Shailesh Rajpal
                     Shailesh Rajpal – Prepare like a 
Champion
When we see the greatest 
performers in any domain, whether it 
be art, business, engineering, law, 
medicine, music, sports, or teaching, 
what we’re seeing is the product of 
preparation. It’s easy to watch others 
and think how lucky they are to be so 
talented. It’s also wrong. The Owner 
and Founder of Rajpal Group of 
Companies Mr. Shailesh Rajpal 
said, “When people say God blessed 
me with a beautiful business it really 
pisses me off. I tell those people, 
‘Don’t undermine the work I’ve put in 
every day.’ Not some days. Every 
day. Ask anyone who has been on a 
team with me who works the most. 
The answer is me.”
Consider your current role and 
responsibilities. Now think about the 
knowledge and skills that go into 
performing your role and 
responsibilities on a daily basis. How 
much time are you investing in 
preparing to perform these activities 
at a high level? 
Would you describe yourself as 
unbeatable at your work……? Your 
level of performance and results are 
directly proportional to your level of 
preparation. Want better results…….? 
Increase your preparation. Where 
does your years of experience factor 
in…..? It doesn’t. It’s common in 
society to equate experience with 
excellence. However, studies show 
that experience alone doesn’t mean 
much.
The Three Principles of Preparation
Purpose: It’s impossible to 
properly prepare for something 
that you don’t care about. In my 
strategic coaching work with my 
executive leaders we analyze 
their calendar and attempt to tie 
a purpose to each of them. Any 
items that are not tied to a 
purpose are then eliminated. As 
you think about your calendar 
and the items that consume the 
most time, ask yourself how 
much time you are investing in 
each area.
Plan: developing a plan for your 
preparation is often overlooked in 
the flurry of activity we find 
ourselves in on a daily basis. All 
good plans answer two questions: 
1) What are you trying to 
achieve?  2) How will you achieve 
it? While many have planned 
their business but very less have 
plans for preparation.
Prevention: The primary reason 
we prepare for anything is to 
increase our probability of 
success and reduce our chance of 
failure. But wait! Isn’t one of 
today’s most popular mantras 
“Fail fast”? Why would we want to 
prevent failure when a lot of 
people are advocating for it? 
Because “failing fast” as a 
consistent route to success is a 
myth. 
Mr. Shailesh Rajpal says, “Failure is massively overrated. Most businesses 
fail for more than one reason. So, when a business fails, you often don’t learn 
anything at all because the failure was over determined. I think people 
actually do not learn very much from failure.”