Early Days of Childhood

Belonging to a middle class Marwadi family, Satyajeet happens to be a millennial generation kid. Every single incident from his childhood which I am going to quote here, is a sign how his destiny signaled radical switch-overs he was going to make in future.

Ujani, a small village in the district of Latur, Maharashtra is his ancestral homeland where he completed his LKG, and later, because of the transfer of his father, he had to move to Ambajogai, a small town in the district of Beed. Satyajeet has immense love for this place. As a kid, he was a bright student in his primary school. When he was in 4th standard, the teacher took his book for teaching and forgot to return him and went home along with that book. He apparently kept some money in Satyajeets’s book. On the next day, Satyajeet got his book back from the teacher. The teacher forgot about the money he kept and when he recalled it, he asked all his students whose book did he carry to his home, and said that he had kept ₹ 300 in that book. Satyajeet went to the teacher and told that the teacher took his book. The teacher asked about the money he kept. Satyajeet said, “It must be right where you put”. The money was as it was. Satyajeet was publically appreciated for his integrity that day. That’s what integrity is, being honest and true even if no one is watching over you, isn’t it? This explains how Satyajeet embraced good manners from his very childhood.

Never mistake good manners for lack of childish naughtiness in any kid. When he was 12, Satyajeet had once managed to steal green mangoes from the neighborhood of his friend, that too by deceiving their maid. He stole as many as 70 green mangoes from the well-fertile mango tree of that house. Obviously he was scolded by his father when the neighborhood complained about it.

Along with being naughty, he was very sentimental. He mentions that once he had cried in front of whole classroom on being scolded by teacher. He has once lost the election of Class Monitor miserably. All in all, he has experienced many ups and downs in school life.

The Cricket Love and Subsequent School Change

Satyajeet said he was addicted to cricket during his 6^th to 8^th. This addiction was so severe that he literally copied in the final exams of 8^th standard due to lack of studies. He mentioned that during final exams of 7^th standard, his father scolded him for not studying and himself took Satya’s classes few days prior to exam. Satya scored 96% in 7^th standard, scoring 100 out of 100 in Science.  

He had participated in a state level cricket tournament at Kolhapur representing his school. He took 6 wickets in that single inning. His success in Cricket and continuous decline in his academic career made his father wary of his career. He says he was literally addicted to cricket. His father changed his school and town. From Yogeshwari School of Ambajogai he moved to Saraswati Vidyalaya Latur. His father shifted the house to Latur permanently. He mentions that he loves Ambajogai. Apart from the friends he had in that town and his wonderful school life, he loves Ambajogai as a town. He has often randomly visited the town just to roam around.

The Engineering Dream and Back-to-Back Switch Overs

He has no great memories of his schooling in Latur though. He started studying quite seriously and listed amongst the toppers of school in 10^th. At this moment, his father wanted him to become a Chartered Accountant, as he is today, but he wanted to pursue Chemical Engineering. He scored more than enough to get admission in Rajarshi Shahu College Latur (The pioneer of “Latur Pattern” and one of the toughest junior colleges in Maharashtra to get admission in.) He had a very tough schedule in his 11^th and 12^th. He used to have the college for 12 hours a day followed by his own study hours. His hustle and efforts worked, as his score in JEE was very good. Though he couldn’t get into Chemical branch of top engineering colleges, he got admission in Pune Institute of Computer Technology and got IT branch, that too under a special scheme where his 90% fee was waived off. Nothing was going wrong and he started pursuing career of his choice from a renowned institute. The first semester was over and he failed in one subject. He doubted his choice of pursuing engineering and he decided to leave the field.

He decided to pursue CA. He joined the  only CA Coaching in Latur. During his CPT batch, he could barely understand accounting and law concepts but he acknowledges the effective teachings of all those teachers. He scored 145/200 in the very first attempt of his CPT.

Meanwhile, nobody knew he appeared for the Engineering CET as well, again. Apparently he scored well enough again to get into any tier-1 engineering college. This was the biggest turning point of his life as he faced a very complex dilemma of choosing either of the career options. He met many people for counsel. Before the last day of applying for engineering admission, he left the ball of making decisions in the court of his parents which they passed it on to their Family Goddess. They put 10 chits, 5 each for CA and Engineering in front of the Goddess deity. Shuffled all those chits and randomly picked out 5 of them. 4 of them showed CA and 1 showed engineering. Satyajeet tore apart the ₹ 1,25,000 DD he had for the engineering fee, cancelled his ticket from Latur to Pune and joined the same coaching institute’s IPCC batch on the same evening. Thus, the confused satellite finally made its orbit clear. The engineering seat lapsed and so did his dilemma. Satyajeet regrets of not being an engineer even today, for no reason I believe.

