Do we have more oppurtunities than the generation before us?

This is Julius Yego.

He was born on 4 January 1989. Shortly after being born, he hurled a stone at a Blue gum tree and it went much much farther than the other kids he was playing with could throw. They kept looking and the stone kept going. That is how he discovered that he was gifted.

But it was unclear to him how the gift of hurling stones stood to benefit him.

When he started schooling, he discovered javelin and for a few years, thrilled himself by throwing it further than his classmates each year. Schoolmates started talking about him, and they brought javelin champions from different schools to test him. But he threw better than them all. Like Samson of old, he beat anyone who was brought to him.

Until he got bored. It was becoming redundant.

Then one day, as he was surfing around the web, he found out that there were better throwers than him in the world. They met at plenty of events around the world. The best of them even competed in the Olympics. He wanted that. He wanted to test himself against the very best.

But to qualify, one had to be drafted as a representative of their country. So he went to Nairobi and tried getting a position. The athletics authorities wanted none of him.

They had nothing against him, really. It’s just that Kenya is the home of champions. Half of all commonwealth records are held by Kenyans. One time, during the Singapore Marathon, 17 Kenyans were sent to compete in that Marathon, and they did an unprecedented 

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17 clean sweep in the men’s race.

So, you see, the athletics committee wanted nothing new. They wanted medals. And Javelin was something new. It was unknown and they were sure no medals could come off it.

They had a point.

In 2006, when Yego , 17 years old, became the Kenyan javelin champion, he also broke the junior record with a throw of 67 meters. It was not good enough. Even later when he broke the senior record, he was still throwing 70 meters at best. But to qualify for Olympics, Javelin throwers had to reach a distance of 81.80m for the A standard, or 77.80m for the B standard.

There was no hope for him.

He had no coach, no sponsor, no academy, no government support.

But he had his resilience, and youth, and fans.

In a country of marathoners, fans were excited of this new sports and they badly wanted Yego to go to the Olympics.

What did he do?

The internet gave him an opportunity. He went to YouTube.

Jan Železný and Andreas Thorkildsen, both retired, both Javelin Olympic medalists, posted free tips for improving personal javelin skills. Yego watched them daily and practiced hard until he threw far enough to make it to the trials.

In 2011, still without a coach and YouTube as his only training manual, Yego retained his national championship title for the 4th year in a row, and went on to crash Paul Lagat's fourteen-year-old national record of 78.20 m. He swept several gold medals on his way to making history, leaving a trail of inspiration for millions of young and poor.

Now that attracted the attention of IAAF.

During the trials, he was so determined that he threw 80.8 meters, shooting his name straight to the finals of the 2012 London Olympics.

It would take him two more years to win his first major gold in 2014, but after that, there was no stopping him. He knocked down a few world leaders grabbing, a couple more golds and creating a spot for himself in the high table of gentlemen.

Until in 2015 when he set the new African record and became a legend. The Legend.

Only 4 other men have thrown javelin better than him in recent history (Javelin throw - Wikipedia).

Songs were sang about him and babies were named after him. The Western media gave him a new name “The YouTube Man.”

He became the face of the nation and waved the Kenyan flag in far-away places.

———

That is how the internet showed a naïve boy from a remote corner of the globe that there were bigger opportunities in the world.

It is how YouTube made it possible for someone to self-learn well enough not only to compete with the best of them, but to become one of them.

Thirty years ago, such opportunities were unheard of.

    -Frank Odindo

One night i was returning home from Gurgaon . I was drunk and was driving 100+ kph.When I reached Delhi cantt. area, i saw a dog crossing the road. I could not apply brakes on time and hit her. I could feel my car moving over her body.

I didnot feel anything at that time. I reached home and slept. When i woke up and the alcohol’s effect was gone, i realised that i had killed a dog last night. I picked up my bike and reached the spot.

There she was, dead. Her intestines were protruding out of her belly as she was runover by a few cars in the night. There was blood all over the road.

I felt ashamed of myself of what i had done under the influence of alcohol. I was about to leave when i saw a puppy on the roadside, just 2 meters from the body. He was sitting there continuously staring at the body.

