This Government Job aspirant collected pens during her preparation - Here's Why!

Has it ever happened with you that you look for people, who have done what you want to, in order to believe that you can do it too? If yes, then join the club. Hearing an acquaintance's story of success takes you one step closer to your own because the goal starts seeming more achievable. To take you closer to your goal, today I have the story of a government job aspirant, Gunjan Rajput, who penned down a new definition of hard work!

This story has been narrated to me by her brother Rakesh Rajput, so I'd like to thank him for giving me the permission to share it with the world. The intent behind posting this story is to help those preparing for competitive exams realize that "It's not about perfection, it's about the effort! And, when you bring that effort every single day, that's where the transformation happens!"

Inspiration Dose

In Rakesh's Words:

It may inspire some people.

Four years back, around the end of 2015, my sister started preparing for government job exams. Her aptitude wasn’t that good, especially the English part of these aptitude exams because she completed her education from a Hindi medium board. But that didn't stop her from trying, that couldn’t be an excuse, so she started hitting aptitude hard.

She took 10–12 exams in 2016 but she wasn't able to crack a single one. When something like this happens, you are left with nothing but frustration. And so was her case.

Then came 2017, she again took the same exams but again the same results followed. This time she got rejected by 1 or 2 marks in a few exams. In Indian competitive exams, a rejection means a rejection, you can’t show your marks to someone and prove that you can do it the next time, sometimes not even to your parents. Either you win or you lose. No one cares about progress.

The next year, in 2018, she was quite confident to crack these government exams, she knew she could do it with a little more practice. But again, no result followed. That's when her frustration had reached the pinnacle. At that time she definitely wanted to quit.

I reached out to her and said that, "If you don't crack the exams in 2019 or 2020, you would not be able to sit for any other because of the age criteria, then all your efforts will go in vain because sooner or later, that will happen - the government will kick you out of the examination hall." I told her that, "I trust that you can do it and I believe that most people really quit just inches before the finish line, so if you want to make it happen, give your best in the next attempt knowing that it may be your final attempt."

In 2019, when I was just casually sitting around, I received a WhatsApp image from her:

She captioned it saying, "I got selected in the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) exam and these are all the pens I emptied during my preparation."

I couldn't believe my eyes. To her, it finally seemed like the ink of all those pens was worth it! It felt so weird to see that she collected all the pens she used during her preparation but at the same time it was so encouraging to see that she didn't give up. The ink gave up but her spirit didn't.

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When I had read Gunjan's story, it gave me goosebumps! I was so inspired by the effort she had put in that I requested Rakesh to get in touch with her and share a message for the readers of this blog. I wanted you guys to take a note of how hard you're supposed to work in order to change the odds in your favour and how much courage you need to keep going despite being hit by failure. It is definitely not easy - it's tiring, it's challenging but above all - it's totally worth it!

Here's what Gunjan had to say to all of you:

"There were so many times when I felt low during my preparation journey. I've been there and I know how it feels. To those who are preparing for any competitive exam or working towards any goal in life, I'd just like to say that nothing beats hard work. You need to be aggressive with the amount of effort you put in and sooner or later, the result will be in your favour."

I'd really like to thank Rakesh & Gunjan for sharing this beautiful story with us.

Hope this post gave you courage to keep going. Usually, I blog about CAT Preparation, IIM Interviews and Jobs & Internships but today I felt like sharing this story because a blog member recently messaged me, "I think you should also share about people who struggle really hard to make their lives work. Because it's not always so easy for everyone. I want to read about someone who faced challenges and who faced roadblocks and yet succeeded. That's when it would speak volumes about that individual's ability to handle pressure."

And, I think Gunjan really fits that description. If you want to read more stories like this, refer to the Inspirational Stories section of this blog. Thank you for reading :)