Being an ardent fan of cricket and Kapil Dev, I was very excited for the movie 83. When I had seen the trailer, at that time, I had made up my mind that I will watch this movie in theatre no matter what the COVID situation may be. Well, I just went and saw the movie and boy, what a movie and what a depiction of emotions of that time.
The story of 1983 world cup is known to every India who has even the slightest interest in cricket. India was clearly the underdog of the tournament. They rose to the occasion and they beat the mighty and invincible West Indies in the finals to lift the cup and make history. While this is a typically David vs Goliath story, I wanted to explore a different side of the story.
How was Kapil Dev so sure of the success? Despite some crushing defeats, India still managed to come back and go on to win. How did he know that? Could he see future? Well, no one can see success. No one can see future. But all of us can imagine success.
May be Kapil Dev didn’t know that they will win. He loved the game, the competition, his country India so much that he was willing to go that extra mile and put everything behind his love, passion and preparation.
Bringing this analogy to your preparation journey, you or anyone cannot be sure of the success of cracking a specific job. The only thing you can do is to have faith in your abilities and preparation strategies and be willing to put that hard work. Drawing a parallel, I want to highlight 5 important aspects in the movie that can be applied to your job cracking journey. Success their meant lifting the cup and success here means cracking your job. There the team won and here it is you – the individual. The key 5 are:
Prepare in a holistic manner – From a team’s perspective, a holistic contribution means, each and every player comes good at the time of need. For this to happen, every player needs to prepare well. Considering the tournament, each and every player came good at the time most needed. Be it 175* by Kapil Dev or the 3 wickets of Mohinder Amarnath or the most wickets by Roger Binny. For you as an individual, a holistic preparation means you need to be prepared in each and every aspect – your profile, your skills and competencies and adequate practice and bring them to good use at the time of need.Losing the toss, doesn’t mean losing the match – India had lost the toss and hence West Indies put them to bat. Given the green pitch and swinging wicket, West India were confident to knock India out with their pace battery and sure enough they did. In your journey, you wouldn’t have control on who the interview panel would be. Would the panel be strict or lenient? These factors are not in your hand, just like the toss. You just need to go and put your skills and competencies, the hours of preparation into play.
Improvise and take chances – In the movie, in the finals, Kapil Dev, hands over the ball to Madan Lal yet again, despite the fact that Madan Lal got hit by Viv Richards for three boundaries in the previous over. Viv was coming at them hard, instead of caving in, Kapil improvised and took his chances with Madan and it paid off. Similarly, it may happen, that in Interviews, you may suddenly be asked a question which you would have not prepared. Instead of getting bogged down, bring all your focus and preparation and improvise by looking for a response and confidently respond.
All is not lost, till the last ball.When India got out for a paltry 183, no one believed India could stage a come-back. Yet if you analyse, West Indies still had to go out to bat and score 184 to win. Team India didn’t give up hope, instead they put their best foot forward. Similarly, when there is that one or two googly questions, which you cannot answer, it doesn’t mean it is the end of roads. Remember, no body has all the answers, it is about how you respond when you don’t have an answer
Fall back on your support. In the movie, you can see Mr. PR Man Singh, being the support system for players. At each success and failure, the man kept his faith and was by the side of the team. In your preparation journey, you need to find your support system. There will be the ups and downs, the faith and the lack of it in your abilities and in those times, you need to fall back on your support. The support could be family or friend, you just need to find that and let them help you.
So, back to the movie, an extremely enjoyable one with a great portrayal of that era. In the end, we see Team India lifting the cup and bringing the whole nation together. What an epic moment for India!!
Satyajit Senapati is a best-selling Author, Tedx & Public Speaker and Mentor. He has 2 decades of management consulting and corporate strategy experience in leading organizations. He holds an MBA from IIM Lucknow. For more information explore.
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