GETTING INTO A WINNER'S MIND

A young one asked me just this morning: “Sir, I am planning to give GRE; is it tough?”

I had to answer him: “Yes, it is,” or, “No, it is not.”

I only smiled and said, “Sit down.”

For next fifteen minutes, we discussed on the subject: “How, who do it, are able to do it?” In other words: “What it takes to do it?”

The young man, apparently, was inspired by his cousin who had passed the exam and had gone to the US to do his MBA in one of the top Universities and then got settled there with a fantastic lifestyle.

“Have you checked with your cousin as to how he did it?” I asked him during our discussion, “Have you asked him as to what it took to do it?”

“No sir, I haven’t,” confessed the young man.

“Can you do that for a few days from now?” I asked him.

“Yes, I can do it online and through phone even; he is close to me,” the young man said.

“That’s great,” I exclaimed, “Probably, you may not need the answer from me, then.”

The young man could get the message across: “Get it from the Horse’s mouth!”

He thanked me and went home. 

I had the subject for my Blog, today: “What it takes to clear GRE or GEE or CAT or IAS or IPS or even CPT… or, whatever it is to be passed to be wherever you want to be?”

I was watching the Olympics games, last night. The event was Table Tennis.  Two girls, from two different countries, were pitted against each other. The difference: one girl had two hands to play; the other had only one-and-a-half!

“O my God!” I screamed, “How did she come this far… Leave alone the Gold?”

Yes, I asked to myself, “When it is so tough to get into your own country’s contingent, how could this girl cruise so far?”

The girl had to defeat all the two-full-handed-girls – the normal girls - from her own country… to be there!

I did not see which of the two went on to grab the Gold, last night. To me, this young gritty-girl was the ‘World Champ’!

During the course of the discussion this morning, I told the young man this: “I really have no idea as to what the GRE test involves. But, this much I know… You have to get into a winner’s mind.” I added, “You need not know how does a winner do it?”

So, whether it is a GRE test 

or an Olympic-entry, 

and whether it is Microsoft 

or the Mount Everest, 

the rule of the game is same: 

“Fix your goal and pursue it 

with all the passion in your soul.”

 

Will you achieve it?

Is it tough?

I have asked the young man to find out from his cousin, a winner.

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Denzil Pais