Page 3 - CC Jan 2017 Issue 4_1

Issue No. 4 / January 2017 — No. 1.4 / Week Ending on January 22, 2017
Director in Profile
—Megha Karia—CEO North America

My genes and my childhood
Born in northern part of India with a family name, which
was applauded since decades, “Kapoor”, but instead of the
much wanted “born with a silver spoon”, there was this
unspoken pressure of being successful or famous J to live up
to the family name’s tradition. Being the younger sibling of
the family my early childhood went following my elder sis-
ter’s footsteps. But soon I realized that to come out of her
shadow, I needed to dress differently, and think differently.
Apart from being highly competitive and outgoing, my par-
ents brought me up to be focused on two things, education
and hard work. That’s why there was no sport or stage show
that I skipped and no exam that I did not excel in. And this
is precisely the reason why I firmly believe that “A great
upbringing is a life changer.”
My education and profession

My family was in the state of shock and disbelief when at the stage of grade 11, I decided to leave
science subjects and get into accounting, math and statistics. There was only one condition put
forth to me…. to excel! With God’s grace and some hard work I reached up to a master’s degree in
business administration. Never realized when life changed from being a student to a workingwoman,
a wife and a daughter-in-law as I started doing all of it together. Though I had started very young in
my career being a part of the Board of Directors was never taken for granted. I worked in every de-
partment from scratch and reached up the management ladder after quite a lot of due diligence.
What drives me?

If literally speaking, I love my mean machines to be a fast car ;-). A fan of road touching high-speed
German cars, I like my drive swift. But what really drives me in my life is art of defying change. Not
get into my comfort zone and look for avenues that help me grow gives me an inherent obsessive,
compulsive disorder ;-). Always wanting to be organized planned and ahead of times - be it working
in my favorite job - UCMAS, fashion & styling, fitness or workouts, my life totally revolves around
that.
What rejuvenates me?

Fun time with friends, good music, dancing, lot of talking and super motivating TED Talks before I
hit the bed is what makes my simple routine life totally rejuvenated again.
UCMAS a humble beginning a promising future
It was almost the end of 2002, UCMAS was at its infancy stage in the state of Gujarat – India and my
little son was at the same stage just 6 months old. At that point in my life I tried doing the most
dynamic job in a woman’s life. Home, motherhood and career all came in together with a fast for-
ward button. I wish there were lessons on how to juggle between parenting and professional life.
Unfortunately that was all “on the job”. The bright side of the whole thing was seeing amazing super
successful children. Like as if I would have taken up a UCMAS franchise and a master franchise to-
gether. I got trained to take up a class, eventually train the trainers and also managing the layers of
this business. It was then… and its today, almost after 15 years later, but my excitement and passion
for UCMAS has only increased by the day. For me there is a simple motto “Work is Worship” and this
worship is noble only because it changes lives, it brings smiles and its all super real and genuine. I
am not only selling a dream I am making that dream come true…

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