How would you feel if you were once a professional weightlifter with a stellar health record, only to wake up one day to a life-threatening stroke that robbed you of your psychomotor skills and supposed bright future in weightlifting?
Meet Resh, my guest for this week with this inspiring story of courage to share.
Resh used to be a national weightlifter representing Singapore. However, a stroke at 18 years old not only robbed him of his bright future in weightlifting, but also his abilities to execute daily functions like walking, talking, picking things up and everything that seemed fundamental.
However, that huge obstacle didn’t stop or bring him down. Instead, it drove him to keep getting better and going further. Today, at his current age of 23 years old, he’s not only fully recovered, but also owns a financial investment and training company churning an impressive six figure profit. Beyond that, he has gone back to his first passion - despite being unable to weightlift, he found his alternative passion in body building and has won a string of national body physique competitions in Singapore. He also has a physical fitness company to help people achieve the sleek and fit physiques they desire.
Listen to this episode to learn Resh’s view on:
- How obstacles will always be there to make you question your choices (3 min)
- How failure is a huge part of success and why we should embrace it (3:45 min)
- Seeing adversities as blessings and life lessons to becoming a better person (4:50 min)
- How doing something courageous despite feeling the fear will propel you to the next level (5:30 min)
- The rubber band theory – when you have been stretched, you are never the same again, and what is scary previously will become the new norm (7:00 min)
- How fear will always be present, but good things will come if you feel the fear and do it anyway (8:15 min)
Are you feeling trapped in current situations and are looking for a breakthrough?
Click here to connect and have a chat to see if I can help you ACHIEVE YOUR BREAKTHROUGH through coaching with me.
Transcript
21 September 2016
Interviewee : Reshveen Rajendran (RR)
Interviewer : Jane Tan (JT)
JT : Welcome ladies and gentlemen to another episode of Stories of Courage! Once again, I’m your host, Jane Tan, founder of www.janetan.net. And if you’re wondering what this programme is about, I’m gathering stories from courageous people I’ve met all over the world to actually inspire all of us to take actions in our lives and to actually live courageously with no regrets. I have been noticing a trend in the people I’ve been interviewing and they are all females…so recently I started scouting for courageous and brave men with very inspiring stories to share! And today, I found my first man! Alright, the first man I’m going to introduce today is Resh. Resh is a friend I met in Singapore around 2 to 3 years back, when we did a training programme together and I was one of the mentors in the programme. And Resh popped out to me because of the life he is leading now and I think it’s super inspiring. Just to give everyone a quick background about him, Resh used to represent Singapore in National Weightlifting Competitions. He was part of the national team, and he had a really bright future until an unfortunate event happened to him when he was 18. He had a stroke and doctors actually told him that he cannot weightlift anymore. And I can imagine it will be very, very hard for a young man to go through it. But he kind of turned it around, because instead of mopping over it and being really sad, he decided to take charge of his own life and move forward. So, I think this adversity brought him a lot of strength and courage, because he decided to start investing. He now has his own investing company, you can check out the website, it’s called www.milliondollarrush.com . He is also doing training seminars for financial literacy. And at the same time, he has also gone back to being very physical, like you know, he is now doing National Physique Competitions, he has 6 packs and an awesome body, and beyond all that, Resh is currently writing a book called “A Young Man’s Secret to Building Massive Wealth and Killer Abs”. I mean, you should really, really watch out for this book because this man I’m going to interview in a very short while, he’s only 23 years old and in the last 4 years, he has kind of built a mini empire for himself from $5,000 to a 6 figure income now for himself. Without further ado, let me introduce everyone to Resh!
RR : Hi! Hi Jane! Hi everybody!
JT : Hi! Alright, so, you know, I was just sharing with everyone listening in a little bit about your story, maybe you will also like to fill in anything I haven’t managed to tell the audience that you will like them to know about how you started on this journey and how much courage it took for you to have.
RR : Well, you pretty much mentioned a lot of things. One thing which I want to mention is that starting out a business at a young age is something which is not easy to do, you know, especially in the financial line, you know, me being 19 years old. Many people actually question my ability, question my experience, question everything about my age. That was a huge initial setback for me…not really a setback, but it was a challenge I had to overcome. It took a lot of courage in that sense, to act in spite of my age. Even until today I still get those questions, but I guess it’s a matter of posture and really being upfront with what you do and just going on ahead with it, and not using age as an excuse.
JT : I heard that you’ve mentioned courage a lot of times despite your age. From what I understand, courage is like a daily thing to you, so it is something that you seem very familiar with. So I will like to ask you this question actually, so what does courage mean to you on a daily basis?
RR : As cliché as it sounds, there’s this very, very famous Nelson Mandela quote which I kind of really agree. The whole quote actually says “courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it”. And just relating it to another thing – in school, we were always taught that the opposite of success is failure, but I really, really disagree. In the real world, in the business world, failure is a huge part of success. So in the same way, fear is a huge part of courage as well. Courage is really, truly, you know, feeling fear but doing it anyway.
JT : So if I hear you correctly, you were telling me that courage is feeling the fear and doing it anyway, and courage is doing it continuously even though you feel that you didn’t do it properly today.
RR : Yeah, for sure, for sure. As in, you know, the thing about courage is that a lot of people fear starting a business, they fear starting investing because they fear they don’t have enough knowledge, they fear they don’t have enough experience. It’s all a matter of just putting your foot forward and doing it anyway…and ya, you will learn along the way, right?
JT : So it is just really about trusting that you have gained something good from the experience today and just moving forward…and keep doing it.