I realised that maybe i had killed his mother last night. And maybe he wont be able to survive by himself without her mother. I took him home.

For almost 24 hours, he didnot eat anything. We gave him milk, he did not drink a drop. After 24 hours, he started eating and drinking. Next 10 days, he did not interact with anyone. He just sat at the same place. We tried our best to comfort him but nothing helped.

It took him 4 week to behave normally . He got comfortable with every person in the family. He statrted playing with us.

8 weeks passed and he started sleeping on our beds. And manipulating us to give him more and more food. Everyone in the family was happy that i brought home a puppy.

After about 3 months, we planned to go to a relative. The whole family was going so we thought that we should take him as well. I took him to the car and opened the door but he won’t step in. He started barking , tried to unhook the leash . I tried everything to get him inside but he didnot step in. I picked him up and kept him on the seat and he jumped off immediately. At first i thought that maybe because his mother was killed by a car, he is afraid of one. I had to stay at home with him because i didnot want him to stay alone at home.

Another week passed, and i again tried to get him in the car but failed .

A year passed and i knew that my Doggo dont like to travel in a car.

One day, a relative of mine came home. They had a dog. My doggo really loved their doggo. He couldnot stop himself playing with the other doggo and they played for about 4 hours without a break. In the night, they started leaving and when they were getting in the car, my doggo jumped into their car . He wont let the other doggo go. It was completely confusing for me because at once, he is afraid to get into my car and here , he refused to step out. I picked him up and brought him outside but he wont stop barking. I was also relieved that now my doggo’s fear of getting into a car is gone.

2 weeks passed and again , we planned to go out . When i tried to get the doggo in, he wont step in. I picked him up and made him sit on the backseat and closed the doors but he wont stop barking. He was behaving crazily scratching the seats with his paws and trying to bite the front seats. He was not comfortable in the car so we took him out.

One day, i booked a taxi for my mother as she was travelling alone to a relative’s place. As soon as she got into the taxi, my doggo jumped into the car. He also wanted to go with my mother. I was angry and confused at the same time. The taxi model was the same model that i drive. But still my doggo wont go inside my car but is happily jumping into other cars.

That day, i realised that maybe he knows who killed his mother that night.

I AM SORRY DOGGO!!

Being Middle Class is Boring....

I grew up relatively poor, by the standards of my region.

 I remember not being able to buy anything that wasnt on sale. This actually led me to believe that ‘on sale' meant ‘for sale' and I hated that stores kept so many items out that we couldnt buy. I only learned the difference when I was about 16.

Most of my clothes came from older girls at my church or aunties who would buy them for me. I had everything I needed, but the quality was usually very low.

As a young adult I had some issues also. My water was shut off once for non-payment. I worked 3 jobs while in college the first time. I once genuinely considered selling my blood/plasma.

But for the past 4–5 years I've been earning well. When I go to buy something, I dont look at the price (in most stores, some shops I know are outrageous so I will confirm before buying). I have six pairs of shoes, four of which are essentially the exact same shoe in different colors (office flats in blue, black, tan, and burgandy).

My puppy has more toys than I had as a child.

Being middle class is boring to someone born in middle class, but for me being middle class feels like a weight off my shoulders.

-Samantha Kannan

Probability of getting An amazing Job after Computer Science and Engineering?

Zero.

To get a good job, you also have to actually develop the skills that employers are looking for, and you have to apply for jobs, and you have to interview well. It doesn’t matter what you study; what matters is how you excel.

  -Jeff Erickson

# My Heart Shattered......

I did in fact. My first wife was murdered in 1978 leaving behind two very young girls. I struggled mightily for ten years to raise them well and retain my sanity.

I remarried after ten years to a woman who brought two more children into the world and I recovered some equilibrium in my life. She left me ten years later for a younger man. That brought me to my knees but I had retained custody of the children while trying to keep a business afloat. It was a desperate, painful time.

Two years later, I travelled to Israel on business and met the last, best love of my life. We planned that she would come to Canada and that we’d be together. I felt about as happy as I had ever been since Flo’s murder.

