bhavesh shaha | career & education

Even the gates of heaven require a sacrifice: your death. Be happy that success only requires you to be embarrassed. You will always risk embarrassment in pursuit of human connection, materialistic success and even self-actualisation. It’s not big deal. You win some, you lose some. #fyp Thank you @8rielryan and @the.morning.moon for helping me with this one.

thank you for all your wishes, going from being a kid whose birthday parties consisted only of my parents’ friends to being unable to open whatsapp at 12:00 due to the influx of messages hits different. i also used to /argue/ with teachers, i thought “correcting them” in front of everyone was a flex, hate it. absolutely detest it. never did that in college, always asked professors alag se. i do not regret making sacrifices to grow my skillsets. i’ve had people say “he wasted his teenage years by working” but to me, this work was fun. financial freedom changes people. luckily, i was also surrounded by people 10x smarter/wealthier than me who kept me grounded. i was also raised in a marwadi fashion where being frugal was instilled. i got drunk on the fame, this was my coping mechanism. anything wrong in life? no issues, at least i’m well-liked online. this also escalated my people pleasing tendencies, not nice. not smart, be careful/wary. life was on autopilot, imagine being 19 years old and seeing sales worth crores. pain. absolute pain. felt betrayed. health was hit (mental & physical). i just wanted to move on with my life. this gave me the worst stress imaginable. thought i'd be bald by the end of it. i had no idea who i was trying to prove it to and what i was trying to prove. wanted to give my best at AfterBoards, wanted to top the college exams, wanted to freelance and make my clients happy, wanted to build the college website, i wanted to do everything. i ended up doing everything to a large extent. i made many people unhappy in the process due to my lack of focus. focused & streamlined. cut all my clients but one (WHO). cut all my other endeavours but one (AfterBoards), dropped out of college (still got my bachelors thanks to NEP). when people think you’re successful, they bring you on stage to yap. i always took this seriously and prepared to the fullest so as not to waste the audience’s time. i’ve always delivered 10x more than what was asked. i sit and talk to as many students as possible (even 1-on-1). your time is insanely valuable to me. and today, i know that i’m a product of all my life experiences, the good and the ugly. thank you for

what gets me out of the bed in the morning (after sleeping at 4am). #fyp

helping everyone with their college decisions in the comments! [Delhi University, IPMAT, IPM, DU, SRCC, SSCBS, College]

failure in itself isn't a blessing in disguise, it's what you make of it. [college results, failure, rejection, short film, motivational, hopecore, jee, Ipmat] #fyp

answering “what should one actually do in college?” ipm results dropped recently and a fresher asked this in our group chat: “WHAT SHOULD WE DO INITIALLY? LIKE CHOOSE VARIOUS CLUBS TO FIND BEST SUITED TO YOU? START DOING INTERNSHIPS? OR START DOING COURSES LIKE CFA, FMVA?” my stomach dropped a little. it’s not a bad question. it’s a valid question. it’s what’s expected out of you. it’s also a disease: we chronically calculate our opportunity cost. i wrote a full letter to my 18-year-old self about it. comment “article” and i’ll dm you the link. [college advice, opportunity cost, b-school, ipm, cat, mba, careers, student life, iim]

i'm unsure how this reel would be perceived -- regardless, our intent is to make sure that the young boys and girls on afterboards don't just become competent in maths & english BUT also understand the problems that various folks face in their life. break the privilege. there's nothing wrong in understanding that our earlier thoughts were incomplete -- it's just a sign of maturity, we learn & unlearn...

i noticed one thing common among all the tedx speakers at @iimsirmaur. everyone credited their success to some adversity in their life. we retrospectively attribute our accomplishments to an adversity that made us hit rock-bottom. the best thing that ever happened to me looked a lot like the worst thing at the time. ego does not survive rock-bottom. thankfully, you do — because you are not your ego. i had the honour of standing (and sitting) on the red dot. i never thought i’d be able to talk well because of the way i was born. turns out, the years spent “hiding the imperfections” of my speech actually helped me become a better orator. the worst thing from my childhood is my biggest asset today. it’s so ironic. almost as if working on our weaknesses makes them not-a-weakness. ... and maybe that’s the whole game. the thing you are most ashamed of is probably the thing most worth talking about. because the audience doesn’t connect with your highlight reel. they connect with the part you almost didn’t say out loud. rock-bottom is not the opposite of success. it is, embarrassingly, the prerequisite. we just don’t put that on the resume. the kid who was made fun for his way of talking just gave a ted talk. make it make sense. <3 a big thank you to the tedx team at iim sirmaur for hosting us. it was amazing spending my birthday with the ipm students at sirmaur, wouldn’t have spent it any other way, you guys are the best! carpe diem.

