Transcribed by Divya Mendiratta
Gauri : Hello
everybody our guest today at Foundations TV is Akshat Shekhar. Who is pretty
well known in our community, but is here at foundations TV for the first time.
Welcome to Foundations TV Akshat.
Akshat: Thank you
for having me.
Gauri : Absolutely
a pleasure. Akshat is a brilliant student. And he is currently a sophomore in
UPenn, Wharton School of Management. And he is pursuing the Bachelor of Science
in Economics, with a concentration in finance. And he is also one unique
student who achieved 2400 on SAT, in his only attempt. And he was also one of
the three students from Massachusetts, to be named Presidential scholars by
United States Department of Education and one of the 12 students to be selected
for the student exchange program in China. Is that right?
Akshat: That’s
Right.
Gauri : Ok now
that’s a lot of achievements, but I’m sure I’m missing a lot. So would you like
to talk about a few of your achievements?
Akshat : You did
a great job covering the academic side of things, I think. That sums it up
pretty well. To give viewers a better idea of what I do outside of the class
room, as extra curriculum, at Wharton. I’m involved on some different boards. I’m
on the board of Wharton Management Club. I write the corporate relations
newsletter for their Private Equity and Venture Capital Group. I help on the
development team for the Wharton Investment Trading group. And one of the main
things I do is, as part of the Daily Pennsylvanian, which is the Universities
Daily Newspaper for students, I’m member of the marketing team there. I’m
member of the opinion board, and I occasionally function as a political
blogger.
Gauri : Oh Wow,
excellent. So even though you are pursuing a degree in finance, you are quite
all-rounded. You are doing quite a lot of different things besides that, as
well. Is that right?
Akshat: Right. I’ve
never really been dead set on Finance, it’s really something I’ve really picked
up in the last year or two. I’ve always tried to keep the array of interest
wide.
Gauri : Wonderful.
Now that leads us to our next question about your work experience. I believe
you do have a wide variety of work experience, during your high school
internships, and your college years. So would you like to tell our audiences
about it?
Akshat : Sure,
I’ve bounced from field to field. I’ve worked in very technical places. I used
to work with Robotic Arms, with small business called Bare Technology. I also
use to work at a medical lab, at Harvard Medical School affiliated Lab, as a
senior in High School. But I’ve also worked in sort of research based places,
as well. This past summer I had economic research internship, focusing on
monetary policy, with a technical finance firm. I’ve worked for an
Incubator/Investment Bank locally in Boston, this past summer. And as well I’ve
worked at Boston City Hall working as a Policy Research intern.
Gauri : Which one
was your favorite, out of all these?
Akshat: I like
the economic researcher a lot, I’ve always wanted a job along the line.
Gauri : I’m sure.
No that you have so many achievements to hold onto, close to your heart. Which
one do you think is your greatest one?
Akshat : The
biggest success. Hmmmm . I think the things I do that have the most impact on a
large audience, or where I feel I contribute the most. And therefore I feel
that’s the greatest success. The day to day work I do, for example, on the
marketing team of the Daily Pennsylvanian really would qualify. Because when I
do something like, benchmark on a paper against other college paper, or I do a
long term research project on what exactly is our campus looking for from this
newspaper. That’s something that not only benefits myself and the paper, but
really the entire University of Pennsylvania campus. So I think something that
can reach out on a broad basis like that, those are the type of achievements I’m
most proud of. Whether it’s at the DP, or my experience at the City Hall,
anything that can impact the greatest amount to other people, is most
important.
Gauri : Sure. So
do you have a personal measure of success that you keep? For something like
this, I know you are talking about the breath of the coverage. So do you have
any numbers that you keep in mind, while you are on it?
Akshat: Honestly,
not really. Honestly a lot of it is looking back. I think if you set out to be
successful, as your number one, it sort of throws it off the balance. I think
your number one priority should be to do what you like first, and then try to
advance in what you like. I have never really gone into a venture, I’ve never
really have gone into the City Hall, for example, knowing I’m going to make this successful. I
like government, I like politics, I wanted to take a role. Once you get a role
in something that you like, you try to expand it, and try to be as effective as
possible. There’s definitely value to that, but I think success is really
subjective. It’s hard to quantify, whether you are doing it right or how much
you are doing it, in the moment. It’s good to have couple of achievements that
you look back on, later and say, oh I really did a good job on x y or z.
Gauri : So it
sounds like, you follow what you like to do, and you go in a direction of what
you want to do, and then give it your best. And your best just becomes the best
of everybody because you are the best.