Then, about a month before Ghillia was due to fly to me, I received a phone call from Israel informing me that she too had been murdered. I remember too clearly sitting down in a heap and feeling my life drain away. I swear that I literally felt my heart break. It might seem utterly mad to some, but the heartbreak from 20 years of struggle, the monumental task of keeping my four children on a good path while hiding from them my pain, the financial pressures, all of it, seemed to come 

down on my head like a load of bricks. 

I left the office that day in a daze, tired beyond description, a beaten man. Yet I had to go home, pick up the kids from school, cook dinner, help them with their homework, chitchat about their day and tuck them in to bed with a story and a song.

That night was probably the loneliest of my life and I had known many. Abraham Lincoln once said, after Chancellorsville: “If there is a worse place than Hell, I am in it”. 

I know exactly how he felt.

-Richard Darroch

Poor and Rich and Hard Work

People are poor or rich not because of their hard work.

People are poor or rich because of the skill set they possesses.

Let me tell you a small story.

A giant ship engine failed. The ship’s owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine.

Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a young. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

Two of the ship’s owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do.

After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!

A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for $10,000.

“What?!” the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything!”

So they wrote the old man a note saying, “Please send us an itemized bill”.

The man sent a bill that read:

Tapping with a hammer………………….. $ 2.00

Knowing where to tap…………………….. $ 9,998.00 

While anyone can hammer, you need tremendous knowledge, skill and years of experience to know where to tap.

And knowledge and skill does not come free.

It is quite expensive to acquire knowledge in the modern education system, which the parents of poor can’t afford.

Hence, they also don’t get opportunity to occupy important position to sharpen their skills and gather experiences.

Hence, they are forced to do the jobs that needs bare minimum skills.

And they continue to get bare minimum salaries for their work.

Hence, they remain poor despite working hard throughout their life.

-Dr.Awdhesh Singh

You are your own ceo

Things NOT Worth at All

1. Instant Gratification - TV, Internet, Video Games, Fast Food, Mobile Phones, etc. All of these sources of instant gratification block out the few, important, long-term activities that really make a difference.

2. Lying to gain Status - No one ever thinks about it, but the status you gain through your lies is not worth the effort to keep it up. You have to constantly change yourself, no one will love you for who you are because no one will know who you are, and all that lying is going to create a very unstable source of self-worth that can crumble with even the slightest break in that web you’ve created. It’s not worth it.

3. Blame Game - “It’s his fault/her fault/my parents fault/ the fault of the world/it was the situation/I had no choice because of them/If only X wasn’t the way it was/I could have made it if person Y didn’t exist…” It’s easy to go around pointing fingers and saying they are responsible for your misfortune. Sadly none of it is going to change your situation or make things better. It’s merely going to prolong the time you stay in that situation as you keep avoiding taking responsibility yourself.

4. Dating just to Fill a Need - If you date to feel happy, less lonely and fulfilled then you will always be disappointed. Relationships require time, effort and energy and they will drag you down if you are not ready. Relationships always amplify what is there already. Do not expect them to fix anything.

5. Working too hard on the wrong things… - A lot of the things you do just do not matter in the end. There are a lot of things that you spend a lot of time on that end up holding very little value.

6. … And Working too little on the right things - Instead of spending your time aimlessly doing things that hold no value look at the few, uncomfortable things that do. Do those things first and work on them the longest.

7. Staying in Toxic Situations & Relationships - Trust me, it’s not fine! If you are in a burning room filled with acid, if the situation or relationship is poisoning your life, then get out however you can. Yes, it will suck for a while, but something better always takes it’s place.

8. Faking Who You Are - If you fake who you are you will always get feedback on that fake personality. No wonder so many people feel unloved, unsupported and low on self-confidence. They expect people to love their real self without ever showing it. Faking who you are holds no merit to you.

9. Settling For A Life They Do Not Enjoy - While you have to accept where you are you do not have to accept that life will always stay that way. Too many people settle for things they do not want out of fear they cannot get what they truly desire. But what if they get what they do not want? Will that truly make them happy when they settle with it?

