Meet Gowthami, Story of the Girl who Chooses to Live Her Dreams!

What must a 22-year-old girl who is so passionate about dance and is talented beyond measure and hardworking as well do when she has built castles and castles dreaming about living a blissful life as a Professional Dancer? But wakes up every morning to the pressing need for her to take on the mantle of bringing in dough in the house month on month, saving for her own marriage, her own future, and literally, build from ground zero. 

This is a True Story of how being ready before the moment arrives, gives you the life experiences and capabilities you need to live a life that most artists give up whilst trading it for financial stability.

Gowthami is at crossroads… one path filled with flowers and dreams, and love, movement, travel, fragrances, exotic trances, and immersion in bliss, much like a fairyland, a life where she is dancing away to glory, reigning the world of performing arts. Another path, where she takes on the job at hand, works hard, performs well, climbs up the corporate ladder, and eventually in another 30 years maybe become a CXO in the Big 4? Gowthami isn’t born with a silver spoon, and has inherited no cash or kind, but what she has inherited and developed an abundance of values, and environment of freedom to pave her life ahead. A myriad other such advice rang in her ears louder and louder, each passing day.

“Dance as a profession is short-lived. One cannot sustain and be respectable in the eyes of the society being a dancer!”

“Dance is a great hobby. Enjoy dancing.But not for a profession!”

“Are you so rich?! Be responsible. Dance is not for our kind of family.”

“Okay, you have learned to dance so well, you dance with your troupe, all that is fine. But what about a real job? Who will take care of you?!”

“Don’t!”   “Can’t survive!”   “Don’t take risk!”

“Keep it as a hobby!”

Gowthami got a plum job at The Big 4, picked up straight from her Campus but unlike most girls her age, by the time she joined the job she had such extraordinary life experiences, connections, and influence that enabled her to work on several opportunities in parallel, including her dance performances. The preparation for all this had started much much before. Following her sister’s suit, she recognized way back at 17, she wasn’t going to live a mediocre life. She turned to Antano & Harini to be prepared and ready to make an impact in the future ahead. Whatever she does, she wanted to excel in. But she always had to put in an extraordinary amount of effort to get anything. Be it studies, or anything, she had to slog to get anywhere close to what she dreamt. She knew, life could be a Big Block of Struggle if something doesn’t change.

Antano & Harini recommended that she comes to uP! Just after finishing school and just before entering college. At her first uP!, she blossomed into a person who could effectively get more done in less time.

A&H PLANTED A SEED IN ME, THAT MADE ME A COMBINATION OF HARDWORK AND SMART WORK AND A PERSON WHO COULD GET ALL OF IT DONE WITH EASE. EVERYTHING THAT I MANAGED TO ACHIEVE AFTER THAT, WAS WITH EASE!

Right after the first  uP!, she was crowned ‘Ms. Fresher’ in college, which is basically, being christened the Smartest Person in the college of about 2000 freshers. She also started getting really good scores with much lesser effort and time, than what it took her in school days.

I LOVE HOW I COULD FEEL EASE AND A CERTAIN SENSE OF FLOW IN ME, EVERYDAY!

With all the extra time she had now, because she could learn fast, and grasp and deliver fast, she invested this time back in her Dance. She wasn’t compromising on her studies but she wasn’t compromising her dance either. And not just that, she added another layer to her development.

She interned very early, with Environmental Foundation of India, which does stellar work across the country spearheading very impactful social work such as Lake cleaning, educational programs etc.

You may wonder, how did she manage to be effective and excellent in so many things at the same time? It is simple, Antano & Harini helped her overcome the time wasters, distractions and enhanced her learning capacity.

Before uP!, she was always so bothered about what other people thought about her, and would go extremes to be ‘liked’, ‘to be accepted’, ‘to be the centre of attraction’. And again, none of this came easily to her.

At her first uP!, not only did she develop the ability and power to get to High-performance states on-demand, she also developed Superior Emotional Intelligence, and the  ability to enhance her talents and capabilities very, very fast by a natural process known as Unconscious Assimilation. She found herself not being distracted, she naturally got negative people off her life (which was a Big thing for her. Earlier, her happiness depended on approval and acceptance by all of these people as well)… The emotional intelligence and capabilities led her not be affected even when things don’t go her way, or something ‘unfair’ happens. She became really high on discipline and courage, and made the most out of the three years of  college. She found herself being able to learn and practice her dance also with much more dedication and peace of mind. There’s a thin line between hard-working and that extra layer of something special that happens, when you have charisma arising out of superior emotional intelligence, the ability to manage time well and becoming a very self-dependent person. She was no longer chasing opportunities, instead, opportunities found her.

She was invited by the Government of Sri Lanka to perform on behalf  Indian Council for Cultural Relations(ICCR), and received a Diplomat Passport from the Government of India. She aced her studies and her teachers encouraged her greatly, because of her ability to manage studies and bring laurels to her college with her talent in dance. When everything was going so well for her in college, Antano & Harini made another important pivot in her life, at the second uP! At this juncture, Antano  & Harini believed that it’s time for her to develop the Superior Capability of Building deep and meaningful connections fast and closing deals!

