Kateřina Brodská interviews Anubhav Srivastava

Kateřina Brodská is a young Czech lady currently studying in France who found my story very inspiring and wanted to conduct an interview about my story. Here is the the interview in its entirety.

Kateřina: Can you tell me some basic things about yourself, your family, your hobbies and interests, and about the environment/place you grew up?

Anubhav: I was born on March 9, 1986 in a city called Allahabad in India. We moved to New Delhi when I was two years old and I have lived there ever since. My family consists of my father who is a senior government official, my mother who chose to be a housewife to take care of her children despite being highly educated, my brother and myself.

I do not have many “hobbies” these days I am devoting most of my time to this project. However, since I am so passionate about this project and don’t feel tired working on it, I believe creating this film and getting myself involved in all aspects of its creation is my biggest hobby. I do like to read books and watch movies when I get time as well.

I grew up in a government provided housing for our family and we lived in apartments where our neighbors were fellow government officials and their children. The environment in which I grew up is typical of the Indian middle class in urban areas. In the late 80’s most parents wanted their children to grow up to become government officials themselves. However, I always knew I wanted to do something different and make an impact on the world one way or the other. I believe most people harbor such fantasies in their childhood and I was no exception. However, as I grew up the environment around me started making me believe that my dreams were unachievable. I was still quite young and had an impressionable mind and so I went through my teenage years with a pessimistic approach to life. I believed that I had a very hard life ahead of me after my school years. At the same time, I was not passionate about the “usual” career choices. I was not passionate about becoming a doctor, lawyer, engineer or even a multinational executive. While all these were very important fields, they were too monotonous for me. Since my future sounded very unexciting at that point, I adopted a rather laid back attitude towards life and did not pay much attention in high school when it mattered the most despite being a very good student in the past.

Kateřina : What university do you attend?

Anubhav: I currently attend Western International University which is an American accredited institution in New Delhi, India.

Kateřina : What subjects do you study?

Anubhav : I am pursuing my Bachelors in Business Administration with a specialization in Finance which is kind of ironic since most people feel I should be doing something related to Media studies as I am involved in creating a film. However, I treat this film as an entrepreneurial project in itself and having a background in Finance is important for any serious entrepreneur.

Kateřina: Why did you choose that school and the subjects?

Anubhav: I chose to study in Western International University because I intended to transfer to an institution in USA as transferring of credits from Indian colleges to American universities is usually very hard. Since WIU is accredited by the American board, transferring to American institutions would have been very simple. However, ultimately I chose not to transfer and graduate in India itself once I came up with the idea for the documentary.

Kateřina : What are your most interesting or most important experiences and achievements up to now?

Anubhav : Creating this documentary on the qualities of super achievers has been perhaps the greatest experience I have had in my life. I never thought I would meet people I idolized as a child and interact with them on a one to one basis. There are also some people who I met personally but who couldn’t appear in the film, such as Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the former president of India and Kapil Dev, one of the famous sportsmen in the country. But I have no regrets, meeting these people has been a great experience as well. It has absolutely been my biggest achievement so far. My next big achievement will be when I make this film a global success.

Kateřina: What are the things you have done so far that you are really proud of?

Anubhav : My film and the fact that I have made my parents very happy is something I am really proud of. I have been somewhat of a rebel during my teenage years and didn’t always make them happy. However, today, when people congratulate them on my achievement, it makes them proud and that is the biggest source of pride for me. Apart from that, I am also proud that I once led my team to a win single handedly in a game of cricket :P

Kateřina : Let’s talk about your latest great achievement, the film. Please introduce it in a few words.

Anubhav : I am developing this documentary to gain insight into what one requires to be a super achiever in life. For this film I have already interviewed some of the most well known personalities in India and intend to interview many more in India and even abroad. I am making this film for people who go through life trying to figure out what it takes to be successful and always get vague answers or pessimistic answers from everyone around them. You don’t learn how to be successful by listening to someone who isn’t. The most proven path to becoming successful is listening to what successful people have to say, studying their teachings and emulating what they have done.

This is exactly the reason I am creating this film. I want people to learn from the super successful, listen to what they have to say, apply whatever they have learnt from these individuals and go on to become achievers themselves.

Kateřina : Why and when did you get an idea to make the film?