10. Entitlement/Lack of Drive - The world owes you nothing. You are not special. There’s no destiny for you to achieve. You are here and everything you do has the potential to create something. But if you do not act, you will gain nothing. Get that through your head and stop waiting for miracles that will not happen.

- Lukas Schwekendiek

Looking down upon People Who are Terrible at (insert what you want).......

This is one of those things that I deeply, deeply despise.

It is a foul attitude, that I rarely tolerate without giving some fairly sharp words in return — and it’s made all the worse by the default assumption that I join in with this stupid, idiotic belief.

---

I work in an office full of theoretical physicists. I don’t think it’s that much of a stretch to say that, amongst their number, are some of the most intellectually gifted people in the country.

Most of these people are lovely — perfectly normal — and can more than appreciate that, even though they’re very good at what they do, they’re also terrible at other things, and that this doesn’t make them inherently better or worse than anybody else.

Then…there are the others.

People who think that their ability at mathematics/physics makes them objectively superior to those who aren’t. These people make fun of people who don’t understand the things that they do.

To let you understand how much hatred I feel about this phenomena, let me tell you a story.

---

Our coffee machine broke, a couple of days ago, and a man came to fix it. For some reason, I ended up being the person who took the instructions on how to ensure the machine didn’t get broken again — and I was chatting to him afterwards.

He commented that he was always a bit intimidated by this building — as we have lots of open spaces with chalkboards covered in crazy symbols, and we all seemed super clever.

Somebody else overheard this conversation between me, and the guy who fixes coffee machines, and decided to take it upon himself* to try to explain what the closest symbols meant.

Now: I love telling people about physics. It is one of my genuine passions, I could talk about physics for weeks, if you let me.

But I think it is absolutely abhorrent to do so with the sole intention of making yourself look clever, to mock the other person when they don’t understand what you’re saying.

Of course the guy who fixes coffee machines doesn’t know what a “renormalisation group” is — and making fun of him to his face for not knowing that makes you look like an absolute twat.

For all this absolute cockwomble’s gesticulating about how simple all of this is, and that it just requires paying “a bit of attention to the world around you” — it’s worth remembering he didn’t know how to fix a fucking coffee machine.

In the grand scheme of things, “not being able to fix a coffee machine” is a more mockable quality than “hasn’t read up on quantum field theory”.

---

People are good at different things. Some people fix coffee machines, or cars — some people make beautiful dresses, or can carry our brain surgery, some people can run very fast, or can lead entire teams of people towards a single goal, some people can knit entire gardens to raise tens of thousands for charity:

Could I do that?

Hell no…I tried to help, and made squashed crochet heart that looked more like a turd than a love heart.

But you know who could make that? My mum. She made loads of the stuff in that image (including the watering can in the foreground), and helped project-manage the creation of the rest of it, for a wonderful charitable cause. Her knowledge of maths and physics is, as she would freely admit, woeful compared to mine — but give her some sticks and some wool, and she can make magic.

That’s a pretty incredible thing to be able to do — and arguably so much more useful than anything I can do with my maths and physics.

Other people have skills beyond maths and physics — and a failure to recognise any skills beyond what you can do as worthwhile makes you more of a turd than my squashed heart.

One of the wonderful things about humans is our variety of talents — judging any particular person as being “less worthwhile” because you’re better at them at a single activity makes you a disgustingly shallow human.

---

I think it’s fair to say that, no, I do not look down on people who are terrible at mathematics.

I do, however, know plenty of people who do — and many of them expect me to join in with this percieved superiority game.

I think it is also fair to say that I do look down on these people.

---

*I would make this gender neutral, but let’s face it….there aren’t exactly many women in our department. It was going to be a guy.

                                            -Jack Fraser

What it is like to study in IITB?

One of the best things that a Non-IITian student can achieve in his/her life.


To study in IIT-Bombay.


People often say that only B.Tech guys are true IITians but that depends upon your own perspective.

You have achieved a feat because of which you are at the same place doing something different but under the same ambiance as the undergraduate guys. So, in a sense, try to prove worthy of the tag.

Talking about how is it like…!!


Each day is like a new beginning over here. Something interesting is happening daily in the campus. From band performances to dramatics, guest lectures to sports activities, everything is just spectacular.

