R. Madhavan

See, you guys are in your, you know, at the threshold of the dreams that you want to achieve. Please sit down. It's gonna be slightly longer. And you know, you guys are gonna actually determine how the environment around you is going to progress along with you.

You must know that at no point in your life is something impossible. At no point. You could be in a place. You could be born and brought up in a place like Bihar, like I have done, and be a big enough star to come and talk to people in Coimbatore as a star.

Or you could be in the industry like the Tamil and Telugu industry and be known as the most exciting director. Rajamouli suddenly decides that he can make a film which is, if not better, but at par with Hollywood, and he does that staying in India, and he hits the ball right out of the park. He becomes, historic in just that one moment.

There is a huge lesson to be learned on things like that. Everybody keeps saying success is, and is when you when the right opportunity meets the right preparation, right? So you can't have the right preparation by being the engineer that you want to be, and you keep looking out for that right opportunity.

But what makes the right opportunity and the right preparation come together? When does that synergy happen for you to be prepared for it? Because, like they say, if you're prepared but you don't get the opportunity, it's useless.

If you have the opportunity, you're not prepared, it's not useless. But they have to meet at a point, right? And that meeting happens because you will it to happen, because you want it so badly to happen.

I could be walking down any street. I could be anybody, but why did that one director come and meet me and wanted me to act in that television serial? If you look at every next step in my career, I have never prepared for it.

I have never imagined that this could happen. I never imagined that Mani Ratnam will call me. How would Mani Ratnam know about a guy who's doing a television series in Bombay without even seeing one episode of mine?

So let's come back to that one point that happens, the synergy that happens between the right opportunity and the right preparation. And that happens when you have what is called situational awareness. So let me tell you a little bit about situational awareness.

Situational awareness is when in the, as in the army, they say you're completely aware of what is happening around you at all times. So as I was saying, the situational awareness happens when you're completely aware of everything that is going around you at all times, and you should be able to do that.

When we are in the army, and if you're walking down the ground, parade ground, anybody who's involved with the defense will know what I'm saying is the truth, and if there's an officer walking away from the other side of the ground, you have to stop and salute him and say, "ram, sir ji," or whatever is the, call of the unit.

If you don't, they'll give you a brick in your hand, and you have to shave with that brick. So thank you. That's awesome. Upper. So, what, the situational awareness is because you should know when the enemy is around you or when there is danger around you.

You know how that is taught to you from when you're a child? That's taught to you in the form of good manners, in the form of being courteous.

So when you say a good morning or you're saying a good afternoon or you're looking around and helping a teacher who's carrying a book and being aware that she needs help, or you're watching around and stepping over a drain and not tripping on yourself, you should know that you're fairly evolved in the form of, in the art of situational awareness. That's why people insist on teaching children good manners.

And anybody who has good manners, not it's not just a desire, it's not the desire just to be considered to be a polite guy, but the ability to know when somebody needs to be wished, somebody needs help, somebody is in needs of assistance, or somebody has to run away. And that's, that's why you ch teach your child good manners.

And I will tell you today from the bottom of my heart, I might not be completely, worthy of some of the opportunities that I got, but I grabbed it like hell, and I got those opportunities simply because I was a very well-mannered person. I was able Yeah. So. And with that manner, with the way you walk, with your gait, the kind of words that you use.

It's very common to use normal language when you have friends and everything, but most people don't even have a vocabulary. The reason I started those classes in Kolhapur was so that I had my friends who came to me and said, "Maddy, we are very good engineers, buddy. We're really good at what we're doing, but the problem is I can't speak in English.

I can't speak in Marathi. So when they come from Tatas and Kirloskars for campus selections, I'm not able to communicate to them. They don't even observe a Kolhapuri boy wearing a terry cotton pant and a shirt and wearing chappals, and don't even consider that he's a good he could be a good engineer."

So then I said, "The fault lies with you guys." He says, "You have to break the clutter. Nobody's gonna come and say, 'Hey, you know what?