Anubhav: Our institution was going to take part an international inter university competition and I came up with the idea for this project in mid 2007 when I was only 21. I felt that the project could be revolutionary in quite a few ways and with the support of the institution, we would definitely create a major impact in the competition. However, the project was rejected as it was not considered feasible. It was then that I decided to create this film on my own. I did it to prove that what the large group of people involved in the competition thought was infeasible could in fact be accomplished by one individual alone. In retrospect, this rejection has been my biggest blessing in disguise. A project that was rejected for a university competition will now go on to make an impact globally.

Kateřina: The work you have done makes me think of the work of Napoleon Hill. Were you inspired by this personality?

Anubhav: Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich changed my life. In fact I said in the beginning of this interview, that I was misguided as teenager. A couple of years after high school, I read this book and it got me on the track of winning.

I was very inspired after reading the work of Napoleon Hill. I realized if I wanted to make a difference in the world, I should listen to those who have already done it, not those who haven’t. I began gathering information on the lives of the most successful people in the world. I began studying quotations attributed to these people. I studied several statements quoted by people and realized that the size of my dreams was irrelevant. Size did not determine whether or not a dream could be achieved, it was belief that determined it. If I wanted to become like these people, I should study, absorb and most importantly IMPLEMENT what they said. This is exactly what I have done.

Kateřina : What other inspiration did you have?

Anubhav: After reading the book I started studying about the lives of a lot of other successful people. But perhaps my biggest inspiration has been studying the life of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now I am not a fan of Arnold for his muscles, I admire the man because he truly signifies what one can achieve if they believe in themselves. As a skinny 15 year old he announced he was going to be the greatest bodybuilder in the world, everyone around him laughed at him but he kept his sights at the goal and became Mr. Universe at the age of 20. When he said he was going to be world’s biggest movie star, everyone laughed at him again. The agents made fun of his name, his accent and told him he was never going to make it big. He went on to become the world’s most commercially successful movie star of his time. When he decided to enter politics, people felt he would never be taken seriously in politics. He then became the governor of California. The US constitution currently does not allow foreign born citizens to run for president. But if anyone thinks that is going to discourage Schwarzenegger, they just don’t know the man.

Another person who has earned tremendous respect from me is Barack Obama. This is a man most people had never heard of until 2007. This man rose from obscurity to become the president of the most powerful nation in the world. This is a nation that had never elected a non white person as president before. Nobody believed it was possible for Barack Obama to win the Democratic Nomination, let alone the Presidential election. He could have chosen to defeat himself in his mind by assuming he would never win, but he didn’t. He believed he could win, so he put in the effort. He campaigned tirelessly across America for almost two years. He raised money from the grassroots, when others only sought to raise money from big donators. Others thought this was a bad strategy but this strategy raised the highest amount of money for his campaign in the history of the presidential elections. But perhaps his biggest achievement is inspiring an entire nation into believing THEY CAN. When people know they can, they probably will.

Kateřina : How did you search for the contact information of the successful people?

Anubhav: As a person with no contacts in the media, my primary source was the internet. Even finding the contact information is quite a bit of struggle. I have probably sent a 100 emails to addresses where I never received a reply. Sometimes I am lucky and the person replies back. I found some people’s contact info on their website, I had to approach others through their secretaries or PR people. Mostly I hear no outright, sometimes secretaries ask me what media outlet I belong to and when I say I am independent, my requests are turned down. There have also been times when it looks like I will get an interview, only for the request to be delayed for months and finally turned down.

Kateřina : You had to face a lot of rejection. How did you handle it and what helped you keep on going when it was really hard?

Anubhav: As I have mentioned before, most people I approach reject me. This is the reason why the project has taken so much time but for me it’s all worth it. Between January 2008 and May 2008, I could not secure a single interview and was rejected more than 20 times. Between November 2008 and February 2009, I again had to endure much struggle. Recently, I set up an interview with a well known personality only to see it postponed for the third time straight. These things sometimes do discourage me but I manage to keep on going because I haven’t considered losing as an option. I know I have to make this film a reality and a global success no matter what. I know what this film can do for people and I know what this film can do for me. No great thing has ever been achieved easily and if I desire to achieve it, I know I have to be prepared to deal with these setbacks. A very famous man once stated, “Many of life’s failures are people who didn’t realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” I know I am not going to be one of them and it’s because of my unwillingness to quit, that I have managed to get the interviews I have conducted so far. People sometimes ask me what “contacts” I am using. If only they were aware of the kind of effort I usually put in secure an interview that lasts a mere 30 minutes…

Kateřina : What was the attitude of the people who accepted to be interviewed towards you like in general? What did they think of your idea?