IPCC and Articleship

IPCC was 10 times greater, more tough than CPT. He started to have issues with the basic concepts of accounting. He mentioned that he exclaimed as “fantastic” when Prof. Jadhav Sir solved a problem of Incomplete records on board. It made him wonder how a balance sheet tallies after all those efforts. He still feels embarrassed recall this memory, but I think that simple incident tells us a lot about Satyajeet as a student. Curiosity and learning with joy are two of the greatest propellants of success. Satyajeet had them. He scored 446/700 in IPCC in the very first attempt, clearing both groups. He was the only student in his batch to do so.

Satya now had one more confusion, where to do the articleship i.e. the 3-year long practical training of CA Course. Though he is a homesick and a hometown lover, he decided to pursue articleship in Pune. After a lot of research and analysis, he joined office for the same at Hemant Shah and Associates.

He mentioned that he learnt every task all by himself without taking anyone’s favour. He had many challenges in his way, many a times he was scolded by his principal like every other article, he was also assigned with multiple tasks at a time but he remained patient and learned everything he could. He practiced over all the work he got. He made all the honest efforts to be a good CA Student. Being a cricket lover, he managed to play cricket after office hours during the first year of articleship. He had to discontinue it after he joined his CA Final classes. He told that he repeated the entire classes of Strategic Financial Management just because he was sleepy throughout the previous course. In December 2019, he went on exam leave completing all the work he had at his disposal in a simultaneous hustle of pending lectures. Satya started studying for May 2020’s CA Final examinations he had.

His biggest takeaway from his articleship, he says, is the paradigm development of soft skills. While having 4 tasks on your desk and 2 clients facing along with one more calling for queries, Satya says this is exactly where your patience and soft skills are tested.

The CA Final Exam and Effect of Corona Pandemic

He threw away his smartphone and got a simple mobile phone to avoid distractions. He used to study 15 hours a day. Satya says he used to have daily targets to complete the portions of studies and whenever he’d achieve those targets, he used to get a satisfactory feeling. Everything was going right until March 24^th,  when PM Modi announced  the historic nationwide lockdown for 3 weeks which went further on till 3 months. The exams postponed. The exams were postponed 4 times during that year and Satya, being at his home in Latur, could only wait and study. He was in fact disturbed and distracted between May 2020 to September 2020, but afterwards he studied consistently, thoroughly and appeared for exam. I remember him ranting and panicking over the tough SFM paper he had, still he appeared for the  whole exam. He was very doubtful for SFM and Risk Management. You can notice his score in those particular subjects. He passed CA Final both groups with flying colors. He cleared all the levels of CA in the very first attempt, just 1% students are able to do this. Following is his marks statement.

Satya describes reaction of his parents’ in precise words that his father had tears of joy in his eyes while his grandpa said he’ll live 5 more years as the grandson earned this huge success. All his family members and friends were extremely happy for him quite obviously.

Satyajeet’s Take on Spirituality, Love and Life

Satya is a firm believer of god and also very much keen to explore spirituality. He said that prayers and honest devotion do work. His overall life approach is very simple, that you shouldn’t just spoil anything out of impulsive reaction. He is concerned about anyone having suicidal thoughts. He justifies to be selfish for your own good and he recommends to be shameless at times but says that never ever compromise on your self respect.

When asked about having relationship, Satyajeet strongly recommended to have it after you achieve your career goals. He also pointed out to clearly distinguish between love and lust.

In life, you should never compare anyone with yourself at any stage, said Satya.

Satyajeet’s Career Guidance

Consistency and Perseverance are the keys to any tough examination out there, says Satya. He mentioned a famous saying by CA Parveen Sharma Sir, that prior 5 years before you become a CA and the 5 years after you become a CA, will decisively shape your life. You should extensively focus on your career all this while as told by Satyajeet. He shares an example and I quote, “Imagine being a batsman on a difficult pitch with a strong opponent team. The bowler is someone whom you are supposed to face and answer with your bat but the fielders and wicket keeper will sledge over you. They’ll try hard to distract your attention. If you pay any heed to what they say, you lose the ground and if you don’t, you start playing good.”

