I watched the movie 12th Fail recently and liked it for a couple of reasons. Firstly because of the simplicity with which the whole story was presented to make it more real and appealing. And secondly for the reason that the UPSC exam remains very close to my heart with the memories resurfacing of the times when I had attempted the same.
Though I was not successful, I strongly felt that the preparation of the Civil Services Exam in itself was an experience which each one of us should have. And to be frank it is not a thought upon reflection. I felt it during the time when I was preparing for it. The Adrenaline rush is totally different. It is a known fact that it is the toughest exam in India and maybe amongst the toughest in the world.
But once you take the risk and immerse into it, the journey itself can serve you many lessons and memories for life. You get one hurdle after another and as soon as you think of rejoicing in solving one, you get another one and the battle continues. The fun part is you start enjoying the battle with a bring-it-on attitude. This is until you face the final roadblock which can be an exit at prelims stage or like in my case the mains stage or in the final interview round.
For many even that is a temporary deterrent and as they show in the movie 12th Fail it is time to Restart, restart and restart!!
Now, I did reflect on this today for a different reason. The reason was the analogy I felt between this and between starting something of your own which I am currently doing. Talking to a friend, Sundeep, I told him that the adrenaline is quite similar to what I felt while I prepared for the UPSC exam.
And it is not only the adrenaline, the challenges we have to face, the risks we need to take, the many unknowns that we have to learn and more importantly the many learnings that we need to unlearn. It makes the journey much more exciting. You do get your lows but there are highs too and then your resolve keeps getting stronger and stronger.
There can be and are moments of Restart(read pivots) in one’s start-up journey. And like UPSC, the success stories of the Start-ups are few and overshadow a large number of failure stories which need to be told and shared because each of them had their own unique experience which has its own learning.
So yes, if you meet someone who was once an IAS aspirant or a start-up founder, be curious to know their journey. You will definitely get something out of it!!
jammywrites.com 