Stutter to the speaker?

“Make your life ridiculously amazing” my mantra for my life became the title for my book. I knew I wanted something more in life than just being in a 9-5 job. Born in a widely recognized yet unpopular city of Porbandar, Gujarat,  I had a very simple life. At the age of 9, due to a small accident, I broke my tongue.

I still vividly remember the two parts of my tongue joint by just a bit. My parents rushed me to the hospital, and with a small surgery, it mended back together. For 7 months I couldn’t speak. People started talking about how I wouldn’t be able to speak ever again, and even if I did, I would suffer from a bad stutter. And because of all this, I started questioning myself whether this was how the rest of my life was going to be but little did I know that little Rushika with a broken tongue was going to turn into a motivational speaker someday.

My adult life.

As years passed by and I finished high school, my parents and relatives thought I should pursue chartered accountant though it never interested me. I wish I had someone to make me sit, and enlighten me with what career options I could pursue according to my skills and not just according to what people think I could do. I cleared the first level, which gave them more reasons to push me to continue doing it. There were not many opportunities available in Porbandar, so I joined my articleship in Ahmedabad.

Saving whatever I was getting, I simultaneously began my diploma in human resource management. That was something that interested me so much, because of which I soon convinced my parents that I wanted to call it quits with CA. They were very much in denial but later agreed to what I wanted to do

My first 9-5 job. 

I soon was hired by a company as a recruiter. The worst part about it was that I had to hire people because of their qualifications and not whether they pursued the skills for it or not.

The disappointment in myself was taking a huge toll on me so I tried convincing my boss on how we should start to train people and excavate their skills, it would also be very much profitable for our company as well. But she was in total denial. I began to call my colleagues at my home and started training them privately.

My journey to becoming a motivational speaker.

My journey as a motivational speaker began when I attended this very seminar and it was then I realized, there is something known as a motivational speaker and corporate trainer. I joined the same mentor’s institute and completed my course in the motivational speaking and traveled many places and spoke beside him. It was like, I was living my dream, I was over the top, feeling so good about myself and that would help me sleep like a baby at night.

Till this time my parents were unaware of my career switch and wanted me to shift back to Porbandar so they could get me married. For a moment, I thought my dream was over and that it was time to wake up, all the hard work I put in to being what I am was done as there would be no career options for me in the small town of Porbandar.

I still dint lose hope as my mentor had faith in me  and I couldn’t disappoint him. As I was scrutinizing my brain for ideas, I found myself as an opportunist and realized that I had no competition in what I was doing in this town. I started hosting my own motivational seminars. I grew up so quick;y and now everyone knew who I was and what I did.

The Biggest moment of my life:

One fine day, one of my relatives called me and gave me the idea of speaking in the TedX platform. It was such a huge step for me, I was nervous, anxious, and exhilarated all at the same time. I enrolled and got selected in the top 100. I should’ve been happy right? No, you need to be in the top 70 to be able to speak on such a big platform. I lost hope but wanted to still go and watch what I lacked that the others had.

Can’t even begin to tell you how fortunate I was that I went to the event. Because of some reasons 4 speakers could not make it, which turned out in my favor and I, the only girl from Saurashtra, was blessed with the opportunity to speak on such a big platform in front of all those people.

That moment is something I cherish for life. And not just me, all the people from my city celebrated that day with me.

What I am today is what I chose for me.

 Today I am tied with so many companies as a motivational and corporate trainer in different cities.

All these achievements led me to write my book and I feel so content in my life having to counsel more than 150 people who were depressed because of some or other reasons, have held seminars and educated more than 60000 participants. 

Instagram handle of Rushika Hathi.