Written with Warm Regards By

Dnyanesh Make “The DPM”

The post CA Satyajeet Jaju – The Consistent Conqueror of Dilemmas appeared first on Words Of DPM.

The measurements of success have been distorted in today’s world. There are people like Karan Chandwani who underline the true definition of success by their acts. Let’s get to know more about this amazing personality.

About Karan Chandwani

Born and brought up in Pune, Karan always wanted to pursue career in the field of technology. He was a bright student in his school days. Alongside, he was an undoubted hero of extra curriculum activities as well. During his school days he has won various contests like Student of the Year by Times of India; Runner’s Up Trophy at Master Halo; The IT Kid Award for excellent performance in IT and Programming; Has won National Level Designing and IT Contests and Runners Up at Jose Memorial Trophy.

After passing his 10^th Standard with good marks, he enrolled himself in one of the top science colleges in Pune in order to step forward for his engineering. Realising the high cost of engineering colleges, Karan wanted to earn for the engineering college fee by his own. Let me remind you, readers, Karan belongs to a middle-class family. He had the spontaneity to earn his own money for the proposed college fee, at the age lesser than 17, while most of us are unaware of the harsh reality of the world and are in the intoxication of hormonal changes we have at that age. This is where Karan’s extraordinary journey started.

Efforts, Hustle and the First Switch-Over

While most of you will be wondering, how a passionate techno-savy guy, who was earning his own money for engineering college fee, eventually became a Chartered Accountant? There is a wonderful history of making wiser choices behind it. Karan put a lot of hardwork in his 11^th and 12^th Science. He used to go to college from 8 AM to 3 PM and used to go for a part time job for 4 PM to 11.30 PM, he sacrificed his sleeps in order to study when he would come home at midnights. That continued for 2 years. He appeared for the IIT Joint Entrance Exam alias IIT JEE. He very well understood that this JEE is not going to yield expected results. He was looking for alternative career options. Here comes the turning point. One of Karan’s school friends introduced him to the Chartered Accountancy Course. He quickly enrolled for CA CPT, which used to be an entrance exam for CA back in 2014. As a CA student myself, I very well know what it would take to crack CPT in the first attempt.  Karan did it, despite having a science background in HSC and despite continuing the part time job at his disposal. One big milestone was achieved by him with flying colours.  Now think for a while, instead of focusing on mirage of ranks and high score in exams, he chose to earn, learn, put effort and pass out in the first attempt. Is this any lesser than holding a rank without having the taste of hustle at all? The numbers you get in exam would only help you get to the next level but these experiences, they help you succeed in all the ups and downs in your life.

Turned out that Karan scored good enough in the IIT JEE as well, to get in any top engineering college in Pune. Now he had 2 equally good but different choices. Karan enrolled for IPCC, or the Intermediate level of CA Course. This level requires 10 times as much efforts against those for CPT. Karan used to go for the IPCC Coaching at 7 AM in the morning till 2 PM in the afternoon, followed by his part time job from 4 PM to 11:30 PM. This is third consecutive year of Karan’s earning and learning. At the age around 18-19, Karan already had a 3 years of work experience along with good records in his academics. How many Indian kids of that age has this ability? Let me put this straight, everyone has the ability to put the efforts, they just need to realise the value of putting efforts. This realisation, this endless desire of getting better and learning new skills, is what makes Karan Chandwani successful. Nobody knows the fate of their actions before results. Results are, anyway, just the numbers of measuring the efforts you have taken. True success lies in consistency, pushing the limits, high level of curiosity along with the ambition to get to the next level.

Many including me, are the victims of distraction. Everyone is hostile in this case. Everyone is vulnerable to distractions. What’s special about Karan in this regard? Readers, you have read about Karan’s schedules so far, when did Karan have time for getting carried away with distractions? Did you find the key? Everyone is vulnerable to distractions until they are too busy with something very meaningful and important. Karan was busy with his IPCC coaching and his part-time job. That hardly allowed any time for him to get carried away with the distractions. The year of 2014 was the real turning point in his life. He changed his career option, he made it through the first level in the first attempt, he met new people; and amidst all these, he was consistent in his academics and he was earning on his own through the part-time job.

