At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring to our community some of the finest stories from the entrepreneurship world. As part of this endeavour, we invited a passionate entrepreneur – Apoorv Raj for an exclusive interview with us. He is a social entrepreneur and is extremely passionate about making an impact through his work. Let’s learn more about his journey, his background and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Apoorv:
We are aware of your contributions as a humanitarian, talk us through your background and journey, please.
I had started to develop an interest in this field during my school years.
The first event I ever participated in was conducting free mammography tests to spread awareness about breast cancer. Since then, I have only increased my ambitions in this field, and have been working with many different organisations to help as many causes as I can.”
I have been taking many initiatives on my own as well, such as sponsoring several educational programmes over the years and more.
I’ve started working more on health, education and I believe the sustainability of our planet is an important topic and have contributed to it by organising events for plantation drives and doing more for the environment.
What is a unique challenge that you face in this line of work?
I am currently a university student who also has to focus on his studies. While all my social causes are voluntary causes, I am very passionate about them and see them as a priority.”
I have found that it is important to balance both parts of my life equally as I cannot help anyone if I cannot even support myself.
I have also found it important to keep some time just for myself and have developed very strong time management skills over the years. However, sometimes it is still a challenge to ensure that I am able to take care of every aspect of my life.
How did you discover your passion?
During my days in DAV Sahibabad school, I used to feel restless all the time, thinking that there was so much I could do. I would read the news and listen to teachers tell us about how there were so many causes one could actively join, so many people who needed support and so I decided to take a stand and joined one organisation, so I started on this journey young as it is quite close to my heart.
With so much going on, how do you keep your passion still alive?
The world never needed more support before than during the pandemic. Covid-19 changed the world and put society in a state of social isolations. There were many individuals and organisations out there in active mode who were trying to help society in their best capacity.
They inspired me to continue working hard to help as many people as I could. Lockdowns especially were a time of confusion and despair for everyone as we had just started to understand this new disease, and they also directly impacted financial standings.
This made me worry about all the people who were stuck with no means to improve their lives and were impacted harshly by the global pandemic and further inspired to continue working. The media coverage also encourages me further because I feel like it might inspire more people to help as well.
My objective was to help people in fighting the hardships they faced by supplying training and medical equipment to healthcare professionals and donate protective gear to clinics. In co- coordination with other clubs, I also conducted several activities.
We organised free corona test camps, had food distribution drives, and held safety gear distribution for common people. As people were confined in their houses and were worrying about the future, we organised several web seminars with various senior doctors of Fortis BLK and Max Super specialist hospitals to alleviate their worries.
Rotary has always been about serving the community and supporting them in every way possible and being a Rotarian, I am here to give my best for the community, especially in these hard times.”
In your opinion, what are the keys to success?
I believe that a balanced life is the most important key to success. Draining yourself by working too much will only make your job less satisfying and enjoyable, and make it seem more like a chore. Apart from that, keeping oneself disciplined is also very important.
We know that you are continuously engaged in helping others achieve their goals. Why do you do that?
I believe that our minds can achieve whatever we want to. It is simply a matter of believing in people and supporting them. Simply just letting someone know that you are there for them can encourage them to try harder to achieve their goals. It is very fulfilling to see people achieve the heights that I know they are capable of and it brings joy to me as a person.
What advice would you give to students and young professionals who want to contribute to the society?
One can always start with something small. It does not have to be a big event to be impactful. Even giving food to impoverished kids you see nearby is a great way to contribute. No way is better or worse in this line of work. Small actions matter as much as big actions. Have compassion for everyone and treat people kindly. That is the best way to contribute to society.
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.
