‘I Had Decided to Drop Out of IIT Entrance Exams, Until My Dad’s Words Changed My Life’

Ganesh Balakrishnan's life took a turn when he faced health issues a month before his IIT-JEE exam. Despite feeling disheartened and at the verge of dropping out, his father's advice helped him overturn his luck.

By Krystelle Dsouza

March 11, 2024

Do you have an incident that changed the course of your life? For Ganesh Balakrishnan, co-founder of Aurm, it was his IIT-JEE exam.

As Balakrishnan writes in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), he had decided to drop out of his IIT entrance exam after he contracted chicken pox a month before the exam. He was disheartened. The years of preparation would go to waste, he thought. But when he told his father about this, his father advised him otherwise. He told him to take the exam.

I had almost decided to drop out of my IIT Entrance Exam.

Until my father stepped in to (literally) change my life.

A month before my IIT-JEE (IIT Joint Entrance Exam), I had a bout of chickenpox.

Therefore, I could not prepare adequately for the last and crucial phase in the… pic.twitter.com/ZAI115riZ9— Ganesh Balakrishnan (@ganeshb78) March 8, 2024

“Ganesh, your duty is to do your best with the things you can control, and let go of the things you cannot control,” were his words.

And it was this advice that got Balakrishnan into IIT Bombay in the very first attempt.

Was it luck that helped him? “I believe luck is on the side of those who are consistent,” he wrote. “I was relentlessly consistent during the two years of preparation for the exam. So missing the last month (even though it was super important) did not overpower the preparation of the last two years,” he added.

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