Guinness Record Holder in Memory Nishant Kasibhatla says an incredible thing starts with passion.

Do you need a special talent to begin with? No, even if you're the opposite, you can win the ultimate awards. Just start passionately.Nishant Kasibhatla is a Guinness World Record Holder in Memory. But can you believe this Grand Master of Memory had a bad memory to begin with?This is how he started, but passion stimulated him to learn techniques that developed his memory so much that he broke a Guinness World Record. Also, he has other major accomplishments in the field and frequently conducts memory trainings for the biggest international brands.Nishant doesn't shy away from saying that anyone can turn his destiny around. 'If you really have the passion and if you have the techniques, you know, anything is possible'. It starts with passion' Nishant says that passion is the foundation. When you're diligent and focused on improvement, the results will be impressive.Does greatness appeal to you?Redefine yourself and remember to share it with your friends and spread the passion.Live PassionatelyMoustafa HamwiPassionpreneur & Chief Energy OfficerAward Winning Author & Speaker

TRANSCRIPT:

Moustafa: Hello everyone and welcome back to Passion Sundays, the best way to end a week and start another. Our guest today is a Guinness Record Holder in Memory – Nishant. Thank you very much for being with us today!Nishant: Thank you very much, Moustafa! It's a real pleasure to be here!Moustafa: I really appreciate you being here and it's interesting because that's a very tough topic for a lot of people.Nishant: It is, that's right.Moustafa: And you just went and broke a World Record in Memory.Nishant: That's right.Moustafa: What is exactly that you remembered?Nishant: Ok, I broke a record by memorizing the sequence of 100 different colors shown to me one after the other. So after I get to see all the colors, I recall.Moustafa: One hundred different colors?Nishant: Yes, one hundred. But they keep on repeating so the sequence is the thing. So you memorize exactly the colors that are shown to you.Moustafa: In order.Nishant: In order and you get to see.Moustafa: How did you do that?Nishant: Of course, number one if I've got a lot of dedication and I'm very passionate about the subject, which is of course there. But more than that is also the technique. You know, once you have the right technique, you can do that.Moustafa: Ok, so it's not really just 'I'm passionate and this is gonna work', there is a skill set that you had to gain.Nishant: Yeah, but I would say that it starts with passion. That's the start of the foundation. After that you also need a technique to really take it to the next level.Moustafa: I see, ok. So I'm gonna put you on the spot here so how me and everybody watching this can learn a bit of technique to remember something as simple as a name? Because that's one of the toughest things to remember.Nishant: That's true. So because these are simple, I'm gonna make it simple and easy and do-able for anyone on the planet to have their name memory to the next level.Moustafa: Ok.Nishant: Now this is what happens typically, right? Let's say we are networking right now. I am seeing you for the first time. This is what typically happens. Hi, I'm Nishant. You're…?Moustafa: Moustafa.Nishant: How are you doing? And bla, bla, bla, right? And the problem is… Many people are telling me 'Nishant, my problem is I go to networking, I shake hands, the other person tells me his name and within one nanosecond I forgot the name! I didn't remember anything about the name. So why? I just heard the name. The problem is when the person's name was given out, I didn't pay attention to the name. In that time we are so caught up about putting on the best show or 'What should I say next?' and 'Am I embarrassing myself? ' or 'Where's the food?', 'Who should I be meeting next?', so we do multitasking and in that time, the most important piece of information for anyone is that name and we are messing up with that. So what needs to be done is when you are shaking hands with people… This is world's easiest technique! When you shake hands with people, don't say 'hi', don't say 'good morning', don't say ' how do you do?', say 'hi and the name'. So let's do it again. Hi, I'm Nishant. You are…?Moustafa: Moustafa.Nishant: Hi, Moustafa. How are you doing?Moustafa: Ok, I see that. You reinstalled it immediately.Nishant: Exactly. So it's not rocket science. It's actually training your brain to be present and also in a way it's a good social etiquette, you know, to actually say the name. Now, I'm a memory expert, but what one of the words I like is the word 'forget'. Why do I say that? Because for the word 'forget', the last three letters are 'get', yeah? So when people say 'I forgot', my question is 'Hey, did you forget? Maybe you didn't even get it, man.' (laughs)Moustafa: You have to get it before you forget it. (laughs)Nishant: That's true. So you told me your name but I didn't really get it because I was so caught up with all the information going on so simple the very act of saying 'Hi, Moustafa' actually makes it easier for me to be present. To say the sound, for you, which is Moustafa so I say 'Hi, Moustafa'. Please be mindful that sometimes it's in Singapore or it's in different countries. It's a multicultural society. 