Some renowned technical, political, social or celebrity personality can be seen in every week or two.

Many international personalities visit the institute as well.


Every week there is some sort of national or international research conference organized by various departments in which renowned researchers or speakers are invited. Generally, UG and PG students are not formally a part of these conferences but they always have a choice to attend them. Nobody stops them from that.

You get a lot of resources for projects and stuff.


You will get an access to “like never seen before” sports facilities in a college. During my UG days, I was not at all involved in sports activities but this place has persuaded me to be regular in my sports and physical activities.

Classes and exams at night.


No restrictions to girls or boys including hostel entry. This felt like real freedom. From a place where girls were not allowed to leave the hostel post 7 P.M, this freedom does feel good.

The up market Hiranandani area in the Powai region is a hub for branded shopping, eateries and hangouts.


You can easily register for courses in other departments which was not possible in my college. You can even find a chemistry guy taking remote sensing classes, or a physics guy taking computer science subjects over here. That’s the diversity which this place has to offer.

Lab access for M.Tech students for the whole night.


Getting an opportunity to interact with some of the best brains of the nation including the UG guys. They are seriously better at a lot of things. The ones I interact with are really talented and intelligent but they don’t show a glimpse of pride for having cleared JEE with top ranks. Most of them are really helpful, friendly and respectful towards us.

On the other end, some of them might not respect you that much. But never mind. As I told in the beginning, just focus on your work. There is nothing to compare. They have achieved something and so have us.

Plenty of eateries which are opened throughout the night till morning 3–4 A.M.


Something surprising from my past. In our college, even food delivery and e-cart delivery guys were not allowed to enter the campus. We had to walk till the main gate to collect it. Here everything is available at your hostel gates.

Gala dinner every month is a blessing. So much food and so many options to eat including welcome drinks, starters (both veg and non veg), biryani, gravies, naan and things beyond my comprehension.


If you try to explore the opportunities then you can for sure enhance your cultural or technical skills in the campus very easily. So many tech teams working on different projects. Feel free to be a part of any of them.

Every council is governed by a student body. In our college, even the technical and the cultural fests were mainly managed by the administration and faculty. Here everything is governed by an elected student council. They get so many grants and rights that the posts in themselves are so fascinating. From placements to tech fest to cultural fest and sports, hostel to academics, everything is managed by student general secretaries. No intervention by faculties.

The tech fest, sports fest and annual cultural fest (Mood-Indigo) are next level. I don’t know the exact figures but as far as I have heard, the funding is in crores. So you can imagine the standard of the preparations.


Separate cultural fest (PG Cult) and sports tournaments (PGGC) for PG students is something which no other college offers. Even if you have not done it before, you get an opportunity to dance, sing, act, play or speak.


From Halloween’s to Dandiya night. From prom to salsa night. From Holi to Diwali, this institute celebrates it all with grace and energy.


Every now and then there is a movie screening in the campus.


It is a life which all of us dream about in the college.


Placement opportunities are immense and you get as much as you prepare.


The life in this campus never stagnates. Something energetic is happening all the time. If you learn to maintain a balance in this college then you definitely will enjoy your stay over here. You can easily opt for semester exchange programs to pursue courses in foreign universities. This is not possible in all the colleges.

I’d say that research opportunities in India are not so good but IIT’s and IISc are better at it when compared with other colleges.

So having said all this, it is definitely worth a shot.


Thank you and all the best.


-Utkarsh Kulshrestha,M.Tech-IITB,B.Tech-KIET

Being Homeless.....

I first became homeless at the age of nineteen, a very naïve, very sheltered suburban girl. The first few nights I slept in my Dodge Neon. I first turned to friends, who were all living at home with their families, some still in high school. One of them let me crash at her place that weekend, but come Monday, I had to go. I bounced from friend to Neon quite a bit at first, but I managed to keep my job. I would clean up in public restrooms and park in garages to sleep during the day, and then stay up all night, since most free garages are closed at night.

