Unilever's Chief People and Transformation Officer, Nitin Paranjpe, took to LinkedIn to share a story about defying self-doubt and finding unexpected joys in embracing a personal challenge, even if the results are... well, let's just say entertaining.
“I am musically challenged. I struggle with rhythm; I don’t have any natural talent. Around twenty years ago, I decided to test this. I wanted to see, if you are challenged in a particular field, what can you do with effort and discipline,” he said in his post.
Almost 20 years ago Paranjpe found someone to teach him the keyboard. “If you want to know the outcome of that study, I still play badly. That’s how I challenged I am,” he said.
But then it was still a win for him because he always thought he wouldn't be able to string together a tune even if he was given the notes. Paranjpe goes on about his tryst with music.
He didn’t find a lot of success in his learning story but definitely found joy. “Anyone who listens to me today could well say-My god! After so many years you still suck,” he said.
And to that he’d say, “Yeah, and that's okay. You have no idea where I was compared to where I am now.” Paranjpe ended the note with a profound thought. He said, “What started off purely as a challenge has turned out to be a lot of fun.”