NEW DELHI: Not everybody’s path to success is a straight line and wouldn’t life become boring if there are no twists and turns? In the journey of life, there are times when no matter how good you are, due to some circumstances, you might have to step backwards for a better future and that is when the true test of patience starts. Zig Ziglar, an American author, once famously said, “Failure is a detour and not a dead end” and my belief in this saying strengthened even more when I met the Chief Executive Officer of ART Fertility Clinics at his posh office in Gurgaon.
Born in a middle-class family to a Professor in Delhi University and a homemaker, Suresh Kumar Soni excelled in both academics and sports. His love for sports attracted him towards a career in the Indian Army, where he could advance as a sportsman also. As luck would have it, while still in class eleventh, he appeared for National Defence Academy exams and got through. It was going all well and he had completed two semesters in NDA which awards Jawaharlal Nehru University degree to its cadets. But as life is uncertain, it can turn around at any moment and be painful for some period. Soni met with a series of accidents which injured his knees, making it difficult for him to continue in the Army. He decided to quit, but JNU didn’t allow him to complete his graduation if he was not in NDA. Meanwhile, Delhi University too couldn’t permit him to pursue graduation as he hadn’t done his class twelfth.
Soni had to return to school to take his twelfth board exams. It was a difficult phase of his life, emotionally and physically both. “I went through self-pity and found it difficult to study. I even once felt like quitting studies and starting a business,” he said while recalling those days.
“But good sense prevailed and I continued with my studies. My friends were in their third or fourth year of college, and I had gone back to school. It was emotionally taxing as many times I used to feel that I had regressed in life,” he added. He remembers how his parents supported him through this transitioning phase. He bounced back and ended up studying way more than one could fathom.
He did his BTech from Birla Institute of Technology, Masters in International Relations from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) and another Masters in Science from University of Alabama in industrial engineering. Then, later in his career he again went to study in Harvard Business School which is for working professionals. For him age should not be a barrier when it comes to education.
When I asked him, in the long haul, how he feels looking back, he replied with a twinkle in his eyes, “Oh in the long run, I think I have come a long way. My friends look up to me. For me, my work is my passion and Science is what motivates me in life,” he concluded while giving hope to millions of aspirants who may be at crossroads in their lives.