Eventually, I stayed for some months in a guest house about an hour away from the city in the absolute middle of rural nowhere with a friend and her mom. The house was once stunning but was in terrible disrepair and we had to boil all our water, as it came from a well. When my car accident occurred, I lost my job, and my car, and my place to stay for a few months. My “friend” had treated me like a servant and a taxi the entire time I was there so I didn’t much care. My family agreed to repair my car if I voluntarily checked myself into a drug rehabilitation facility they would pay for. The problem was, I wasn’t a drug addict. But I agreed, I was desperate, and they locked me away for two months. I kept telling the counselors and doctors I wasn’t a drug addict and so they kept me longer. Finally I faked it to make it out. I was raped in the facility, and I was raped again when I got out, except this time, I was back at home. I found out I was pregnant, and not sure which rapist was the father, I chose to have an abortion. My family left photos of dead babies all over my room. They took me to confession. They made me talk to priests and my uncle about keeping the baby or adoption. I declined.

I attempted suicide after the abortion. On the day they let me out of the hospital, I went straight from the mental ward to a couch at a friend’s house. Her father was a severely alcoholic man and made daily unwelcomed sexual advances towards me but it was less scary than my parents’ house. She was 14. I was 20. I went there to sleep while her dad was at work and to shower. We left before he got too drunk and nuts. We’d go to raves and afterparties and all night clubs. At this point, I started doing a LOT of drugs. Still wouldn’t say I was an addict.

When I needed money, I stole. I’d go find cash receipts from the trash at local stores and steal what was on the receipts. I stuffed everything from laundry detergent to frozen turkeys in my pants and then returned them for cash. My party friends said, maybe you could go to such-and-such store and steal this Adidas jumpsuit for me or this Versace cardigan and I’ll pay you a percentage of the cost. So I became a full fledged thief. And then I got arrested. That was the end of that. I also cleaned out the bank account of my friend’s rapey dad. I ended up paying him back and he didn’t press charges.

I sold drugs for a while. I remember waking up one day after a week long cocaine binge on a floor that was littered with cat feces next to some veritable stranger named Toothless Tony. I spent a couple years sharing a bunk bed with a gay friend who was 15 at the time. He lived with his grandparents and his Uncle Bob. I’d come home late at night and he’d be waiting in the dark, coked up out of his mind, asking me to snuggle.

I sold drugs, I stole, I manipulated men. I never begged. I’m not proud of it, but it happened. I was a child, thrust into the street, barely clinging to hope, ready to die.

I met a handsome drug trafficker. We fell in love, I moved in with him. I cleaned up my act, got a job, went to school, and he went to have sex with hookers. Then he went to prison. And I had a baby.

At nine months old, my son, and myself, a young wife and mother, found ourselves homeless again. My MIL didn’t want us, so she called my grandmother, who said she didn’t want us either, but she begrudgingly would let us stay in the unfinished basement, because of the baby.

And stay there we did, for many years. I got two undergraduate degrees, a debilitating case of agoraphobia, and a lot more abuse.

I was homeless again two other times. I lived in my ex husband’s garage, a motel, and then I found a nice CCNA with NPD to live with. He ripped out my soul and told me to go back to grandma’s basement or maybe I could stay in his dirt floored storm cellar with the mice, listen to him have sex upstairs with his new girlfriend.

Back to grandma’s to be crucified some more. Got to stay upstairs this time, but I didn’t get a closet, and the rent is paid in proverbial pounds of flesh.

Somehow through all of this, I have single-handedly raised this amazing varsity football player with a heart of gold who loves his mother and has attended the same top echelon school since kindergarten. He’s well-adjusted and smart and happy and never once had a father. He’s the reason I’m alive. He’s the one thing I did right, my redemption, my pride and joy.

Now grandma is dying, and we do our best to be there for her the same way she was there for us. Once again in a position where the rug can ripped out at any time.

Rip your heart out rug. I’m ready.                      -Laura Hamm

When you are young......

    When you are young, you must invest in yourself and then convert the accumulated skills into profit later on. You, as a person, have a price tag in the market of life. You are your skills.
   
I may appear dumb or confused all the time in the class in comparison to others. However, persistence and sheer tenacity outweighs talent. Life is a marathon, not an 100 meter dash.
  