'Moustafa' is a very popular name here in Singapore so we have a big shop here called 'Moustafa' so it's easy for me. But what if I met a person whose name is not easy to say, which happens a lot of times. I call these names 'Bzzz' names. So when you hear that kind of a name, many people simply can't say it 'Hi' and the name because it's too much for them to handle. Now many people say 'Oh, I didn't get the name' so it's ok. You just lost the opportunity. If you don't get the name the first time, all you need to do is to ask them one more time. 'Sorry, what was your name again?'. That's it. That time, the person will slow it down.Moustafa: The next time, they will slow it down but you have to make sure you get it the second time because you don't want to ask a third time.Nishant: That would be rude, a nuisance to do and not a good way to start a conversation. So you get the name. Sometimes what happens is that they'll simplify it for you, they'll slow it down for you. They'll spell the name for you, they'll give you their business card, they will do whatever to make your life easier because you're asking for help.Moustafa: So you can simply say 'How do you spell your name again?'.Nishant: You could simply say that, yeah.Moustafa: That's interesting because you definitely invested a lot of time into the learning of the memory. Where did that passion start?Nishant: Oh, this is the best part about the whole thing. It just happened as an accident. First of all, I had a lousy memory. I might have broken a Guinness Record in memory but I was a Guinness Record in forgetting many, many years ago. I had a lousy memory to begin with. So one day my dad gave me a book. The name of the book was 'How to Improve Memory' and I said 'Holy cow, there are techniques to improve memory', I didn't even know that techniques were there. So I read the book and I said 'Oh, what I can really do with the human brain', so I got hooked. And I started reading a lot and I could see immediately improvement in how I can train my memory and I became passionate about it and said 'What is the next thing? What is the next thing?', I just went deep into the subject. So one thing led to another and I broke some national records, I broke some Guinness Record.Moustafa: Amazing! You broke record in something that is really tough for a lot of people.Nishant: It is true, yeah. And that goes back to say that if you really have the passion and if you have the techniques, you know, anything is possible. For example, I didn’t have the passion for this to start with. I didn't have the techniques to start with. But when I combined these two things, you know, I really achieved one of the best you can in this field and being number one in that, yeah.Moustafa: So passion is not something you are born with readily. It is something you develop.Nishant: Well, my take on that is probably yes. Because a lot of things in my life…Moustafa: You got a Guinness Record to prove yes!Nishant: It's true. I could say that there are things that I was not so passionate about many years ago but now the circumstances in my life have changed and now I'm very passionate about them. So my personal belief is yes, you could develop passion.Moustafa: If you've got, if you really want to.Nishant: If you really want to, yeah. That's right, yeah!Moustafa: Nishant, this has been amazing, enlightening and this simple technique is already helping me. I'm saying 'Nishant, Nishant'. Nishant, thank you very much!Nishant: Thank you! I loved being on the show! Thank you very much!Moustafa: Thank you, Nishant!Nishant: Thank you! Have a nice day! Thanks!Moustafa and Nishant: Passion!Moustafa: What do you think? I really hope you found this episode as useful and as exciting as I did. If so, please leave your comments on the blog below and share it with somebody who might find it useful. And if you'd like more tools, tips, techniques and exclusive interviews that I only share on my website, go to Moustafa.com. Until next episode – live passionately!