Akshat : Thank
you. (Chukles)
Gauri : That’s
awesome. Now I know we’ve talked a lot about the successes, and the
achievement, and happy times and the things that you love to do, and you are
good at. But I actually want to ask you a question about the other side of
life, which is failure. Have you experienced failure?
Akshat: Sure,
definitely. I think a lot of times if you want a certain role, or a certain
position, that you are not ready for, that you don’t have the skills for. When
you don’t get it, it can initially seem like a setback. I played Saxophone for
a lot of years, I think, since middle school. I was a part of Jazz band in my
school. When it came time to captain, although I was one of I think 3 or 4
senior saxophone players, I wasn’t elected one of the captains from high
school. I didn’t take that too hard, personally, because I knew, although I was
good, I wasn’t like the prodigy or virtuous. It was something I did for fun. But
taking that in stride and saying, hey this is one place you are not in
leadership position, that’s named, but you can still contribute, you can still
be leader. For example to organize captains practices, the captains rely of
people, on unofficial heads of sections, to make sure all are on same page. And
learning how to contribute, even though nominally you “ failed”, which I don’t
think is a really productive way to look at it. Figuring a way to contribute in
any way you can, is what it is all about. If can still do what you like to do,
even without the position of the role. I think really what you should aim for.
Gauri : That’s a
great analysis, looking back I know what you’re a saying is so logical and it’s
so perfect. That’s great. At your age to be able to analyze that much, and to
be able to hold on to that learning for rest of your life, is really nice. But
at that moment, was it hard for you to accept this so called failure?
Akshat : It
wasn’t my first moment, there have been plenty of things, like applications for
things, different leadership positions that you miss out on. And I think at
some point you have to be able to go through that enough, that it’s not a
shock, that you don’t take it in a bad way. It’s very bad I think to go through
and win everything.
Gauri : Ya, it
sounds really good, but may be is not the best.
Akshat : It’s not
the attitude you really want to have towards everything. The attitude shouldn’t
be about success, virtually winning as in, I’m the president of every club. The
attitude should be what do I like, and how can I maximize my role in what I
like. So I think not getting something or getting something that’s a little bit
below of what you ideally would’ve wanted works well too. You occasionally need
that just to calibrate and say, ‘ok that’s fine’ . How do I still
contribute? How do I do what like as
effectively as I can?
Gauri : Wonderful.
These are some great lessons to hold on to. So now kind of switching the track
completely towards more personal life and family, what is the role your family,
your parents, your siblings play in your life? What do they mean to you?
Akshat : I think,
letting me be comfortable enough to take risks. Allowing me to pursue whatever
I want to, was a big part of it. I mean, if I had success I wouldn’t hide from
my family, I would always come back and celebrate. And if one thing is really
going really well, and another isn’t, that too. But it’s not as if my parents
said, these are the three clubs you’re going to join, or you should always do
these four extra-curricular activities. They were very open from the onset in
terms of do what you want. If you advance in that, we’re going to be happy if
you are happy. But just sort of being open to anything, it was really the key.
Gauri : So we are
kind of wrapping up the interview now. But last couple of questions about advice
to our audiences who is listening to you today. Let’s begin with parents. Do
you have any do’s and don’ts for parents?
Akshat : I guess
as a general philosophy, be willing to let your child explore, what he or she
likes. Especially in high school and college both, you’re not going to really
have that opportunity to do later in life to do whatever you want. To have the
sort of funding and resources, that community around you, to explore whatever
you want, on trial basis ever again in life. So I think that’s really a
critical part for any child. And I think as a parent letting them know that
they are free to explore is very important.
Gauri : Great.
And now going onto kids. A really quick advice. For aspiring kids, who aim
high, and who are looking to be successful in life, what’s your inspirational
message for them?
Akshat : Again,
be willing to branch out. There will always be one or two favorite things to
fall back on, but be willing to branch out into opportunities that aren’t
standard. I remember one of the things that I really like throughout high
school, and still do was sports. But I never thought of that separate from extracurricular.
I was able to fuse the two, by joining the student broadcasting team. Helping
make community of kids, who liked sports same way as I did. So I think, that
wasn’t something I had in plan, there wasn’t really ever a plan. But I think
everyone should be willing to make community around themselves to include kids
who like the same things that they like, and then be willing to branch out in
activities.
Gauri :
Excellent, there were so many questions I wanted to ask, but just in the
interest of time I’m going to have to end here. But I’m sure we will talk
again.
Akshat : Thanks
for having me.
Gauri : You’re
welcome. It was very nice talking to you.
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