 Always prioritize and understand what’s important and what’s less important. Write a 1 year plan, know what you want, break it up into small chunks, and religiously every day follow the path to the final achievement.
   
If you are ambitious, do not continue to passively consume material, think of the “what if” scenarios, or be in a constant daydream state. Get off your ass and do something.
  
 Do not whine about your awful life with a 5G WiFi and a $6 Starbucks coffee in your hand. Do a reality check once in a while and look at your tragic burdens from a different perspective. Life is not that bad.
  
 Do not blame others for your awful life. You, and only you, are responsible for your life and remember that “he that lives upon hope will die fasting.” (Benjamin Franklin) Practice self reliance and rely only on yourself.
   
Stop seeking short term gratification and focus on long term goals.
  
 Invest money today and not tomorrow because “one today is worth two tomorrows.” Also, clearly understand the difference between assets and liabilities and that it’s better to “go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt.” (Benjamin Franklin)
   
Money may not buy happiness but it buys comfort and safety.
   
Family is important and we should never hurt the ones we love the most.                                                                            

      -Anna Sharudenko

I cant get even minimum wage per hour.......Why?

I owned and operated a pizza shop for many years. Almost 100% of my hires were kids getting their first job. Most of these kids needed to learn things like how to show up on time, how to work with others, not to get high before coming to work (I kid you not), and how to produce enough each hour to be worth any wage at all. In many cases it took months for them to rise to this level. And those who could not get up to that level quickly had to be let go. This was not out of greed or cruelty, this was a simple necessity if one wished to stay in business.

Unlike government, a small business either makes ends meet or goes bankrupt. If an employee cannot produce more than you are paying him or her, you can’t keep them. It’s literally that simple.

Once an employee had learned how to produce more than they were being paid, the minimum wage no longer applied to them. Since they can work anywhere they wish, it was in my best interests to pay them more so they would stay. And you can bet your butt I did; hiring and training are expensive and I had no desire to be a “training center” for my competitors! But if a person did not rise to that level quickly, I had no choice but to let them go. And the higher the wage, the higher the level of productivity has to be in order to hire and keep them.

Despite all of the posturing and claims of “helping the working poor,” minimum-wage laws hurt the very people they were designed to help: those at the bottom of the productivity and wage scale.

-John Bianchi

Failure and Success....

If you lose repeatedly in life, it breaks your confidence.

If you succeed repeatedly in life, it makes you more confident.

This is a simple formula of life.

However, it is not possible for any person to keep winning or losing for long because,

• If you keep winning in life, you become more confident and hence you raise the bar for yourself and take up even more challenging task. Soon the challenge takes the best of you and the failures starts pouring in. 
• 
  
• If you keep losing repeatedly, you become demoralized and lose confidence. Hence you set the bar lower now. As a result, you now start winning and that boosts your confidence and you now aim for higher things in life. 

If you are intelligent, you shall soon identify your caliber and calibrate your goals accordingly to your abilities so that your successes and failures are reasonably balanced just like a great musician balances the tightness of the string of his instrument.

However, most people fail to learn their lessons from the successes and failures of life.

They are on the top of the world when they achieve success.

They don’t know where to hide when they face failure.

Aristotle said so wisely — 'Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.'

-Dr.Awdhesh Singh (B.tech IIT-BHU,M-Tech IIT Delhi,Phd)

Working Hard as Elon Musk

No-one knows how hard Musk works apart from Musk himself. I think you’ll find that while he works very hard, it’s not his hard work that makes him exceptional.

I’m sure there are guys in India, in the hot sun, making chapatis while fighting the heat of a ‘tavva’ working much harder than Musk. Or labourers in the Middle East, working in the baking sun, on construction sites. And all to feed their families.

The question should then be how can you work as hard as the chapati wala or labourer? You need a motivation as strong as feeding your family.

-Asim Qureshi

Listen Buddy......

I am from a Tier 3..........

I am from a 3-tier college in West Bengal, India. During my 4 years in college, I had done 4 paid internships with which I had even been able to pay a semester’s fee. I had 3 offers when I left college, all of them from good startups. After 2.5 years of working, I am earning 20 lakhs per annum and even booked a flat in Bangalore.

