Shiv Khera

Shiv Khera
File:Shiv khera.jpg
Nationality	Indian
Occupation(s)	Author, Professional speaker

Shiv Khera (Hindi: शिव खेड़ा) is an Indian motivational speaker, author of self-help books, business consultant, activist and politician. While working in the United States, he was inspired by a lecture delivered by Dr.Norman Vincent Peale, and followed his motivational teachings to achieve success in his life. Khera began delivering motivational lectures, and built a successful business around motivational speaking, which he has incorporated as Qualified Learning Systems Inc. He conducts motivational workshops such as Blueprint for Success, and has written several books including the international bestseller You Can Win. He is also made famous by his trademarked motivational quote, "Winners don't do different things, They do things differently." He has recently launched a movement against caste-based reservation in India, and has founded an organization called Country First Foundation whose mission is "to ensure freedom through education and justice." He also joined a political party as National President in India and intended to contest the upcoming elections in Delhi but later on resigned from the party due to unavoidable circumstances created by the members of the political party. Now he is no more associated with the political party, however, the political party still uses his name.

Motivational speaking

Shiv Khera was born in a business family who owned coal mines in Dhanbad (earlier Bihar, now in Jharkhand). When the mines were nationalized, his grandfather lost his business, and Khera has been delivering motivational lectures for more than ten years, primarily in India, US and Singapore. He has spoken in seminars, workshops and as keynote speaker in conferences. He has developed a three-day workshop called Blueprint for Success, which focuses on "the key areas of MAALTS (motivation, attitude, ambition, leadership, teamwork and self-esteem)".

He also conducts in-house workshops on time management,time, stress management, customer service, platform skills and improving sales.

Books

Khera's first book You Can Win came out in 1998. It introduced his trademark quote, "Winners don't do different things, they do things differently." The focus of the book was on achieving success through personal growth and positive attitude.

Khera has written three more books, Living With Honor about living honorably and respectably in a fractured world, Freedom Is Not Free about the need for action to reform the Indian society and You can Sell (2010). In fact, "Freedom Is Not Free" worked as a launching pad for "Country First Foundation".

When Freedom Is Not Free came out, Amrit Lal, a retired Indian civil servant, accused Khera of plagiarism after finding that content from that book directly comes from his own book India Enough Is Enough, published 8 years before.

Additionally, he found that numerous anecdotes, jokes and quotes in Khera's other books were also used without acknowledging proper sources. Khera countered that he takes notes and inspirations from numerous sources, and he is unable to keep track of all of them. Lal finally settled out-of-court for a certain sum of money which he donated to the Missionaries of Charity.

Activism and politics

In June 2006, Khera supported "Youth for Equality" and Indian doctors and medical students (of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, AIIMS) in 2006 Indian anti-reservation protests, protesting against caste-based reservation]] in India.

He made a documentary Jaati Chodo, Bharat Jodo (Hindi for Leave Caste, Unite India) based on these experiences. He has also protested against reservations for scheduled tribes in Rajasthan.

Additionally, Khera has founded the "Country First Foundation" to work against caste-based reservation, and promote economic upliftment through financial norms.

Khera stood for election as an independent (politician candidate from the South Delhi parliamentary constituency in the 2004 General Elections, but got only 1% of the votes polled.

In July 2008, he joined a political party named Bharatiya Rashtravadi Samanata Party (Indian Nationalist Equality Party) as National President, aiming to strengthen the weaker sections of the society based on economic norms. But later on he resigned from the Party due to internal politics. After his resignation from BRSP, members and volunteers of Country First Foundation too take their support back from the political party.

It also claims to "take a public stand against all Reservation in India|caste and religion-based reservations]] and the policies of pacification." The party has announced that it will contest the upcoming elections for the Delhi State Assembly.

Honors

He has been recognized as a "Louis Marchesi Fellow" by the Round Table Foundation. Lions Club International gave him a "Lifetime Achievement Award" for the cause of 'Humanitarian Service to the Society'. He has also received the Rotary Club's "Centennial Vocational Award for Excellence."

External links

• Official website
• Shiv Khera: A short biography at Chillibreeze.com
• Motivational videos by Shiv Khera on YouTube