When preparing for my Civil Services interview, I did so many mock interviews that when I went for the real one, it was a cakewalk – there was no curveball the interviewers could throw that I was not prepared for. And I aced that interview.
Similarly, when I prepared for the consulting case interviews at Wharton, I did more case practice than most people do. It worked.
I may not be diligent by nature but whenever I have shown obsessive determination, it has paid off.
Most of us like to show that we did not work hard – that our success came from ‘natural genius’, not hard work. Apparently, hard work means that you lack intelligence or talent.
And for a long time, I also had the same dysfunctional mindset.
During my college days at IIT, people took pride not in how good their grades were, but in how little they studied! The hardworking guy with a GPA of 10 was inferior to a guy with a GPA of 9 who did not study much. So much for logical thinking!
The world does not care whether you have talent or not – the only thing that matters is whether you achieved the goal.
Let us not get caught up in showing off our ‘natural genius’ – instead, just nail the goal. If you do that, you are the ‘real genius’ – there is no other type.
– Rajan