I was waiting for my final interview during the campus placements in engineering, and a few desks away, was one of my batchmates who was in the same process.
“Tell me why should we hire you,” or a similar sort of question was asked to him towards the end of his interview.
“Sir I’m very sincere, very hard working, I work with a lot of passion and take each day as a new challenge…”
Anyone present in that room could notice that he had almost slipped into a pleading mode, because today, he knew that this HR was the gatekeeper to his future success.
Let’s rewind one or two semesters before the final year of engineering.
There were a lot of students, including one of my friends, who didn’t touch their notes and textbooks throughout the year – and yet, ended up getting stressed about the exam tomorrow.
Some of them ignored the lectures throughout the semester – and yet, pleaded before the professor for attendance towards the end.
Deep down – whether they liked it or not – they believed that those grades and attendance were the gatekeepers to their future growth. Just like that interviewer in the final year, for whose preparation they took several last minute mock interviews.
After a couple of years, people approach some MBA coaches, because now the gatekeeper to their future success is a good B-school. That is the next hurdle that needs to be cracked.
Then college clubs, internships, and brand names become the gatekeepers for a well-polished resume.
And then that position is occupied by your company manager for promotions.
There’s always someone else holding the keys.
What if you didn’t need to ask for a key, and could choose which door you want to open?
But that can only happen if you’re complete by yourself in something, and don’t need to get into a pleading mode – be it for attendance or promotion.
If you’re willing to do the boring things – every day, when no one is watching – then you build yourself for the long term, and not just to crack an exam or an interview.
You could be studying, developing some modern-day hard skills, volunteering at events, trying entrepreneurial projects, and building a personal brand. Along with that, you could be reading non-fiction books and writing in your journal for daily clarity.
It’s only when you do this consistently, you start building some leverage.
And leverage is what flips the game.
A writer who commands an audience doesn’t beg for a publishing deal. A developer who’s built projects that solve real-world problems doesn’t stress over the resume-filtering AI. A student who has studied consistently throughout the year doesn’t panic the night before an exam.
If you can make yourself valuable on your own terms, gatekeepers lose their power over you.
Instead of chasing credentials, you build competence.
And that makes life permission-less.