RR : If there’s one thing which I learnt from my stroke when I was 18 years old, everything happens for a reason. Obviously when I was going through it, it was a very huge ordeal. I had to learn how to pick up stuff again, I had to learn how to walk again, but it really was the biggest blessing which happened in my life. And now my mindset is such that, I really believe that, everything that happens to me, happens to me for a reason, and that reason is to serve me.
JT : Wow, I like that. So everything happens for a reason, and that reason is to serve you to become a better person. That is great, because I think a lot of people also need to understand and to see how adversities are not adversities, like there’s this saying, “the problem is not the problem, how you see the problem is the problem”, and I actually really like that quote. So that being said, like you know, courage is like a daily thing for you. Is there one recent story of courage that you can share with us that you have done, that you know, scared you out of your wits but you did it anyway?
RR : You know, I had a huge decision to make, and that decision was to sell my company. So I actually had the opportunity to be acquired by another company. That took me a lot of courage as well because there would be a lot of consequences… a lot of opportunities as well, but a few consequences as well. So it took me a lot of courage to really step forward and say, you know what, I have trust in God’s plan for me way into the future and just going ahead and doing it, and that has led me to having to go speak to people… the last time I had to speak to audiences of 20 to 30 people, but now it has literally propelled to 100, 200, 500 people… that’s a huge step and it took a lot of courage for me to really reach that level.
JT : So recently your company got acquired, and because your company got acquired, you got the opportunity to speak to a huge audience group of at least 200 people. And that was like a big milestone for you to actually scale up. What were some of the fears and considerations that went through your head at that point in time when, you know, you had to make this choice?
RR : So I was speaking to 10 times more people, and in terms of my price point, my fees increased by 4 times, I was literally stretched. But then again, like what I’ve said, I really believe that everything happens for a reason, and that reason is to serve me.
JT : I can imagine the kind of fear and nervousness you had to go through to speak to so many people… having done that, how do you feel now that you have actually managed to scale your next challenge and overcome this new challenge that you thought you had?
RR : You know now, again looking back, I was just speaking to my mentor just 2 days ago… I was literally stretched, but now my rubber band is never the same again, it’s like a much bigger rubber band. So I was just telling him that, “oh my goodness, I can’t believe that I was charging so little last time!” You know my entire mind and the way I think is very, very different. So right now, speaking to 100 people has become something which is normal to me. If it’s just a couple of months ago, I would have been shivering… so that is just….crazy!
JT : I know, wow! I mean, I really like that because from what I hear from what you’ve mentioned, you said that by overcoming your latest act of courage, you have actually discovered new abilities about yourself, how the things you used to be scared of are actually not scary to you anymore now. And now you have so much more capacity to do things.
RR : Exactly. I just want to share this one quote, “go as far as you can, and when you reach there, you will see even further”.
JT : I think that is also very motivational to everyone listening in, because I think a lot of times, we are so scared to take the first step, because we are just… you know, we just feel that we can’t do it. But the amazing thing from what I hear from what you’ve shared is, once you have managed to take that step, you realise that the door opens up and there’s such a long road that moves forward.
RR : So, again, you know this entire lesson has taught me that, there will always be fear present, but we just go ahead and do it anyway. Good things will come. If you want really really great things to happen to your life, seriously, as cliché as it sounds, feel the fear and just go and do it anyway.
JT : Wow I like that. Feel the fear and go do it anyway because great things will come! People, listen to that! Wow I really like what you’ve shared so far because I think it gives people a lot of insights and also a lot of motivation to realise that fear is actually not all scary, as contradictory as it may sound. Fear can also be a huge opportunity for us to discover more about ourselves and to actually go beyond the boundary that we are currently limiting ourselves to. Thanks for sharing all that you’ve done so far. And the one question that I always ask all my interviewees coming for my show is, what made you decide to say yes to doing this podcast with me? Because, I only just messaged you yesterday night and today we are doing this, what is great, like I love how fast it is.
RR : You are the.. as in to me, from what you’ve done and everything, you’re really someone who… you’re the epitome of someone who loves life and has a lot of passion and zest for life. Actually, one more reason is because I love speaking to people who are not exactly normal, and I think you really fit the bill.
JT : Well, I still have 2 eyes, 1 nose and 1 mouth!! But I think what you are saying is, the belief that we can actually do beyond what we think we are capable of is something that all of us should learn how to embrace and we should inspire more people to take active steps to living the lives, the courageous lives they want.
RR : Exactly, precisely.
JT : So when is your new book gonna come out?
RR : I’m looking to finish the book by end November.
JT : So guys, please please look out for this awesome book, it’s called once again “A Young Man’s Secret to Building Massive Wealth and Killer Abs”, due out in November. And do also check out more about Resh at his website www.milliondollarrush.com . And for guys in Singapore, if you are keen to have a solid 6 packed, killer abs and a very hot and sexy body, you can always contact Resh to be your personal trainer and he will give you the best tips to getting to the goal that you want, and looking super awesome! Thank you so much Resh for your time today, I really appreciate it. I also hope that the listeners out there will get inspired from what they have heard today, how adversities are always there to actually help us go to the next point and to see great things, and to help us build resilience. So the one question I always ask all my audience listening in is, WHAT IS THE ONE THING THAT YOU CAN DO TODAY THAT IS COURAGEOUS, THAT YOU ARE SCARED OF, BUT YOU ARE STILL GOING TO GO AHEAD ANYWAY TO DO IT? And I promise you, the results will be more than what you’ve expected. Thank you once again Resh for your time.
RR : Thank you so much Jane.
JT : Hope to see you in Singapore one day when I eventually get to that part of the world again, so till the next time we talk, bye!
RR : Bye!