Anubhav: The attitudes of these people were varied. Some people such as Kiran Bedi and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw felt that my idea was great and commended my work. Some others were somewhat skeptical (and rightfully) when the 22 year old guy with no film background sitting in front of them told them that his objective was to make this film create an impact globally. My next challenge is to prove to them that I will walk the talk.

Kateřina : You probably won’t want to tell me all the lessons your interviewees have shared, because it is the object of the film itself… Will you share at least one important thought?

Anubhav: Everything comes down to self belief. The only limits we have are the ones we set on our selves. Once we are convinced about an idea or a goal, we automatically win half the battle. This is because only people who believe that their goal is possible will ever put in the effort to make it a reality. For those who are convinced about their goal, rejections and setbacks do not matter because they believe sooner or later they will emerge victorious. However, the person who does not believe in himself or his goals will probably quit after a few failures because he has convinced himself that the idea will not work. To quote an English proverb, “Life’s battles do not always go to the stronger or the faster man. But sooner or later, the man who wins is the man who believes he can.”

Kateřina : How would you rate your film yourself? Is it what you had in mind?

Anubhav: I think from a technical point of view, there is still a lot I need to work upon. The videos that I have uploaded are only to give people a glimpse into the film. When the film finally comes out, it will be on par with most internationally successful documentaries. As far as the size of the project goes, I have beaten my own expectations in terms of how far I thought I would get when I started initially. Over all, I would rate the work on my film as of now a 7 on 10. By the time the film will be out, it will be 9.9 in terms of my standards.

Kateřina: What is your next step? How do you want to promote it?

Anubhav: I have decided to increase the scale at which I was making the film. After seeing the great international response to my videos which featured only Indian personalities, I am convinced that this film will be viable abroad as well. Of course this means I need to step up my efforts and expand my network. I was a one man team till now, which is probably the reason this took so much time but now I am actively building a team of volunteers to accomplish new goals.

I plan to speak at colleges, schools and events all over India. Despite this, I am aware of the limitations of the “public speaking only” approach. For a global market, the most effective marketing medium is the internet. The internet is the most cost effective and powerful medium to market the documentary and get maximum returns. In 2006, a documentary called “The Secret” was released and marketed entirely through the internet through an intense viral marketing campaign. The subject matter of the Secret was “The law of attraction” which basically talked about how individuals attract things they think about the most. The documentary was rejected by the TV channel it was made for because according to the, the number of viewers wouldn’t be high. But this film went on to create history by becoming of the most commercially successful documentaries ever because of an extremely well planned viral marketing campaign on the Internet.

The Success of the Secret has proved that one does not need to have a Hollywood sized budget and spend money on expensive advertisements in order to promote their film. By developing a well planned viral marketing campaign, the documentary I am in the process of making can go on to achieve its goal of educating people all over the world on the qualities required for success.

Kateřina: I understand that you want to continue interviewing successful people internationally. Can you give me a hint what persons you have in mind, or at least which countries you would like to go to?

Anubhav: I will not take any names as of now but they have to be extremely well renowned names as an international trip is very costly and I need someone to sponsor my international visits. I plan to go to countries such as USA, UK, Australia and maybe even France

Kateřina What are your further goals and ideas for the future?

Anubhav: I always believe that one should keep their mission fixed but their approaches flexible. My mission is to create a significant impact in the world one way or the other, whatever it might be. My approaches to this could be several. It maybe in the film field or it might be in the business world. As of now my absolute focus is my documentary. Once it becomes a success, I will finalize the path I choose to achieve my mission and not waiver from it. Whatever field I choose, I will strive to reach the top in that field.

Kateřina: Will you give me an interview in five and ten years to check how it is going? :-)

Anubhav: Yes, but please be prepared to have your appointment postponed a few times. :P