There’s difference in being just a great dancer from a skill perspective, versus a successful one, right? Gowthami used to be hesitant to make connections, she would think of it, to be ‘desperate’ or ‘buttering them’. She didn’t know how to build deep relationships. Or even imagine that it is possible to build deep relationships by continuing to be who she is. The second uP! was a game changer for her, in this respect.

The second uP! also reignited her love for singing. She had learned singing while she was in school, but now, after the second uP!, she trained those vocal chords all over again and practiced obsessively, compulsively, without slacking in her dance.

 

She also began making connections  right at the top – some very established music composers, and powerful connections in dance. And much to her own surprise, she made her debut in playback singing at 21! This opened further doors of opportunities for her, while she continued her stage performances in dance, nationally and internationally.

The Superior Capabilities developed at uP! – of High Performance states on-demand, fast learning by Unconscious Assimilation and the ability to communicate effectively and close deals, brought her huge laurels at her workplace as well.

Infact, right within the 1st month of her job, she closed the Deal with her company, which is one of the Big 4, to sign up Environmental Foundation of India(EFI), as their official CSR partner. Imagine a Fresher, orchestrating such a high-level deal single-handedly!

 

Gowthami also spearheaded in the Core Team of EFI, and co-conducted clean ups with celebrity figures such as Kamal Hassan and actress Trisha as well as organized and performed dance as fund raisers contribution to the Chennai floods.

Gowthami had received Spot awards in her office, and got a promotion and raise within 1 year of being in office. And now, when she was in crossroads, one part of her, felt like she had to pursue her corporate career and rise to the top. Perhaps in another 25-30 years, she could get to the CXO level in a huge corporate and of course, her life will be set, financially, her lifestyle, and everything. And a Majority of people,  choose this path, maybe because it is safer, more predictable and perhaps some would have had to take it because of financial pressure. For Gowthami, the option ahead was no different. She was expected to continue in her job and bring her family bread and laurel.

Antano & Harini made her realize she is not like any other talented dancer who is in a corporate career. By now, she has already made connections, gotten superior exposure, has some finance coming in and along with that Harini took her through a very deep NLP process known as pseudo orientation and at that moment, she saw a future where she is doing so well in her Corporate career, financially set, good family and everything, but she is not happy. The thought of this scared her even more than her current financial insecurities. She knew, that she had to choose dance over the safety of financial stability of the corporate route. And that’s what she did. She took the Bold decision, realizing that she is fully equipped, to make it Big as a dancer.

AT THAT MOMENT, WHEN I LOOKED BACK AT MY LIFE, I REALISED, OH MY GOD, ALL ALONG, I HAVE CREATED LIFE EXPERIENCES OF SUCH VARIED NATURE, ALL IN PREPARATION FOR MY CAREER  IN DANCE.

For most people, they wouldn’t have the luxury to make such a decision, because personally, they wouldn’t have prepared themselves for it. But here is Gowthami, who has immersed, in not just being a brilliant dancer, but used every minute of her college years, building such quality life experiences, accelerated by the superior capabilities she developed in such compressed time, which has now prepared her for this moment, to finally take that plunge.

Anyone else in the place of Gowthami, even if they had the courage, could not have taken the bold decision. But for Gowthami, until that moment, she didn’t realize, that everything that she had done, all through her college and her one year of work, was all the experiences and capabilities, she needs to actually give her Art her fullest, and become successful commercially as well.

Today, Gowthami has very established dancers wanting to collaborate with her. She has in parallel set up a revenue stream steadily flowing in through her music performances and the playback singing for popular South films.

Think about it – Gowthami could have easily been one of those people, who at crossroads, could have pursued the Corporate route at 40 or 45, she feels terrible, and carries life-long regret of not having been able to pursue dance. She could have told her children about how fortunate they are, and how as a child, she didn’t have the choice to be able to pursue dance, because dance is an expensive profession and a middle class family cannot afford it, let alone risk it. Unfortunately, for so many people out there that is the story where they give up something that means a lot to them and regret all their life. For some people, it gets even worse, when their heart is not in it, even the corporate career doesn’t take off very well and they get stuck at middle management, not growing fast enough and suffering mid-life crisis. But Gowthami – was Prepared! And that’s the role Antano & Harini played in her Life. Prepare, to be able to grab opportunities, Prepare, to make intelligent and bold choices, Prepare with the right set of Capabilities, to out-perform in all those opportunities, Prepare proactively, ahead of time, with Capabilities required to be able to Ace at each and every stage in her life.

Dreaming about your ‘Dream Life’, won’t get you there. ‘Just taking action’, won’t get you there. Real Capabilities, followed by Life-experiences to expand those Capabilities, gets you to make Choices, that shapes your destiny towards your Personal Legacy of deep fulfillment, happiness and abundance of all things good!

– Harini Ramachandran

 

A&H Impact Summary:

Antano & Harini just knew, right when I met them at 17, what are the things that will enable me to make the decision to pursue dance, and actually be successful at it!