CA-IPCC Exam and Results

2015 arrived. Karan appeared for the intermediate level exam i.e. IPCC in May. Since this is the intermediate level of one of the most noble professions in India, you may imagine the toughness of this examination. This level used to be a 700 marks exam back then, passing aggregate being 50% i.e. minimum 350 marks to pass. One must score at least 40 out of 100 in every subject. The entire exam is divided in two groups. Group 1 containing 4 subjects, group 2 for remaining 3 subjects. Karan’s score in this exam proves that odds favour the honest. Even one mark lesser could make a second attempt for Karan. This is the miracle, the godly reward for the honest efforts he put. Karan passed the IPCC with flying colours, in the very first attempt. Not everyone can do this. Checkout the marks statement given below.

Articleship, Volunteering and Socio-Political Work

The next level after clearing CA Intermediate, is Articleship (the 3 year long internship of CA Course). This is the deciding factor of one’s entire CA Career that where and how does he pursues his articleship. Karan took it quite seriously. He interviewed for a lot CA firms ranging from small, mid-sized to the bigger ones. He was selected in as many as 110 firms in Pune. After thoroughly analyzing all of them and considering the plans for his own future, he selected a mid-sized firm. He joined his articleship in August 2015. He would go to the firm for 10 AM to 7 PM, followed by his part time job. Gradually, he started volunteering at various events organised by Western India Chartered Accountant Students Association’s Pune branch (Student wing of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, hereinafter referred to as WICASA). He also volunteered in programmes arranged by Digital Cell of Pune BJP. This is the third big factor in Karan’s career. It feels nearly impossible to do so much in the span of 24 hours. Passionate soul, curious & ignited mind and pure enthusiasm is needed to be this much active and concentrated at the same time

Vice-Chairman of Pune WICASA

Volunteering at WICASA’s programmes introduced him to new people. Pune WICASA is the second largest CA Students wing in India. WICASA consists of a chairman, who is a Chartered Accountant and a member of branch committee at that respective branch. All the other members of WICASA, including the vice chairman, are the CA Students, duly elected through an election process. Karan was elected as Vice Chairman for the WICASA committee of 2016-17. This was going to be one of the biggest milestones in Karan’s life, as being WICASA Vice Chairman brings you enormous opportunity to represent more than 25000 CA students of Pune Branch, to execute the responsibility to lead and represent them at national level, to increase your network, build your personality, meet new and important people and experience the arrangement, conduct and management of big programmes for CA students. During Karan’s tenure as a vice chairman, Pune WICASA conducted many programmes, seminars, sessions. Two of the most successful programmes were the youth festival (Jallosh) of December 2016 and the National Convention for CA Students in January 2017. The 2 day convention had the crowd of nearly 3600 students including me. Karan experienced to reach and call big personalities for the event. Can you realise the level of improvement in communication skills after all this? Success is a continuous process. It has to be nourished in every aspect, consistently, just like this. The rewards are just the evidences of how well you done. Karan’s WICASA team earned second prize for the Best Students’ Association of Western Region.

Multi-Tasking and Enormous Efforts

The year 2016 went adventurous for Karan as the 1.5 years of his articleship were completed and by February 2017, he became one of the most renowned CA Students in Pune. Now that his articleship was near completion, he joined coaching for CA Finals in March 2017. Almost  2 years were completed for his articleship. He learnt the work, new skills in his articleship and also well executed his responsibility  as Vice Chairman of Pune WICASA. He says it was really difficult to spend 18-20 hours of a day to all these responsibilities but the experience of multi-tasking, the valuable gain of efficiency of work especially under pressure was the reward of all those sacrificed night outs and weekends. As well, he also managed to freelance in accounting for his clients during his articleship.

The CA Final Journey

Karan’s CA Final Coaching went on till April 2018. He went on study leave on 15th January 2018. He appeared for the CA Final exam in May 2018. This 3.5 months journey had many challenges in his way. Firstly, he was not confident about the exam. I can imagine how worse it can be, when Karan, after all he experienced through these years, feels under confident for the exam. He appeared for mock tests but he miserably failed in them. He also had a minor surgery in April which led Karan to bed rest for almost half a month. His studies were badly disturbed. He also started to have some emotional breakdowns near the exam dates. He still managed to overcome the breakdowns, he managed to study more than 10-12 hours a day in the last 15 days. He appeared the exams and as said earlier, honesty and efforts always pay off. Karan passed the CA Final Exam in the very first attempt. That makes him the first attempt passout at all the 3 levels of CA, he is amongst the 1% people who are able to do this! He became CA at the age of 21!

