It is always our endeavour to share with our community some of the compelling stories on entrepreneurship. This week we invited Amol Karale for an interview with us to understand more about his journey so far and his advice for the startup community. But first, more about Amol – He is a successful passionpreneur, mentor and business coach who is on a mission to empower other people. Let’s read more!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Amol:
Tell us a little bit about yourself, your background and your story, please;
I come from a middle-class humble family where my Dad is a tailor and my mom is a housewife. My dad came to Mumbai from a very small town Karad, located in Maharashtra in 1984 to make his career and dreams. He started working as a Tailor in a small shop with 3000 as monthly salary. We lived in a Chawl of 150 sq feet room. I was born in 1986 and I had a sister named Aarti who was born in 1989. We were all living very happily until one day, an incident happened in our life. My sister, Aarti, who was 4 years old fell down from my Dad’s Bicycle and she was in severe pain. She was crying and screaming Dad, Please help me, My stomach is hurting and we all were worried. My Dad and a few neighbours from our chawl took her to the Doctor.
The Doctor started the treatment, she was still in pain and crying. The doctor told my Dad to do Sonography and few other tests. We did it and reports were out. My parents went with the reports to meet the Doctor. The Doctor referred to the report and informed my Dad, “Your daughter, Aarti is suffering from Cancer and needs to operate on an urgent basis.
When my parents asked for the cost, the Doctor informed that it would be around 3-4 lakhs. Our financial situation wasn’t that great but my parents agreed and Aarti was operated. We thought everything would be fine now and she was discharged. But after 6 months, again the pain erupted and she was admitted to the hospital. The doctor informed my parents, that she is in the last stage and it’s very difficult to survive her. We brought her home and we didn’t have many options but just to pray to God to save her life. Finally, In 1993, She expired. I was 7 years old at that time and this one incident shattered me big time. As a small child, I never expected anything from my parents as they were going through a financial crisis. There were some days where we were not getting the meal.
This phase of my life lowered my self-confidence and self-belief. I lost my self-image and became fearful and was suffering from a disease ‘LKK – Log Kya Kahenge’ I became weak in my studies. I got promoted in 9th Std, got 54% in SSC, got promoted in 11th Std, failed in 12th Std, got 50% in 12th Std in 2nd attempt, got few KTs in FY and SY, failed in the Third Year, secured 50% in 2nd attempt in TY
After so many failures in my educational journey, it was difficult to get a good job. I failed in 6-7 back-to-back interviews. I told my Dad, that I want to start a business as no one wants to hire me because of my educational failures and my weak communication.
I started my business one after the other but failed in all my 3 of them. I again started searching for a job and somehow I got a job as a Telecaller Executive
After going through so many failures and challenges in life, I went into the realization phase in 2018 and I decided to transform my life and I became Version 2.0 in 12 months and now I am on a mission to transform 10 millions of lives by helping them to become Version 2.0 in all 7 key spokes of life – Career, Financial, Spiritual, Physical, Mental, Social, Family.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
I would not call it as entrepreneurship but I am a Passionpreneur where I am following my passion and helping other people to transform their lives and helping them to become Version 2.0 so that they can live their dream life.
How do you find the industry/niche that you’re in?
I have been through a plethora of challenges and failures in my life and because of my failures I had lost my self-image, confidence, and self-belief. I was stressed and depressed. But then I started my transformation journey, I took 10X massive actions to work on my mindset, self-image, self-belief and confidence. I solved all the problems for myself in the 12 months to become Version 2,0 and then I realised that there might be so many people who might be going through similar failures and challenges that I have gone through, I decided to help people and I found my niche by becoming India’s 1st Version 2.0 Mentor where I am helping people to teach practical things that I implemented in my life to help them to become Version 2.0
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
My morning rituals which are of 2 hours has played a major role in my transformation journey and helped me to become Version 2.0
I want to share this morning rituals with all my audience so it can help them to transform their lives and they can become Version 2.0
They don’t need to start with 2 hours. I started with 5 minutes 12 months back. Gradually, as I started to become habitual I increased the duration to 10,15, 20 and now I do it for 2 hours. I am a firm believer in taking small baby steps towards transformation.
Here is the secret formula of my morning ritual: I AM GIVER
As soon as you wake up have a smile on your face and have one glass of warm water and then start with I AM GIVER
I – I love myself (Propose yourself every day by standing in front of a mirror)
A – Affirmations
M – Meditation
G – Gratitude and Goal Writing
I – Incantations
V – Visualization
E – Exercise
R – Reading
My source of motivation is to help and inspire other people to help them to become Version 2.0
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
I quit my job in December 2018 to follow my mission, vision and passion full time. My last organization was Times Group, where I was getting a salary of 1.20 lakhs per month. I took a big risk as I was not having a financial backup. I struggled big time for 6 months as it was really difficult to get money. But, I had decided that I would not quit and I got my 1st breakthrough in my 1st webinar where 2 people decided to sign for my mentorship program to become Version 2.0. The Passionpreneur journey is full of challenges but I love challenges. Life is never a straight line. It’s always like an ECG, ups and downs are part of life, Our real character shows when we are in that down phase and How we bounce back. So always enjoy the obstacles that you come across
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
For me, money has never been a 1st Priority. I have high EQ and love to help people and for me giving values and transforming lives comes first.
I am a firm believer if your intentions are right and once you help people genuinely, Universe responds you with loads of Success and money
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
My 2 hours of morning rituals help me to handle pressure and manage stress
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
I never give up, I have gone through ‘n’ number of failures in my life starting from my childhood, education, corporate journey, business but I don’t quit. I always love and embrace my failures
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
For me, the keys to success are,
1) How many lives you are impacting by adding values in their life
2) Believing in yourself
3) Learning and Growing
4) Having Patience, Being Persistence & Consistent, Taking 10X massive actions
5) Having a ME Time and Spending Time with Family
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
Below is the advice I would like to give to someone starting:
1) Invest in your Personal Development
2) Follow your passion and purpose. It’s not only about following your passion but you should be obsessed with your passion. Think, Dream. Live and Die with your Passion
3) Have a mentor or coach in your life
4) Believe in yourself, We all have a hidden potential
5) Embrace your failures
6) Take 10X Massive Actions
7) Have Goals in your life
8) Have your own set of morning rituals
9) Add loads of values in people’s lives
And most importantly – 10) Don’t give up until you have achieved your dreams
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, Stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
