Challenging the exam itself | Arun Sharma | TEDxRamjasCollege
## Speaker Context - Speaker identity: Teacher, author, entrepreneur. - Audience, setting, occasion of the talk: Implied to be a lecture or talk setting, addressing an audience that includes students (possibly institutional students) and corporate professionals/parents (as per examples). - Any framing the speaker establishes for themselves up front: "I'm basically a teacher," and when asked "who are you," answers are "I'm a teacher, I'm an author, I'm an entrepreneur." ## People - Mahatma Gandhi + historical figure + asked the Britishers to leave India. - Roger Federer + athlete + wanted to be the best tennis player in the world as a kid. - VA: Mentioned as someone who decided in 2011 to become the best batsman of the world. ## Organizations - IMB + educational institution + speaker studied there. - T + computer education company franchise + the speaker's initial franchise. - State Bank of India + bank + where the speaker paid off his loan. - Microsoft Co + company + mentioned in relation to its CEO in 2045. ## Places - Bangalore + location of the speaker's passage out of college. ## Tools, Tech & Products - MS DOS + course material taught in the 1990s. - MS Excel + course material taught in the 1990s. - MS PowerPoint + course material taught in the 1990s. - database + complex subject taught in a one-year course in the 1990s. - computer + object that people realized they could use to learn more than the institute taught. ## Concepts & Definitions - Intelligence + ability + the speaker proposes it is not fixed and can actually be raised. - First principle (of life): Anything is possible in a lifetime. - Second principle (of life): What are your audacious challenges? - Third principle (of life): Put your head down and work. ## Numbers & Data - 1993-95 batch + graduation period from IMB. - 20 years + duration mentioned in relation to working in the corporate sector. - 15-16,000 rupees + cost of a one-year course on computers in the mid-90s. - 18,000 rupees + street price of a computer crashed due to imports from China and Taiwan. - 24 years old + age when the speaker was after his first failed business. - 1996-97 / early 96 late 96 + period when the speaker's second journey as a teacher started. - 3-4 months + duration students were taught for initially at the speaker's institution. - 99.6 percenti to 99.9% + potential improvement the speaker mentioned converting. - 70% Tyler into a 99% + specific challenge the speaker questioned solving. - 2-3 years + time taken to resolve the issue of raising intelligence. - 10 years + timeframe mentioned before the speaker giving three different lectures in a week. - 18 to 24 year old + age group of students attending the speaker's normal speaking events. - 9th to 12th girls + grade level of girls in the audience at a parent-teacher meet. - 1,500 girls + approximate number of girls in the auditorium during the Friday lecture. - 2000 / early 2000 / 2001 + timeframe when the speaker realized he could train a person from nothing to an IAS level. - 2002 / 2003 + time frame when the speaker wrote his first book. - 10+ books + approximate number of books written over the last 12-13 years. - 2006-7 + approximate time when the speaker disrupted his entrepreneurship once more. - 2007-8 + time frame when the speaker retired from his entrepreneurship and took a break. - 2.5 to 3 million books + total books sold so far. - 2013 + year when some students came back from B schools. - 2045 + year referenced in the question about the Microsoft CEO. ## Claims & Theses - The speaker had no evidence created through school or college that any teacher doubted his potential. - Being an entrepreneur requires disruption. - The initial franchise venture was based on a product (computer courses) that was no longer required by the market because computers were affordable. - Intelligence is not fixed; it can actually be raised for people. - The systems for the development of intelligence are not understood by people. - Once he realized he could train someone from nothing to an IAS level, he decided to give this knowledge to the world. - He decided to write for a publisher after the initial failure as an entrepreneur. - The challenge should be audacious and life defining. - Anything is possible in a lifetime. - Things will not happen unless you make them happen. ## Mechanisms & Processes - The speaker taught skills like MS DOS, MS Excel, and MS PowerPoint in a one-year course. - The mechanism for the speaker's second journey involved finding that the root cause of his failures was himself. - The process for raising intelligence, as demonstrated, involved showing people that a seemingly unsolvable math problem could be solved by changing one's thinking. - The speaker's current process involves building an excellent organization to continue the journey. - The structure for living life according to the speaker involves defining audacious challenges, realizing that anything is possible, and then putting one's head down and working. ## Timeline & Events - In the final year of engineering: The speaker's "C journey" began. - At the time of passing out of IMB (1993-95 batch): The speaker decided against the corporate sector. - In the 1990s: The computer industry was selling one-year courses for 15-16,000 rupees. - When the computer price dropped to 18,000 rupees (due to imports from China and Taiwan): People realized they could learn by buying and using the computer themselves. - After the first failed business: The speaker had a huge bank loan and no income source. - Late '96: The speaker's second journey as a teacher started. - During the summer vacation: The speaker would get students who qualified on their own. - Around 2-3 years in the late '90s: The time taken for the speaker to resolve the issue of raising intelligence. - A week: The speaker was supposed to give three different lectures in this timeframe (to corporates, a 2-day training session, and a 4-hour parent-teacher meet). - Monday morning: The speaker began his prepared session with corporate executives. - Friday: The speaker gave a lecture to girls in the audience. - By 2001: The speaker realized he could train someone from nothing to an IAS level. - Shortly