I think Karan won this battle when he made his comeback after the minor surgery, the bed rest and the emotional breakdown. He handled the situation quite very well. No matter that his time table was disturbed, no matter the odds tried to drag him away from his expected result, he kept on fighting. This is the integrity needed for success. Even if you wish to put efforts, there are obstacles in putting efforts too. Karan’s story tells to make sure that you do not stop hustling when you deal with the obstacles. Karan’s story tells us to be okay with making mistakes, accepting them and not repeating them. Karan’s story tells us to be brave in hostile situations.

Understanding Karan’s Strategies of Success

Karan has specifically told about strategies of his academic success. Those are as follows.

“1. Conceptual clarity (one will surely get this if he/she attends all the classes properly, I never missed a single lecture).

2. Strong fundamentals (one cannot understand the concepts and cases based on a certain topic unless you don’t understand those topics at the first hand). One needs to go back to the previously learned topics and revise them for building strong fundamentals.

3. Completing the whole syllabus and cumulatively revising them as much as you can.

4. Practicing revising the whole subject in a span of 10 to 12 hours, which we get one day before our exam, at least twice or thrice. This is very critical I feel.

5. Speed and efficiency equally matter when we start writing the paper. We have to complete our whole paper in order to score the maximum marks.

6. The more calm you can be, the more you can score, while writing your paper.

7. Proper planning, right from the first day.

8. We all need to work hard in order to be lucky.”

Now that Karan was a first attempter CA, it would not have been much difficult to get employed in any of the Big 4’s i.e. KPMG, Deloitte, PwC, and EY with attractive salary packages. There’s one more thing needed to be successful, that is the sense of sustaining and increasing the success; and that sense involves vision, passion, and rationale. Karan chose to practice directly. Now let me give you a little flashback. The year here is 2018. Two years ago from being a CA, Karan started to acquire leadership skills. 6 years prior to being a CA, Karan started to earn on his own. One and a half years ago of being a CA, Karan executed the largest ever Convention held for CA Students in Pune. Karan had developed so much for his own business skills that even a tier 1 B-School would fail to provide this much. That’s exactly where Karan’s experiences built up. He confidently started his practice in Business Process Automation, something extremely rare in CA Profession. Remember the techno-savvy school kid who changed his career alternative after his 12th? Karan fulfilled his dream of learning, practicing, and executing in the field of technology.

Karan’s Career After Being a CA.

Apart from practicing in BPA and RPA, Karan also happens to be a teacher and a motivational speaker. Karan was keen to teach in his days of being a CA Student. He started teaching at Symbiosis Law School, Pune, one of the most prestigious institutes in India. He also started teaching for CA Foundation Students at one of the renowned CA Coachings in Pune. He also provided free counselling to school and college students in the fields of entrepreneurship and financial awareness, in association with various social organisations. He has conducted more than 115 such programmes and has counselled over 20000 students. He has also conducted training sessions for Class-01 GST officials. In December 2020 itself, he has given coaching to over 8000 students. Let me remind you again, readers, as of today when I write this in January 2021, Karan has not even crossed 25 years of his age and his achievements have already made this blog the second largest on our website. Such is the magnitude of this man.

After being a CA, he has contributed in various research papers published by ICAI, AOSSG, WIRC of ICAI etc.

Karan’s General Guidance on Spirituality, Learning and Skills

Karan says, and I quote, “The end of basic education phase is just the beginning of forever learning process of life.” He says that success is the process of becoming newer, better version of yourself everyday. He also underlines to have a mentor at each stage of life.

Talking about spirituality, this is what Karan said, “Throughout my life I have been very spiritual. Being spiritual for me means to believe in the eternal energy that is around us, which is making things happen, which is boosting us to do what we wish to. Being spiritual is to believe in your inner self too, nourish your soul with fruitful and positive thoughts so that we can bring change within ourselves and then in the world we live in.”

Karan said that it is important to have hobbies and skills. It is important to execute the skills to some practical cause. The more you learn new skills at early days of your life, more you become prepared for the business world.

Karan always choses to be simple. He choses to keep things extremely simple. Let’s take a look at a day in Karan’s life;

A – Restructuring Processes & Designing SOPs.

B – Training & Coaching.

C – Reading, Interacting with People, Spending Time with Students.

D – Strengthening Client Satisfaction & Support System at KCC.

Networking, building and maintaining public relations is extremely important for an individual’s growth as he said. I’d like to conclude this blog with his one last quote, “Money is important in life, but happiness coming out of satisfaction is more.”

Warm Regards,

Dnyanesh Make the DPM

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