How to be massive Action Taker [Inspirational Interview of Akash Garg]

Aritosh, I did not have the guts to say no to that because I thought, what if I say no and I don't get ever a job? I am unemployed for life. Now, if you talk about rejection, Haritosh Srivastav, I was getting rejected. I was getting failed every, every damn day of my life. Suddenly he stopped talking to us. He was not talking to anyone. Within a few months, he became older by a decade. And during the lunchtime, In my office, I used to make sales calls. Wow. For booking the meetings over the weekend. If you start taking action towards the things that you want in your life, you can achieve any damn thing in the world. Because of this, I was not able to develop confidence, which is very much required in today's time. Always remember that whatever stories you are telling yourself, they have consequences. Whatever happens, it happens for a reason. Life doesn't happen to you, it happens for you. This was the best turning point of my life.

Good morning, afternoon, evening, people watching this video from across the world. As they say, leadership is not about thinking, leadership is about taking action. And today I am so delighted to have a special person who I'm gonna introduce in a while, or maybe I'll let him introduce himself. I'm pretty sure this conversation is gonna be really, really fruitful for all of you. So thank you so much, Akash Garg. Thank you for being part of this show. I'm really happy and looking forward to this interview.

Thank you so much, Haritosh Srivastav, for inviting me. It's a pleasure to talk to you.

Thank you, Akash. So let me tell you a bit about the format. This is more of a question and answer session. I'll be asking a few questions to you and you, you will provide your insight. I know for sure. So why not start by introducing yourself and your journey a bit?

Okay. So I am the author of this book, How to Become a Massive Action Taker. It has actually sold a lot of copies here in India and in US and UK, in Australia, a lot of countries, this book is being sold. My journey has been very different because I come from a Chartered Accountancy background, Haritosh Srivastav. So right from CA to this field wherein we talk about mindset, we talk about psychology, you know, I remember back in 11th or 12th, if someone would have said psychology, I used to think it's about something to do with mental illness. Psychology, psychiatrist means that person is Not feeling well. So I didn't have any idea about this field. And in fact, I was a very mediocre kind of a person since beginning. Only child, born 9 years after my parents' marriage. You know, when you're born 9 years after your parents' marriage, Haritosh Srivastav, how much love you get. I got a lot of love, lot of pampering, lot of comfort in my childhood. We did not have much money. But you know, uh, whatever lower middle class families have, when they love their child, everything will be given to them. When we used to go to restaurant and all, um, they used to order— we used to order only one dish, but that used to be my favorite dish. My parents would eat outside ice cream or something, but they would order my favorite sundae, ice cream sundae, in the restaurant. So that kind of comfort, whenever I wanted I didn't want to do any homework, any project. My parents did it for me. So that was a good thing, that was a good start of my life. But everything has a flip side. This also had a flip side. Because of this, I was not able to develop confidence, which is very much required in today's time. And when you have to face the real world, when you have to face the real challenges— because they were facing the challenges for me always, right? If it's holiday homework, if it's project if someone is saying anything to me in park or in school, or teachers have called me because I have not submitted my notebook, everything parents were there safeguarding me. But when I had to actually face, start facing the world, it was, it was becoming difficult. I finished my CA in 2012 at the age of 22. It was very good, first attempt. And any person who finishes CA born and brought up in Delhi, in first attempt deserves a salary of at least ₹50,000 to ₹60,000 to ₹70,000 starting. But my starting salary was ₹22,000 because I did not have the confidence. That was my first interview and they gave me an offer of ₹22,000. And Haritosh Srivastav, I did not have the guts to say no to that because I thought, what if I say no and I don't get ever a job? I am unemployed for life. At least let me take this. At least there will be something. Come in. And I started with that job. I was happy. Parents were satisfied. At least beta is doing something. He has started. That's fine, right? Things were going hunky-dory, uh, until 2014. See, in 2014, uh, we bought a house because my mom had a dream that we should have a bigger house, better house. You know how ladies of the house, they want a bigger kitchen, more storage space. Balcony, open, open cross ventilation, all those things. So my dad had planned for it, he had saved money for that, and we bought a house in Noida. And we were very happy. It was an under-construction property, but the only mistake that we did was that we invested all of our savings. I did not have any savings. My dad's entire savings went into that, even 50% of the provident fund. Wow. And we, on top of that, we took a loan also of ₹18 lakh. On that house. Now, uh, we were very happy until the builder said that he's filing for bankruptcy, he's not going to give the house. Now that was a turning point. That was something which we did not anticipate. Everyone says that don't lay all your eggs in one basket. We did that mistake. We were not anticipating. It was a listed company, big company, you know. You don't anticipate such things. So it took a big toll on my parents. They— my father, who was very jolly and always joking, always telling jokes and stories, he stopped talking. Suddenly he stopped talking to us. He was not talking to anyone. Within a few months, he became older by a decade. Wrinkles and all started coming. My mom got diabetes, and it got so worse that she had to ultimately use insulin 4 times in a day. You know insulin for diabetes, injections. So that was the time that I thought, yeah, these people who were my guardian angels need my help. Before this, that need was never there, Haritosh Srivastav. I was always the child, they were the guardian angels, and I thought that that would be the life. I never got an opportunity to grow up, right? But that time I felt that I need to grow up. I did not know what to do, and that is the time I started reading books. Because I decided, no matter what, I don't care about the money, but if money is the root cause of all the problems here, then I'm gonna earn money also. If I want my parents to regain that happiness, that, uh, peace of mind, then I'm gonna do whatever it takes. I don't know how. That was the time I started reading books. That was the time I started Understanding that we can achieve anything that we think about, that we believe about. That was the time my personal development journey started. And from there to becoming an author myself, to helping thousands of people every month, wow, to get into action, to realize their dreams. That has been my journey.

