Top CEOs share Words of Wisdom with Amitabh Shah led Yuva Unstoppable’s Gen Z Scholars

Everyone has something to teach and something to learn. And that is exactly what makes mentoring a beautiful, mutually rewarding relationship. Yuva Unstoppable, the country’s premier non-profit organization founded by Amitabh Shah, nurtures multiple such mentoring relationships. It is on a mission to impact bright yet needy children and youth (world class WASH facilities in govt. schools, digital literacy, scholarships, mentoring, etc.). Under its Educational Scholarships Program, top CEOs have mentored hundreds of Gen Z scholars. Read on to dig into what some of them like Nadir Godrej, Dilip Piramal, Gaurav Gupta, Sai Srinivas Kiran, and Rahul Agarwal to name a few, had to share with Yuva Unstoppable's young minds.

Your purpose in life?

Dilip Piramal (Chairman, VIP Industries): Lead a good life; if you cannot do anything good, you should atleast not harm anyone. Work for the country and give your best, just as Amitabh Shah is doing.

Your ‘Mantra’ in difficult times?

Nadir Godrej (MD, Godrej Industries): Accept the situation without any expectations and you will get what you deserve. [In stress] Seek help and help others. Stay positive. Smile, and keep spreading smiles.

Gaurav Gupta (Founder & COO, Zomato): Difficulties make you better and stronger. Don’t get afraid of struggles, you are never too big to fail. Learn from your mistakes, don’t repeat them and just keep moving ahead."

Your secret to success?

Sai Srinivas (Co-founder & CEO, MPL): Never give up. When you do something that you like and enjoy, success will automatically follow. Enabling young people to do what they want is closest to my heart and education is one such enabler. Glad that Amitabh Shah-Yuva Unstoppable are working in this area.

Arun Kumar (CEO, KPMG India): Aim high. Do not limit yourself, aspire to achieve greatness. Never look down upon yourself!

Single most important advice?

Dhiraj Relli (MD & CEO, HDFC Securities): Seek to acquire practical knowledge from mentors. Keep your curiosity alive, ask more and more questions to learn more and more.

Sunish Sharma (Co-founder & Managing Partner, Kedaara Capital Advisors): Study hard. Develop an all-round personality. Work on enhancing your self-belief and confidence at all times.

Your learning from COVID-19?

Paul Polman (Former Global CEO, Unilever): It is an opportunity to invest in multiple areas of development. We must use this opportunity to create an environment that is sustainable, equitable, and where we don’t leave anybody behind.

Rahul Agarwal (CEO & MD, Lenovo India): We are working with organizations like Yuva Unstoppable to explore different solutions to bridge the digital divide in the country. Some of the options we are currently looking at are providing affordable devices, making them available in remote towns & villages, recycling old products in good condition & making them available to ones in need.

Nimesh Kampani (Chairman, JM Financial Group): Amongst other things, we should also look into how to contribute to climate change. COVID-19 pandemic has helped us curb travelling and effectively work from home, thus reducing air pollution to a great extent.

Yuva Unstoppable's Educational Scholarship Program

It is a unique Scholarship Program that supports and enables deserving yet needy students to effectively complete their higher education. The parents of scholars are often daily wagers like factory workers, autorickshaw-walas, security guards, maids, etc. They are selected through a rigorous process based on academic performance (usually more than 80 percentiles in 10th / 12th till they graduate), qualifying exams, PIs, house visits, and so on. Most of them are on their way to becoming engineers, doctors, lawyers, and chartered accountants!

Of the many leaders who have mentored Yuva Unstoppable scholars, is Rashmi Amitabh Shah - wife of Amitabh Shah, Mrs India World Runner-Up 2014, a successful entrepreneur, corporate trainer, actor, philanthropist, and ‘Model for Cause’. She regularly conducts sessions in personality development & grooming, value-education, and life skills for youth. Amitabh Shah shares: "We have empowered 1000+ scholars through mentoring programs with corporates like Goldman Sachs, Oracle, HDFC Life, etc. Every child has the potential to shine bright. All they need is the right opportunities, resources, and direction. We provide this platform by connecting future leaders with the current leaders and preparing them for real life issues, going beyond just financial aid. I am truly grateful to all our partners, including my wife Rashmi Amitabh Shah for making this possible through their invaluable guidance and mentorship.”

To learn more about Yuva Unstoppable's Scholarship & Mentorship programs, write to rashi@yuvaunstoppable.org

About Yuva Unstoppable

Yuva Unstoppable empowers disadvantaged children and youth. They have impacted 1000,000 children and transformed over 2000 schools since inception in partnership with 100 plus top corporates. Their vision is to transform 10,000 schools and impact 5,000,000 children. To know more, visit yuvaunstoppable.org