India-born engineer and Singapore-based author Nihit Mohan found success in the financial services industry. Interestingly, he did his schooling from seven schools spread across multiple cities and cultures. The impetus of writing was instilled in teenage years, but formally writing and publishing articles happened through his blog.
Apart from being a full-time banking risk professional, dedicated father, and author, Nihit also enjoys traveling and collecting artworks from all over the world. Actively, he collaborates with multiple artists across Europe and Asia. You can enjoy his writings, book reviews, and art collection on his blog www.nihitmohan.com.
Tell us about your latest book What School Doesn’t Teach You.
‘What School Doesn’t Teach You is a non-fiction book trying to cover various aspects of life which are not actively pursued in school. Its USP is that it is a ‘Food Court’ of concepts. While I was reading and I can classify myself as an ‘Avid Reader’, I saw there are books available for each of the topics I have discussed in the book. It has multiple independent, so you could pick up each chapter independently to read and assimilate. Just like a ‘Food Court’, you can pick and choose.
The people who can benefit the most from the book are students, technical professionals, management professionals, the Young talent of the industry, and even Middle management of the corporate sectors. This is a good book for modern-age parents too.
What is the scheme of ideas that you had behind the naming of this book?
There was a lot of thought given to the name of the book while I was writing it. In pure honesty, this title was not something I began with. Initially, I called it ‘Mentor’, but as I progressed writing it. It started to give the feeling that ‘Mentor’ might not be very appropriate. And I felt a book like this needs a catchy title so that the book doesn’t go unnoticed. After I gave this title, I bounced off the name on my trusted sources and they loved it.
Tell us a bit about your thoughts in terms of the thought process that led to the writing of What School Doesn’t Teach You?
It was almost a year ago when the world was opening up from the 1st lockdown. Between my friends and me, a conversation was going in the direction to talk about mental health issues and stress management. And he wondered why all such important topics were not taught in school. They form a very important foundation for the personalities, who go out in the world to perform. The conversation motivated me to write a comprehensive and working framework for people who work all day and take care of families, precisely people like you and me. And today, I am glad that a small figment of a conversation is the seed which has become a fully blown book for everyone to read.
Are you a spontaneous writer or a disciplined one? Do you often write daily?
I am a spontaneous writer by discipline. I keep documenting my thoughts in my smartphone, whenever and wherever I have them.
One quote that never fails to inspire you.
This quote was given to me by my father. “Either Do what you love or Love what you do”.
Your book is talking about ways to manage the entropy of the world. What inspired you to write something so visionary like this?
I have always thought and believed that everyone in this mortal world has a purpose to fulfill. We are brought into this world to fulfill our purpose … through our actions or careers or even personal lives. But what happens is, there is so much happening around us that we forget to put things in perspective. Hence, one needs to learn and manage affairs around us ..so that one could find time, energy, and inclination to pursue the purpose part.
This book helps you to keep you spiritually active and in pursuit of purpose even when you are old, feeble, and have limited time.
Which is your favourite part of the book and why?
The favorite part of my book is what I curated last which was ‘Managing Failures’. This is something close to my heart. We fail in our endeavors more than we succeed in them. I have failed multiple times in competitive exams.. I have failed in meeting the expectations of many people around me… I have grossly missed many work interviews. And no one in school teaches you how you should react in case you fail in your endeavors. Although, we somehow build the fear of failure in so many ways .. that people aren’t willing to push their boundaries.
In one of the summary points, I have mentioned ‘Failure leads to learning opportunities, which are silenced by the shame of failure.’ This is something, we should all change as a society to garner talent and good mental health.