after: The speaker decided to write for a publisher and began the author journey. - 2002-2003: The speaker wrote his first book. - Over the last 12-13 years: The speaker wrote about 10+ books. - Around 10 years after his entrepreneurship started (2006-7): The speaker disrupted his entrepreneurship again. - 2007-8: The speaker retired from his entrepreneurship for a break focused on authorship. - By 2013: Students came back from B schools asking him to build an excellent organization. ## Examples & Cases - The initial setup: A computer franchise was run in the 1990s, competing with brands like Aptech and NIIT. - The industry context: Selling a one-year course (16,000 rupees) teaching MS DOS, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, and database. - The market shift: The street price of a computer crashed to 18,000 rupees because of imports from China and Taiwan. - The immediate consequence: The speaker was left with a failed business and a huge bank loan. - The teaching challenge: The speaker questioned if he could raise the intelligence of a person who did not know how to think mathematically, or in reasoning, or in language. - The comparative intelligence view: 45-year-old General Manager/Vice President believed intelligence was fixed, while 13-year-old girls knew intelligence could be changed. - The initial demonstration: The speaker took almost the first half of the day to prove to corporate executives that intelligence could be improved or raised using math questions. - The second demonstration: The speaker prepared a lecture for the girls, starting by asking if intelligence could be raised, expecting a "no" answer. - The financial recovery: The speaker remembers paying off his loan at State Bank of India, describing the feeling of being "100 ft below the ground" versus being free to go anywhere. - The B-School call: Students from B schools suggested the speaker's potential was not being utilized and asked him to help build an excellent organization. ## Trade-offs & Alternatives - Alternative career path: Working in the corporate sector (suggested a 20-year trajectory). - Disruption choice: The speaker chose to become an entrepreneur instead of working in the corporate sector. - Teaching focus: Teaching basic skills via a franchise vs. realizing the need to teach *how to think* and solving problems rather than just listing subjects. - Learning focus: Paying 16,000 rupees at an institute vs. just buying a computer and learning independently. - Career focus: Running the failing computer franchise vs. teaching, which required no capital. - Leadership focus: Content creation/Authoring (writing books) vs. continuing to run the entrepreneurship. ## Counterarguments & Caveats - The speaker initially thought the franchise would "take care of all those landing problems," but it failed. - The evidence people use suggests people don't raise their intelligence, citing the 50-year-old neighbor thinking the same way as 10 years prior. - The speaker acknowledged that his ability to speak to the girls on Friday was prepared because the corporate group was "pretty ignorant" compared to them. - The author journey was initiated because the first publisher (MRO) was "smart enough to understand that there's something good in this." - The speaker noted that the ratio of books sold by 'CanT' is "very close to the number of IAS today," suggesting an indication of the effectiveness of his approach. ## Methodology - The speaker used personal experience (failure in business, initial job stagnation) to structure his life's journey narrative. - He used rhetorical questions, such as "do you know the Microsoft CEO in 2045," to shift the audience's mindset. - The final lesson framework is sequential: 1. Excellence happens in the context of something; 2. Identify audacious challenges; 3. Put head down and work. ## References Cited - (No external books, papers, or prior speakers explicitly named as sources of external knowledge were cited, other than examples/concepts drawn from history/general knowledge). ## Conclusions & Recommendations - **Primary Lesson:** The speaker wants to put lessons down into four or five things for the audience. - **Application Instruction:** Listen to the personal challenges and apply the lessons. - **First Principle:** "Anything is possible in a lifetime." - **Action 1:** You must make things happen; they will not happen by themselves. - **Action 2:** Identify your audacious challenges. - **Action 3:** Put your head down and work. - **Closing Summary:** "Nothing is possible unless you pick up challenges and solve them... The challenges should be audacious... put your head down and work." ## Implications & Consequences - Ignoring the challenge of improving intelligence leads to a fixed mindset, as exemplified by the 45-year-old executives. - The implication of the 'first principle' is that setting goals is necessary for any achievement. - The consequence of not embracing audacious challenges is stagnation in life. ## Open Questions - "Do you know the Microsoft Co?" (Framed as a comparison to the CEO in 2045). - "What are your audacious challenges?" (Directed at the audience for introspection). ## Verbatim Moments - "I had absolutely no evidence created right through my school or my college ever." - "I'm a teacher I'm an author I'm an entrepreneur." - "My first point of the journey was disruption I just disrupted the whole set future I decided that I want to be an entrepreneur." - "The street price of a computer crashed to 18,000 rupees because of the imports from China and taian." - "my career is gone your I has blown off and the only thing you have to now look at is that somehow you have to survive and pay this loan off right with no income source..." - "I'm first generation entrepreneur." - "I could convert the 70% Tyler into a 99%." - "Intelligence can actually be raised for people." - "I can train him to get to an IAS I could make that happen." - "The challenge should be audacious the challenge should be audacious they should be life defining." - "The first principle is anything is possible in a lifetime but what do you need to things will not happen unless you make them happen." - "The last step is just putting your head down and working like nobody's business."