Maybe you're a good engineer. Let me give you a shot.' You have to be noticed in that very first instant."

And for two reasons. One is that either you should know what is your good what is a good profession for you. If you're not able to make an impression, then quickly change it.

This is not the be-all and end-all. The engineering or whichever subject that you choose to major in when you're in college does not literally have to be your lifelong profession. But give it a shot.

At least know if that is a profession that you really want to pursue and excel in, because that's the only way you'll survive, is if you excel in it. If you excel in it to such an extent that you think, sleep, dream, eat, breathe that particular job. And I do that with acting, and I'm telling you I do not know what else.

I would have been a really bad soldier because I would have because I think I'm a really good actor. I'm involved completely. Hundred percent of the time I'm doing research.

If I have free time, I'm going to YouTube and finding out what is a different method of acting. I'm I just do that with a passion. If you're not doing that for your profession, know that you're in a secondary profession.

Know that you're doing something which is not which the Lord has not made you to to achieve glory in. So you have to give it that shot. Now, what I'm, what I am trying to tell you is that Kolhapuri, friends of mine who then came to me and I said, "Okay, let's try and see if we can change that."

So at five o'clock in the morning, they would come to my room, we'll go to the terrace, and I started teaching them how to present themselves in the interview. Things that I had the good fortune of doing because I had many interviews and many, group discussions, to attend. And then I started with basic things on how to shake hands, how to look somebody in the eye and speak.

How do you introduce yourself? How do you shake hands with a lady as opposed to a man? How do you speak on a phone?

What is dining table etiquettes? What's telephone etiquettes? What's When do you use a shrimp fork or a salad fork or a People might think I might don't require that. I'm never going to work on those things.

I'm doing my father's business. But you never know. That is the prepare That is the preparation that you make to make that quantum leap in your careers.

These are basic things you have to know that. You have to know how to dress correctly. You have to know if you have body odor.

You have to know whether you're spitting on people's face and how to stop it when you're speaking. If you don't do these things, ladies and gentlemen, you will be in an average life doing an average job and living an average life. Having said that, I'm not saying that is wrong.

That could be your calling. My father is very happy living that sort of a life because they don't live in extremes. But if you have a passion and if you have a desire to be exceptional, if you have a desire to be seen apart from the crowd, then this is the bare minimum thing you should do.

So when these guys went for the interview the next time in Kolhapur, I made it a point to call the Tatas and say, "Hey, you know what? What is wrong?" Because I am from Jamshedpur, from the Tata Steel town. I knew the officers.

I knew the senior gentlemen. I said, "Sir, you know, these friends of mine are extraordinary engineers. The mere reason why you're not taking them is because they don't know how to present themselves in English.

How long is it going to take for you to send somebody who knows Marathi in your, in your panel so that they can actually judge and see if these guys are good enough for Tata Steel? Do you need good people who speak in English or do you need somebody who are good engineers?"

And he agreed. He actually sent people from Maharashtra, and for the first time in the history of Kolhapur, we had five guys getting into Tata Steel and Kirloskar's. And I just wanted to say that I don't I'm not taking credit for it. It is just I just felt bad because it is just small three-day push that they required to achieve that.

So when they were interviewed, they said four years of learning engineering one side, and those three days with Maddy, we became engineers and successful today because of those three days. And what I am teaching you is nothing extraordinary. It is simple stuff.

It's the norm. It's the way of the world. So yes, we are all radicals here. I mean, you guys are very, awesome students.

You are sitting there quietly listening to me. We used to make a ruckus if somebody came to give a speech. But the idea is that you have to connect to the audiences that you're speaking to.

Public speaking and group discussion skills can be taught in fifteen minutes. I used to challenge my students that I should say, "I will hold each and every one of your attention for fifteen minutes because I will say such relevant stuff that you will be forced to pay attention to me." And that's how you make an impression.

That's how you break the clutter. That's how you get seen in this world, and that's how you can achieve glory for yourself and this wonderful nation that you're part of.