Personal Mastery

Sometimes, the simplest things can change lives in profound ways. For me, that transformative tool was a Philips transistor radio, a modest yet impactful investment my parents made in 1994, costing around ₹380—an amount that felt monumental for our family back then. Growing up in a farmer’s family in a small village in coastal Andhra Pradesh, we led a quiet, humble life in a house with mud walls and a thatched roof without electricity until I turned 15. This radio became my gateway to a whole new world.

My parents saw something in me, and despite our financial struggles, they made this sacrifice, investing in my dreams long before I had any clear vision of them myself. They handed me that transistor, not knowing it would become my guide and teacher, fueling my determination to rise beyond our circumstances. Listening to English news and talk shows on All India Radio, I was transported to places and ideas far beyond the reach of my small village. The words and phrases from those broadcasts became my textbooks; each day, I jotted down unfamiliar words, skipping college lunch to spend that hour in the library, deciphering meanings and building my vocabulary. It opened a whole new world of possibilities and showed me that growth comes from one small step at a time.

The journey wasn’t easy—I had only started learning the English alphabets just before my 6th standard at a Telugu-medium government school. Yet, with that radio by my side, I could hear a future I wanted to create, bit by bit. My parents’ faith and that small radio were my greatest assets, teaching me resilience, focus, and the belief that knowledge could take me anywhere.

To all rural youth who study in regional languages and are reading this post: Every dream counts, and every small step adds up. No matter where you start, be curious, be hungry, and take that next step. Your journey may look different, but the power to change your life lies within you.
I am eternally grateful to my parents, who invested in that radio. Their belief in me and that small transistor were seeds of inspiration that helped shape who I am today.

#RootsAndDreams #PowerOfRadio #RuralYouth #FromVillageToVision #borra #dontcoast #getleaderized #personalgrowth

Regards,

Kishore

# Fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady: 

As soon as you read this statement, our childhood version of the race between rabbit & tortoise will flash into your mind. The story with which we’ve all grown up. A tortoise and a rabbit argued about who was faster. They both decided to settle the argument with a race. The rabbit was complacent and fell asleep, and the tortoise won the race. The moral of the story is that slow-and-steady wins the race.  

But we were not taught that the rabbit was disappointed at losing the race and did some thinking. Rabbit again challenged the tortoise for another race. This time the rabbit remained focused and finished the race way ahead of the tortoise. The moral of the story is fast and consistent will beat the slow-and-steady. 

# Focus on your core competencies: 

The tortoise was upset and thought there was no way he could beat the rabbit in this race; hence after careful consideration tortoise challenged the rabbit to another race. But this time, the tortoise gets to design the race route. The rabbit sped off just as focused as the last race but arrived at a broad river. The turtle arrived later, swam across the river, and reached the finishing line. The moral of the story is to identify your strengths and change the playing field to suit your core competence.

# Teamwork first

By this time, the rabbit and the tortoise had become pretty good friends, and they had done some thinking together. Both realized that they could have run the last race much better. So they decided to run the race again, but this time as a team. The rabbit carried the tortoise for the first part of the route, then the tortoise swam across the river with the rabbit on its back and finally finished the race together. The moral of the story is that pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers. Also, working in a team helps harness each other’s core competencies. 

A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter and asked, “Are you writing a story about what we’ve done? Is it a story about me??”

His grandmother stopped writing her letter and said to her grandson, “I am writing about you…actually, I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up.”

Intrigued, the boy looked at the pencil. It didn’t seem very special. “But it’s just like any other pencil I’ve ever seen!” he said.

“That depends on how you look at things,” the grandmother replied.

“This pencil has five qualities which, if you manage to hang on them, will make you a person who is always at peace with the world.

First quality: You are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps.
We call that hand. God, and He always guides us according to His will.

Second quality: Now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpener. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterward, he’s much sharper. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows because they will make you a better person.

Third quality: The pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily bad; it helps keep us on the road to justice.

Fourth quality: What really matters in pencil is not its wooden exterior but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.

Fifth quality: It always leaves a mark. In the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action.

Note: The story is an extract from the book “Like the flowing River” by Paulo Coelho, published by Harper Collins.