Vedanta Resources Ltd’s chairman Anil Agrawal gave an important insight to the youth on success. While addressing the University of Toronto, he was asked if it was a bad thing to want to be rich, to which he replies, “I told him, no, it’s not a bad thing to want money and have your roti, kapda, makaan of your choice. We come from a country where people have aspirations – people who are cycling want a scooty, people on a scooty want a car, people driving a car want an even better car…making money is not a sin, but once you get there, once you have your fancy car, there is no harm in slowing down and giving a lift to those who are walking.”
During his discussion, he told the students to not shy away from dreaming big, at the same time he told them to always remain humble.
“My advice to the students was to never shy from dreaming big and always to remain humble. Just as pancakes taste sweeter when maple syrup gets added similarly, success tastes sweeter when paired with humility,” he said.
He also shared his experience of leaving his comfort zone to pursue his dreams and was also glad to be seeing students who had left home to make a name for themselves.
“As a dreamer, I had to move away from the place I called home and leave my comfort zone behind me. You also must have experienced this at one point or another…”
“Having moved cities and then countries, I know how difficult the experience is. Recently, I was invited to speak at the University of Toronto where I got the opportunity to meet many such dreamers who had left home to make a name for themselves. A lot of them were from India with a spark in their eyes ki kuch kar dikhana hai,” he said.
Apart from this, Anil Agarwal also praised the people of Canada who are warm. He also shared cultural similarities between the two countries.
“Canada is known to be a cold country and in contrast, the people here are so warm! I even got to learn something new about their culture and hospitality this time – Canadians welcome their guests with something sweet, and in a lovely gesture, I was given a bottle of Maple syrup at the end of my talk.”
“This is so similar to the Indian tradition of Ghar aye mehmaan ko kuch meetha khilana, that I couldn’t help but feel at home immediately, surrounded with not only bright-minded but also warm-hearted students and faculty of UofT.”
This is not the first time Anil Agarwal has encouraged the youth. Earlier when India became the fifth largest economy in the world, he said that a fair share of the credit goes to the youth of India who has taken on the role of innovators and dreamers in the country’s growth story. When he invited to speak at the University of Oxford, he motivated the students by saying that success and setbacks are part and parcel of life. Agarwal pointed out that his biggest learning from his journey was to never stop trying. While speaking at the forum, he said, “Growing up, I only knew two words in English, ‘yes’, and ‘no’. I would use the Oxford Dictionary to translate words from Hindi to English, and never got the opportunity to study at a university. Speaking at the Oxford Union gave me the chance to interact with future leaders of our world, and I sincerely hope I was able to inspire them with my words because their convictions in their aspirations certainly motivated me”.
The Chairman strongly believes that the youth is the future and through his talk, he encouraged the youngsters to work hard and follow a 3 pillar framework – to be fearless, humble and flexible. Prior to that, he had also told the youngsters of India a story from his youth and encouraged them to achieve all that they set their eyes on.
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