“When your heart speaks the truth,

you are scared of the morning shoot,

you hold his hand and take a deep breath

and you know you will survive,

one more day, yet another day.

His words are enough to fuel your spirit,

his deeds reflect your thoughts of boom.

Guiding you to accomplish the dream,

he leaves you in the state of stream,

a state where you become the success fruit

to realize you met your Inspiring angel.”

 

From a boy who barely took his education seriously, to an MBA graduate with international business honors. From someone who used to get kicked out of the class, to a student whose name is embedded in the college wall. I have experienced all of it in the most amazing way possible. I do not have any regrets from any shade of my life because I met amazing people who taught me valuable life lesson at each stage of my life. Some did it intentionally because they cared, some have no idea how much they have influenced my life. And now, when I think about them I realize they are all angels, Inspiring Angel.

 

Initially, it is really hard to identify an inspiring angel. It is actually after you recognize your first, you will eventually recognize other angels who have already had a big impact in your life and many who will have in your forthcoming future. I recognized my first Inspiring Angel in California.

On a mild Californian winter day, I am at ease with my life, in the comfort of my eldest sister’s beautiful bay house. My first lady love, my mom, my dad and other sister are visiting my eldest sister for the occasion of her baby shower. Everyone is very excited to welcome the little twin champs. During this same time frame, I am also (I still am) trying to figure out the new opportunities life has exposed me to. I recently gave my first semester exam, waiting for the results; I am trying to map out my next two years of life. Especially, when I had made a decision to travel 7610 miles to get an MBA, become financially independent, learn and interact with people of different cultural origins and try to become the best possible example of my culture. Determined, to excel in studies and not ask for any more money from my family, I was right on track, scoring A’s and doing 4 part time jobs. The comfort was too satisfactory, but the bigger picture wasn’t scoped well. In the wee hours of morning, I found my first Inspiring angel. A personality completely opposite to that of mine, a person with sorted thoughts, clear vision, firm goals, a hard working character with an excelling career record. He asked, ” What are you doing differently? What do you want to do, and why would anyone hire you and not someone else?”. With choked thoughts I replied, marketing in pharmaceutical industry. But I am not sure what I am doing differently. Thinking out loud I said, “probably my personality, my attitude. Isn’t that something that will make me unique?”. He answered, “possibly”. He further asked, “How will you market yourself to the world? How will you convince them that you can market their products?”. I had no answer. ” Start a website, blog about the industry. Tell the world about your hobbies, your extracurricular activities” he advised. Guiding further he said, “Reach out to the companies, let them know you exist”.

I was inspired to the core, I did what the angel said, from building the website to blogging to reaching out to the companies, my mind remembered each and every word of wisdom. After four months, I called him “Shalin Jiju (Brother in law), I have got an internship in a pharmaceutical company. I am the marketing intern and the only international student to get an internship in a pharmaceutical industry in the present batch.” Frankly speaking, four months was a long wait, at times it seemed as if the efforts were not worth it. But I guess everything happens at the correct time. This achievement is what I call “success fruit” and I tasted the sweetness of it.

 

Once you taste success, you admire the presence of your Inspiring angel. I realized that the satisfaction of working towards a goal and achieving it sparks a whole new world of confidence and desire to work towards excelling the bigger picture. Another thing I noted is when you taste the success fruit you crave for more.

 

By the end of my first year, with a full-time MBA, two ten hours per week jobs as a research assistant at the University and a full-time internship, I was happily busy. At this same time, I got nominated to lead the Graduate student organization as the president. My passion for this organization was (still is) very high. Worrying about the pressure of giving my best to all the existing responsibilities and taking up one more, I reached out to my mentor, Dr. Audet. ” Should I take up the responsibility of being the president? I do not think I will be able to justify the role, especially with already my plate so full” I asked. Dr. Patricia Audet, one of the most efficient and hard working personalities I know in my life. She has played a major role in my life in the United States; I knew she was the best person to give me an unpretentious answer to my question. Having an opportunity to work with her, I knew how many tasks she handles each day. With patience, like always she listened to me and without wasting a second (to what I think was the toughest decision of my life at that point of time) she said – “Of course, you should accept this opportunity. You need to learn and execute the task of delegation and team management. If you have a good team (which fortunately I had), you will be able to lead the organization to a new high without taking all the pressure on your self”. I found another inspiring angel in Dr. Audet. By the end of the year, we as a team (Team GSO) were able to win the “Best student organization of the year”. We not only had record-breaking events, we managed to get GSO a constant annual funding and a dedicated office. Yes, this was yet another success fruit.

 

I now realize once you get used to the sweetness of this success fruit, you try to get inspired very easily and it becomes much easier for you to find your inspiring angel. You now recall people from your past interaction, past life lessons and eventually you will realize you have an inspiring angel within you too. You start dreaming and work towards your dream. As one of my Inspiring angels once said, ” Think, Aim and then execute!”. I now get inspired by success stories of my friends, I learn how they became successful in what they wanted to achieve, how they aimed for it and how they have achieved their targets. Or how a friend got completely transformed to a positive personality, who now aims to bring positive change to his surrounding. I have not come across another such person who is able to inspire people in this possible way. Whenever I get too comfortable I recall a friend saying – “Anu, you have to come out of your comfort zone”. This sentence from her made me start working in a pharmaceutical manufacturing company in India and the job became the foundation of the decision to get an MBA in pharmaceutical business. Another angel once told me that, “We are a team, whatever we do we do it together”. “Ananya Jain, if you want to do something, you will definitely do it and you will do great”. This statement helped me become a better team player and it helped me to believe in myself in a much more confident way.

 

I now have several Inspiring Angels, including myself. Anything positive, new, nice inspires me. I can now get inspiration from movie characters (Forest Gump, Rocky) to real-life achievers (Elon Musk). The energy is refreshing. Obviously, everyone faces ups and downs, highs and lows, but the key is to keep pursuing your goals. Remember the sweet taste of the success fruit and keep yourself alive. I hope my experience (or at least my version of my experience) will inspire the amazingness within you.

Fin.

Please share your thoughts. Have you found your Inspiring angel yet? Whom do you consider as your Inspiring angel and what has been the impact on you?

Your response will keep me inspired to write more.

Reach out to me at: Ananyajain03@gmail.com