That's, that's amazing journey. And this is really, this is the first time I've got a CA, but I, I suppose you are no longer a CA. You are a transformer for a lot of people. So thank you so much. This is great. Now I want to dig a little bit more deeper about your own journey. You talked about your parents, guardian angel, but you know, we all of us in our professional journey encounter one or two big failures, and that at times becomes a good lesson and inspiration for all of us. So do you want to talk about any of those failures?

See, failures, uh, In fact, I have had many. If you talk about big failures, I have had many. And if you talk about daily failures, which are much more important in life, I've had many. To continue the journey, when I thought that I'll start something, I was not able to find anything, but I was reading books, I was listening to courses, and I was attending seminars. And I understood that sales is one of the major aspects of anyone to become rich, anyone to start earning money. Sales is the backbone of the economy. So I learned sales. Now I needed something to sell, right? I didn't, didn't know what to sell. I didn't have anything. I didn't have the, uh, know-how to make a product, to manufacture a product. I didn't have money to open a factory, right? So I— one of my friends, he had undertaken some properties, shops and flats in a project. So I started selling that over weekends. So I used to register myself on Magic Bricks and 99acres, and during the lunchtime in my office, I used to make sales calls for booking the meetings over the weekend because my Saturdays and Sundays were off. It was— now if you talk about rejection, Haritosh Srivastav, I was getting rejected, I was getting failed every every damn day of my life. Painful, you know, it was bad. But I realized that day, in those times, that failure is something which we are all afraid of, and that stops our journey before even starting. It doesn't even let us start. Whereas nothing happens even if we fail. Nothing happens. What happens if you don't want to buy my product? I'm not becoming any— anything lesser than I am. If you buy my product, very good. So I was failing every day in my life. It was difficult, easier said than done. But when I used to taste success after that— suppose I fail for 9 times and then in the 10th call, in the 10th meeting, someone bought that property. And when I used to get that commission check of ₹80,000, ₹90,000 along with my job. Haritosh Srivastav, I used to be in cloud nine. I used to understand that it's okay to listen to a no 9 times if in the 10th time I'm gonna get a check of ₹80,000, ₹90,000. So hence I made friendship with failure very early on in my life. I understood that failure is nothing personal, and this is what I advise to all my mentees. That failure is just another way of God saying you that, boss, you need to change your approach, or you need to focus more, or you need to concentrate in a different angle, put in more angles to it. When you start doing that, start understanding that failure is just market feedback coming in.