i was born and brought up in Pondicherry. i never realised how good this town was until I left it. i moved back a couple of months ago. i'm feeling like a tourist in my own city. it's awesome. i get to fall in love with it all over again. music rec: @tomatoesthefruit

2012 Bhavesh would love 2026 Bhavesh. Thank you @mayank11.05, @mediacomm.bba.im and the amazing people of Nirma University for having me! I loved talking to all of you!

we want to democratise the CUET space. we’re making the past-year papers ABSOLUTELY FREE. you can attempt it as a mock-test (for free). you can attempt it topic-wise as a quiz (for free). we believe that past-year papers shouldn’t be behind paywalls. this is our ethos. #information #guidance

At GSEA Asia (startup competition), we watched a “Smart Socks” pitch: socks that alert families of diabetes patients to prevent foot amputations. I could grasp the science of the product thanks to our Term-2 Biology course (IPM, IIM Ranchi). We’re not going to see the point of studying this when we’re bombarded with exams. We can only connect the dots backwards. I fell in love with liberal arts thanks to the curriculum at IIM Ranchi (thank you Prof. Viraj). [IPM, IPMAT, IIM Undergrad, Curriculum, IPM Degree, IIM After 12th?]

However, a straight answer — IPM was worth it for me because: 1. I learnt things I wouldn’t have googled and fell in love with liberal arts. 2. ⁠I managed to explore academia (4 international abstract presentations). 3. ⁠Had the honour of making lifelong friends (who are now spread across India). 4. ⁠It gave me credibility, made me independent and built my character.

this shit will get 50k+ istg 😀🔫 (this is a joke, don't take it back, at the same time, we need to have a serious discussion about the "value of degrees" in this country)

i joined iim ranchi when i was 18 years old. part of the first ipm (bba + mba) cohort. here’s my candid, vulnerable, 2 cents (after exiting with my bachelors): we were in ranchi, not the bangalore/delhi/mumbai of the country. i remember the critics saying (back in 2021): “don’t join — very little industry exposure, corporate presence etc.” so, we focused on what was needed for our community (our adopted villages, social impact and more). the experience helping rasabeda and building ycp taught me more things than I ever imagined. nothing is a bug, everything is a feature. take ownership. create opportunities, solve problem statements. and that taught me more about life, being independent, being empowered, being at the forefront of taking decisions, breaking my privileged-bubble, making me humble, shutting me up, seeing life for what it truly is, exposing me to the ground reality, making me more empathetic, removing the /know-it-all/ arrogance, and hopefully — a better person to be around. corporate could only dream of instilling such character growth. i wouldn’t trade this experience for anything, oh, and my batchmates are doing great in corporate too. nothing was compromised. college taught me things that i wouldn’t have ever googled. that made it all worth it (for me).

healing the child in me. [indian education system, diss track, music video, competitive exams, schools, colleges]

fell in love with academia thoda sa

here’s a very vulnerable take: i didn’t really want to join college. i wanted to go to bangalore and build. iim ranchi was clearly not my first choice (nor my batchmate’s). but if i had to do it all over again, i’d do this all over again (also because of the privileges that allowed me to do this). - i paid the entire fee on my own (~20 lakhs for bachelors) through my startup - i had the flexibility to exit after 3 years (with a bachelors) - i was genuinely interested in the subjects (liberal arts + commerce) - i opted out of “placement cell internship assistance” in the first 60 seconds - i made lifelong friends whom i can call at 4.20am and break their head over things the best part about iim ranchi was the peer-learning (the concentration of talent). my friends are all audacious (and high-agency) with no limits to their ambition. that environment (which we choose and mould) plays a huge role in making us come out of our comfort zone. the other best part about iim ranchi was that the professors were insanely supportive. they had food with us in the mess, we’ve had extra-classes until 2am, we’ve gone on roadtrips with them and more. obviously, nothing is a blanket statement, did i argue with a professor over something? yes; did i feel like pulling out my hair? 100% but the lion doesn’t concern himself with visible hair thinning. was it all sunshine and rainbows? obviously not. i’ve had days where i loathed it, such is life. i took the onus to make things work for me (to see every bug as an opportunity/feature). we were in ranchi, not the bangalore/delhi/mumbai of the country. very little industry exposure, corporate presence (comparatively), so, we focused more on what was available (our adopted villages, social impact and more) — the experience helping Rasabeda and building YCP taught me more things than I ever imagined. college taught me things that i wouldn’t have ever googled. that made it all worth it (for me) 🫳🎤