Most young people do not know about the Young India Challenge. I spent two days of my life with them in Delhi a few years back, but continue to miss them every day, even today. Those two days taught me a lot about how to live our lives. Maybe this does not apply to everyone, but this is my truth. I have learned five valuable lessons from the Young India Challenge, which I would like to share with you all.
First of all, I would like to tell you about the Young India Challenge. By the way, in 2016, I wrote my blog on My Life Time Experience at YIC.
The Young India Challenge (YIC) is a two-day experimental national event for the top creative young minds to engage in innovative programs that will broaden their minds and move them closer to what they love doing; participants are selected from across the country.
YIC is an opportunity to discover and explore what you love doing by taking up an incredible challenge and connecting with the best mentors and career opportunities.
It is an opportunity for the selected youth to grow and connect with the top industry leaders, best-selling authors, incredible speakers and game-changing entrepreneurs to build their network and career. The selected participants meet incredible people and understand how to turn their passion into a thriving, lucrative career.
Here’s what I learned from being a fellow with the YIC:
1. Don’t Care About Language:
Firstly, one of the most important things I learnt here was about language. Most of the people in India who come from a middle-class family or village or TIER 2-3 cities are confused and worried about language. They think that English is the most important language in big cities like New Delhi and as a result, they feel uncomfortable and are unable to express themselves or their thoughts in front of anyone. When I joined the YIC, I was the same, but the people at YIC made me realise that language is not your barrier, it’s your strength. Express your thoughts in your regional language.
2. Never Follow The Trend, Follow Your Passion:
When you are born into a middle-class family, then you have a burden to get a good job or earn well. Similarly, when you are born into a wealthy family, you have the responsibility to follow the family trends and maintain their prestige in the world. In both situations, you end up losing your passion. As a result, you might live your life in regret somehow. When I joined the YIC, I believed in this, following the trend, but then I got to know that it is always better to follow the passion.
3. Make Yourself Comfortable With Your Clothes:
When we come out of the house, we mostly worry about our clothes, especially when we come from places like Bihar, Jharkhand, and Telangana where people live a comparatively simple life. When these people are invited to attend any formal program or function, they care a lot about the dress code, such as putting on a coat, a pair of shoes and so on. When I visited Delhi for the first time as part of the Young India Challenge, I, too, suffered from the same phobia about the dress code. But, when I entered the program, I was shocked to see these participants in simple dresses. Then, I came to know we should wear clothes which are comfortable for us.
4. Boost Your Confidence, Connection, And Creativity:
This is one of the greatest lessons I’ve learnt from the YIC. Most of the young people like me tend to lack confidence when they visit public places or have to speak up on stage. But, as part of the YIC, I came to know that we always need to boost our confidence, no matter what, and that comes from our connections. There are so many incidents that happened during my time at the YIC, which helped me learn the importance of these things. Confidence comes from your heart by talking with people in your regional language or any language you are comfortable with; this confidence helps to boost your network or connections and allows you to express your creativity, your ideas. Somehow, each of this is dependent on the other, if you lose one, the other will follow.
5. Always Be Happy:
The Young India Challenge is all about happiness, an experimental event designed for the top youth from the country to #DoWhatYouLove. It’s very easy to do anything, but it is essential to be happy, always.
In the last three years, I visited several places and explored a lot. But, each time when I interact with the YIC team, participants have just the one question, “How can you make your way out of critical situations?” As always, I tell them to dream, and that I have a dream to share the stage in the Young India Challenge.