Awesome, awesome. And I think, yeah, you truly signify the term that now Fail, fail means first attempt in learning so that you can improve and keep on doing better things. Now let's talk a little bit about your book, and I think I catch some of the things that you talk about in your journey about mindset and taking action. So would you like to give a brief about what the journey of this book was and what, what is the whole Massive Action Taker all about?

So when I started my own journey of transformation. So I started reading a lot of books. I read Tony Robbins' books, and I started reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, Think and Grow Rich, lot of books. These are the first books which anyone reads. So when I used to read this book, Haritosh Srivastav, I used to feel so, so, so amazed by these people, these authors. I used to feel how amazing these people are. I I never wanted to meet Shah Rukh Khan, honestly. Never ever wanted to meet Shah Rukh Khan. Never ever wanted to meet any film star. I never ever wanted to meet any cricketer or any sportsman. Never had that kind of a fan following for them. But these authors, I just wanted to touch Tony Robbins. I just wanted to meet Robert Kiyosaki and Napoleon Hill and Jim Rohn and all these people because they were transforming, bringing direct change into my life. And I used to feel, wow, these guys are so lucky, they are like God. And somehow, secretly, seeds were planted at that time, Haritosh Srivastav. Those desires were planted in my soul that I also want to become. I didn't know how, but when I read more, when I understood more, when I was achieving more in my life, then I started getting that confidence that, boss, If you can do this, and if you can do this, and if you can do this, you didn't know all these things also, so probably you can do this also. I started figuring out, I started becoming more resourceful, right? And that is how, uh, this book came into effect. Uh, the title and everything was finalized later on. On. First, I wanted to write what I felt, what really changed my own mindset. So this book has a list of 101 limiting beliefs which stop you from taking action. Beliefs like money is the root cause of all evil. If you will try to run after money, then people will think that you're greedy, right? This is taught in our middle class, true, that Better don't run after money. No, no, it's not good to be so ambitious. In Hindi we say that pair utne hi phalao jitni badi chadar hai, chadar se bahar mat nikalo, kambal se bahar mat nikalo pair. So these are all limiting beliefs. I have listed 101 of my own beliefs which were stopping me from taking action, from getting ahead in my life. And I did a survey of a lot of people. It was matching. It was not my own beliefs only. It was matching with everyone— 70%, 60%, 50%. Some people had 85, 90% of the beliefs matching in. And hence we came out with a list that if you are able to understand how these lies, these these limitations are affecting your life, and what can be a possible alternative to these lies. What can be the possible truth to all these 101? So there's a lie, there's a narration, why is it a lie, and there's the truth.

Nice.

What's the alternative, right? If you can, uh, implant those alternatives into your mind, then boss, nothing can stop you in this world. Nothing can.

Amazing, amazing. I'm really looking forward to have this. I love paperback books. The paperback was not available, I would have ordered by now, but I would certainly order that and I would really like to go through that. So thank you so much for that brief summary about the book. Now, uh, I want to ask about the year 2020. We are towards the end and Probably this interview will go live in 2021, but we are doing right now just before Christmas. So I wanted to ask, how has the whole 2020 been for you? What all things change, uh, for good, for bad? Would you like to tell our viewers about that?