A bit of history:

1. Since I was a child, in most terminal exams in school, I used to fail in at least one subject.

2. In my 12 mock exams, I got 38%.

3. Somehow got 80% in 12 boards and of course got into a very shitty college.

4. Only goal was to study well in college, keep good CGPA and get job in the IT services companies that come to college. Namely, Infosys, Wipro etc.

Something happened:

1. Saw seniors ragging juniors. Students in hostels drinking, watching movies. Teachers were really bad(in knowledge of the subject)

2. I was sure there was something wrong and suddenly became curious on what do students in IIT, IIIT etc do that they get job with so much salary. What’s different.

3. Asked a school senior who was studying in IIIT-H. He said there are websites called Codechef, SPOJ, Codeforces, Topcoder etc and if I really wanted to be a good programmer, I should code there. I thanked him and asked him if I can ask him when in doubt. I will never forget what he said: If you really want to learn, you will find your way to achieve it. The internet has every answer to your question. I am in IIIT-H and I don’t do these. You will do it if you are determined. I thanked him again and after this was all by myself.

4. I learned Python online and started coding in Codechef. Then I came to know about SPOJ and coded there.

5. I never gave a shit about “enjoying” in college. I was in love with programming. I started reading hacker news, Quora(yeah I have seen the best of Quora and I miss that now. :D). I understood there is no way to waste time in anything else that others were doing in college.

6. When I went to 2nd year and my juniors arrived, I started to look for teammates for ACM ICPC. Unlike others, who like being “dadas” of college, all I used to talk about with others(juniors or seniors) is doing something to increase skills. I loved encouraging people to code or towards anything they love to do.

7. At some point my all India rank one Codechef was 60th. That is when I received an internship interview mail from R&D team of Aspiring Minds. I cleared the interviews(DS Algo and Math). The other intern who was working with me was from DCE and his all India rank in AIEEE was 9000(My AIEEE rank was more than 1 lakh). It felt great to have good people around.

8. Did 3 more internships after that. The side projects and competitive programming kept on going.

9. Went to ICPC, gave a talk at PyCon India, did some projects in ML and Image processing and on the way encouraged everyone.

What do i recommend?

1. Don’t waste time in college. Enjoying and chilling feels great but don’t do that. 

2. Maximise your time to code. Work very very hard.

3. Find your own way and do not ask others. (Most juniors who used to ask did nothing. I patiently helped everyone though. One who asked nothing and found his own way is at DirectI now :D)

4. Do not give excuses of your failures. You are the only reason to what you are. I didn’t work hard in class 11–12 and ended up in a shitty college. But I was(still am) a shit too.

5. Most of the time you will feel like dropping the hard work and enjoying like others. But that is the end. Keep fighting till you achieve because that knowledge remains forever. Its very very frustrating to learn something and in programming, hell yes its so fucking tough to learn and keep pushing. But there is no other way. You have to work hard. Determine that all these 4 years you will code like crazy and get internships and get jobs. 

6. Encourage everyone to work hard. Tell to 100, at least 1 will do.

7. Again, work hard.

The best thing is this hard work will make you an amazing human being who will not give up easily on anything. Your “fighting” to achieve level will increase and that is the most important thing to survive in life. Enjoy whatever you are doing. Don’t do it for the salary. Do it because its awesome. Also, you will learn how to learn anything without a paid “training”. I learned singing and cooking after moving to Bangalore for job all by myself. ;)

Thanks. I hope I have motivated you to get started. All the best.

                  -Rishi Mukherjee 

{ Bloggers Notes : Mr.Rishi did his B.Tech(2010-2014) from Neotia Institute of Technology, Management and Science which is affiliated to West Bengal University of Technology.}

Additional Advice for starters from Mr.Rishi:

" Don’t waste a single day in college. Learn as much as possible. Codechef, SPOJ, Topcoder, android, iOS, python, web, ML, Image processing, programming conferences, everything. I am from a third grade college so I know what I am talking about. No “training” will help. Learn yourself from the Internet and books. All the best. :) "