Have you ever met your role model, someone you look up to? Maybe an industry leader or even a sportstar or musician?
We invited readers to send in thier experiences of meeting their idols and the lessons they learned from them. Here we post two of the responses we received.
First up, Parag P Jain, a student of Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, shares his experience of meeting D Shivakumar, managing director and vice president, Nokia India.
It was July 31, 2008. My MBA had just begun. We had a seminar by D Shivkumar (MD, Nokia) on 'Where did the leader learn leadership'. The seminar was really interesting and gave great insights on leadership qualities. But the most interesting thing was the lesson learnt after the seminar.
Everyone, except Shivkumar, left after the seminar. He waited to have a chat with a few of his colleagues (subordinates) from Nokia.
Later, when he left NMIMS premises, he treated his colleagues to vada pav and cutting chai at a roadside joint. Normally when someone comes for a seminar, they wait to talk to students and then leave in their BMWs and Mercedes.
This guy did not just wait up on his colleagues for tea and snacks, he also made sure everyone got into the company bus before him and only then did he leave. His humility made an impact on me.
In these two years of MBA, I have attended many seminars by eminent personalities from C K Prahlad to Kishore Biyani. Every one was unique in their own way. But Shivkumar left an impression.
It was the most important lesson learnt: Aim for the stars, but stay grounded.
Image: D Shivakumar, MD and VP, Nokia India
Reader invite
Met Mr Murthy or learnt a lesson or two from Prof Prahalad? Have Share with us stories of interactions with your idols and what you learnt from those dynamic women and men. Write in to getahead@rediff.co.in with the subject 'I met my idol' and we'd love to publish the most inspirational stories right here!
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