Well, if you talk about financially, this has been the best year of my life ever. Although I know that this year has not been very kind for a lot of people. I understand that, but, uh, I believe in the Almighty God and I've worked hard for, uh, for reaching this year. And when lockdown happened, I had planned for a lot of things. I had started going to the colleges because my book came in November end last year. So it has been almost one year since the book has come. So in December there was Christmas break. So not many colleges were open. January, February, we went to a lot of colleges to promote the book, to speak about the book, to speak about our college, uh, our, uh, our programs, massive action programs, programs about getting rid of procrastination. We were speaking in colleges. We got the opportunity to speak in a lot of companies also. But when COVID-19 hit us in March, when lockdown was announced globally. Obviously, I also was caught unaware. I was thinking, what will happen now? But I've learned this one thing, and I've become really strong now. Whatever happens, it happens for a reason. Life doesn't happen to you, it happens for you. Whenever something happens, you have to ask yourself that, what can I learn from this situation? What can I understand from this situation? How can I make this situation the best for my life? And I had practiced this question for long, and I had turned some really bad situations in my favor in my life, but this was the best turning point of my life. I asked myself this question again, and I got the answer that I need to go online. We started our Facebook ads, we started, um, heavily investing our time, effort, and money on online presence. And our online programs were already in place in 2018 and '19. We had already made online programs, we were already promoting, but we didn't know that such huge requirement will come. So when we started investing on Facebook ads and when we started doing our online presence, more, more demand started coming, more love started coming. We served people to the best of our abilities, we gave 100%, whatever we had, you know. In the initial days of COVID from 8 in the morning to 12:30 at night, I was working. I was continuously on calls, helping, helping people, talking to people, solving their queries. I was giving that kind of a value. And because of that, our growth, our, um, lot of things, our presence skyrocketed in 2020. And we are very well set for the next, uh, uh year 2021. The Launchpad is ready to take our journey to the next level.

Awesome, awesome. I love your answer that we need to adapt based on situation and really reflect on what is the situation telling me and what I should start doing or what I should stop doing. So thank you so much. Now, now we are coming— so my last question for you is, what are the top 2 to 3 tips that you want to give to A, the college graduates who are graduating in this year or next year, and also any budding entrepreneurs. What would be 2-3 things that you want to give them as a tip?

Whether it's college graduates, whether it's entrepreneur, whether it's people working in a job, whether it's people looking for some business opportunities or some jobs, whatever it is, irrespective of the career that you are pursuing, always remember one thing that that whatever you are into, that is not the end of your life. That is something because of the stories that you have been telling yourself. If you want to change your life, if you want to take your life to the next level, you need to take your stories to the next level that you are continuously telling yourself. In the beginning of my life, my mom always used to tell, Akash, we are from service background, beta. We do things like this. We are not from business background. And this story was implanted in my mind. My identity became this, that I am from service background. And after my CA, when I joined my service, then it was stamped that we are from service background. It took a lot of effort, conscious effort, Haritosh Srivastav, for me to break that identity and to come into— to become an entrepreneur. Took a lot of effort. Always remember that whatever stories you are telling yourself, they have consequences. So better tell yourself good stories, empowering stories. The second thing that I want to tell you, that irrespective of whatever your family background is, whatever your liabilities are, whatever responsibilities you have, whatever background you have, whatever, uh, limitations that you think you have, If you start taking action towards the things that you want in your life, you can achieve any damn thing in the world. Anything can be achieved. Just make your vision big and correspond it, complement it with the action. Vision plus action equals to massive results.

Wow, thank you. The power of stories and vision plus action equals massive results. Amazing, amazing. So Akash, thank you so much for this interview. Now if somebody wants to get in touch with you, uh, would you like to tell how they can get connected with you?

Uh, so I'm gonna— in India, if anyone wants to attend, there's a 5-day, uh, program that we do, 5-day Massive Action Masterclass. If you're suffering from procrastination, if you're suffering from lethargy, you're not able to do much things in your day, you have big aspirations, but you feel that something has chained you, you are stuck in some things, you are not able to break those patterns of procrastination, then we do a 5-day massive action masterclass at a very nominal price, Haritosh Srivastav, $99. Yeah, right. So I'm gonna give you the link for that. You can put that in your description. So if, yeah, so if anyone in India wants to attend that, so they can probably, uh, they can register on that. Second thing, if you want to reach out to me, then you can reach out to me on coachakashgarg.com. So that's the name of our website. You can register, you can log into the website and you can register there. You'll be in touch, uh, with us, with our team, and we'll help you accordingly.

Thank you so much, Akash. That was a fantastic interview, and I'm pretty sure those people who will watch this interview will get truly, truly inspired. I've learned a lot from you. I've been connected to you for a few weeks now, and how I'm not going to reveal now, will probably reveal in some other interview. But thank you so much. This was really, really helpful. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Haritosh Srivastav. Thank you.

So until next time, as I say every time, keep learning, keep growing, and keep going out of comfort zone. This is Haritosh Srivastav, and I'll be back with the next episode of inspirational interviews. Have a great time.