8th April, National: ALLEN Online is releasing the fourth episode of its podcast series Rise to the Top, featuring Mahendra Singh Dhoni in conversation with Hemant Sharma from Bhiwani, Haryana, and Veeram Shah from Mumbai. Hemant improved his NEET rank from AIR 29,284 to AIR 2,095 in a single year and is now pursuing MBBS at AIIMS Raebareli. Veeram moved from AIR 8,068 to AIR 2,600 in JEE Advanced and is now studying Mechanical Engineering at IIT Kanpur. Both cracked their exams on the second attempt. The episode will be available on the ALLEN Online YouTube channel at 7 PM today.
The series brings together accomplished students and inspiring role models for candid conversations around ambition, discipline and the mindset required to succeed in highly competitive environments.
This episode focuses on what a second attempt actually demands, not just academically, but mentally. Hemant speaks about the year he spent rebuilding after a rank that, in his own words, was haunting. Rather than restarting from scratch, he identified exactly where he had fallen short and worked only on those gaps. Veeram, who changed both his strategy and his sleeping schedule in his second year, reflects on how he handled the FOMO of watching peers celebrate college life on social media while he was still preparing, eventually quitting social media altogether and leaning on a single trusted friend to stay grounded.
When asked by the students about his own setbacks and how he chose to go again, MS Dhoni said, “If life is giving you a second chance, then utilise it. You see your shortcomings, you go towards that reason, and you try to rectify it. Hard work counts only when you are fully exhausted, everyone does hard work till they are exhausted. How much hard work you did after that, that defines you.”
The conversation also touches on how Dhoni approached criticism and external noise throughout his career, not as judgement, but as information, and how that same reframing can help students in a second preparation cycle stop measuring themselves against others and start measuring themselves against their own last attempt.
Through Rise to the Top, ALLEN Online aims to create a platform where students can gain insights from inspiring role models and better understand the mindset required to perform under pressure and pursue their goals with clarity.
