We celebrate Nikhar Arora: A young leader making a profound impact
At Pragati Leadership, we have seen the business world evolving right before our eyes. This changing business landscape calls for new solutions for new problems, and the organization that demonstrates creativity is the one likely to disrupt the market and carve a niche for itself.
With a mission to recognize outstanding leadership and encourage others to adopt similar qualities, Pragati Leadership created The Inspiring and Successful Leadership Awards. The third edition of these honors was awarded to deserving leaders in September 2024.
Driven by our belief in the power of creativity and innovation to shape the future, we introduced the Startup Innovator Award category in our recently held Inspiring and Successful Leadership Awards, and an inspiring winner is Nikhar Arora, the co-founder and CEO of Mentoria, a startup that’s transforming the lives of millions of young folks by helping them discover their ideal career paths. Mentoria found a gap in the mentorship field and this platform helps connect professionals with experts across 12,000+ careers, from artists to nuclear scientists.
Mr. Nikhar calls himself an ‘accidental entrepreneur’, having arrived at this point through his own career journey. According to him he was “living the problem that I wanted to solve”. As a youngster, Mr. Nikhar had tried his hand at multiple professions, from wanting to become a pilot, to an engineer and even an advertising filmmaker. And all this even before he had graduated.
The turning point in life came when he spoke with his friends and classmates, and realized everyone was grappling with the same issues. That struck a chord. If a vast majority of students from a reputed college in a metro were struggling with their career choices, how would the situation be in the rest of the country?
The Bharat Samjho Yatra: A Journey of Discovery
To understand the situation better, he undertook a small research project called the Bharat Samjho Yatra, where he travelled across the country to 13-14 different cities to meet with students from classes eight up to the twelfth standard. What he observed stunned him. Most students were taking career decisions under either parental or peer pressure, academic scores or some other socio-cultural biases. Imagine taking one of the biggest decisions in life with this method?
According to Mr. Nikhar, no wonder half the country’s workforce hates its job. They’re not going to work because they love it; the only motivation is money. The unfortunate outcome of that is depression and higher incidences of suicide. This, in a nation that has the huge advantage of one of the world’s youngest and largest workforce, is a ‘complete and utter disaster’.
The Importance of Quality Mentorship
Trying to force square pegs in a round hole can only be disastrous, and no amount of skill development or curriculum-based education can solve this problem. The only way is to ensure young people have access to good quality mentorship and group coaching programs that can help them take their career decision with great care.
This is how Mentoria came to be almost a decade ago. The mission was to transform India, and then the world, by helping millions of students and working professionals discover what they are deeply passionate about. They can then convert that passion into their profession so they can find a job they would really love.
Rapid Growth and Impact
Success came quickly, and today Mentoria works with three and a half lakh students from 150 schools and colleges, and professionals across the country. More than 200 corporates have teamed up to sponsor Mentoria’s career counseling for their employees’ children. Even the government took notice and Mentoria works with 17 governments, NGOs, and international foundations today. It is Mentoria’s belief that “access to good quality career mentorship should not only be the privilege of the 1% of the country, but every single student, to uplift themselves economically, should get access to good mentorship”.
A Grateful Acceptance
Mr. Nikhar credits his success to his parents, who were incredibly supportive, and his mentor, Sameer, without whom he wouldn’t know most of what he knows today. He thanked to his co-founders, Ashish and Juhi. Lastly, he expressed his sincere gratitude to his team that has worked tirelessly, giving hours of its time, blood and sweat to build the mission that was started ten years ago.
Upon accepting the award, Mr. Nikhar spoke of the privilege of being among stalwarts from the industry who have immense experience. He thanked Pragati Leadership for the award and made a special mention for Arun, Anu, Suhasini and Ruchika for building an organization like Pragati Leadership with its inspirational leadership training. On a light note, he left the audience smiling when he invited them to send their kids, if they’re in class eight or older, or in college, to him for mentoring.Schedule a call with a Pragati Leadership expert to discuss how we can create customized inspirational leadership training for you.
