you love to live! First, help yourself to help others! Prepare yourself to design the world you love to live with Ram!