15 Habits of Successful Articles and Interns

1. ‘Art’ of Articleship -
15 habits of
successful articles/
interns!
CA Pritam Mahure

2. With more power, comes more
responsibility!

3. Learn – Everyday, every moment!
Ask yourself, what have you leant
today!
• Successful people throughout life learn!
• So, be learner and not an expert
• Keep in mind, a CA is always in ‘practice’!
• So, never stop learning!

4. Don’t be ‘finalist’
Avoid titles such as ‘Finalist’ etc
Avoid titles
• Titles creates sense of illusion!
• Be a student and keep learning!

5. Think! Think! Think!
What have
you
thought
about
today!
•Thinking is most difficult task to
do
•Constantly, mind will distract
itself. You should avoid
distraction and think!
•Thinkers rule the world whereas
others follow!

6. Doubt! Doubt! Doubt!
By doubting everything you can find better way of doing things!
Accepting everything only leads to iteration
Doubt the processes, customs and practices
Do things differently
Winners don’t do different things, they do things differently - Mr Shiv Khera (Motivational Coach)

7. Be original!
Bybeingyourself,youwill
achievegreaterheights!
There are too many influencers in the social media!
Someone is enjoying life with friends, someone with family, others are going to great places
(thanks to pics posted by them on Facebook, Instagram etc) and few are becoming social
media sensations(thanks to youtube and viral videos)
Its easy to fall in the trap of following others
Be yourself. Do what you like. Set trends than following them!

8. Be pro-active!
All the time you will observe seniors
reminding their juniors about
deadlines and pending work
Instead of your senior following up
with you or reminding you, be pro-
active
Track your work in diary (online/
offline)
Complete the given assignment on
time
Don’t be a person
sleepwalking to work

9. Focus!
In the times of social
media, this is the most
difficult thing to do!
All the time, whats app,
facebook, Instagram,
snapchat, youtube,
Netflix will want your
attention
Easiest way to cure this
problem is to consider
yourself as a professional
driver on a racing track.
More you get distracted,
more are the chances of
you loosing the race!
Keep in mind when you
are getting distracted,
there are thousands of
others who are not and
leading their way to the
pit stop!

10. It just takes David to take down a Goliath!
Whats App
Facebook
Twitter
Video/photo
apps
Instagram
Linkedin
Snapchat
Youtube
Netflix/Amazon
News apps

11. Be creative!
Creativity is hard to find!
There are people
who believe that
one cant be creative
in finance, tax, audit
etc
They are wrong!
World is moving
towards
identification of
small problems and
then providing
scalable creative
solution.
For eg. OLA/UBER
solved problem of
intra-city commute,
BlaBlaCar solved
problem of inter-
city commute, OYO
solved problem of
reasonably priced
accommodation etc
Creativity can be
either in providing
alternate solution
or alternate way of
solving the problem
So, be creative in
whatever
assignment you are
working on. You
never know when
you will stumble
upon your own
billion dollar idea!

12. Be in CPT all your life!
• Students are curious in their CPT
days. They ask questions and are
curious about the course. CPT
students have superb goals of
changing the profession and
world for better!
• However, as they progress, they
start behaving as a ‘grown’ up
professional (i.e. they stop asking
questions and seeking help)
• This way the ‘student’ in a
person dies
• Don’t ever let that ‘student’ in
you die. Be a CPT student all
your life (i.e. be curious)!
Keep the child in
you alive!

13. B +
Every time, during
articleship, you fail, just
remember to rise!
Its not that successful
people don’t fail, simply
they don’t give up till they
succeed!
Having positive attitude will
not only help you but also
everyone around you!
Attitudematters!

14. Set high standards for your own work!
Brand your work
• Take ownership of the assignment. Lead and give your
best!
• Every assignment, be it filing a tax return or auditing a
client, ensure you have your own ‘stamp’ on it
• Senior should not find even a single error in the documents
prepared by you
• Ensure that your senior should say that if its done by you
then they don’t have to even have a cursory look at the
assignment
• In case you missed anything in the assignment then ensure
that you make a note of it and don’t repeat the same
mistake!

15. Feel the fear and do it anyway!
• Feel the fear and do it anyway. If you haven’t then do read the book by
Susan Jeffers by the same name!
• You don’t learn swimming by reading! So, when you are afraid of a new
assignment that means the fear is arising from the fact that you haven’t
done it yet.
• So, read about it. Take help of your colleagues, friends working in other
firms.
• Be prepared. Give your best. At the end of the day, you will be a winner
as you would have learnt a new skill/assignment!
Being afraid is good thing!

16. Don’t ignore small advises given by seniors!
Small
advises
matter!
Many times, people around us share insights on our development
Mostly, either these small (but critical) insights are ignored
Advises don’t have to be hour long as it can come even in a sentence
Keep yourself receptive. Catch these tiny pieces of advises. Implement them.
And sooner you will become one of most sought after Article in your firm!

17. Don’t start enjoying luxuries of life!
Live based on how much ‘you’ can afford!
Students observe their successful friends / seniors and want to posses what they posses (like
IPhoneX or a Bajaj Dominor or Bullet etc)
Keep in mind its not that possessions (like phone or car or bike or clothes) that make a successful
person but their hard work and persistence
If you want to emulate then emulate the hard work and persistence of successful persons
If you start enjoying the luxuries of life too early (based on parents income) then there is no fun
left in the life as it’s a different ‘kick’ altogether to get everything on own!

18. Have problems? You are fortunate!
You cant win if there is no difficulty!
Remember the video
games and why we
like them? We like
them because they
present us various
obstacles and we
overcome them
If you read story of
any legend, there is
one thing in common
in their all stories i.e.
all of them had
numerous obstacles
and challenges
Remember you are
blessed to have
problems as you are
the ones getting the
opportunity to
handle and solve
them!
More obstacle you
have more brownie
points you will win!

19. In summary!

20. 15 Habits of successful articles!
Never be an expert!
Don’t be ‘Finalist’ – Don’t have titles
Think! Think! Think!
Doubt! Doubt! Doubt!
Be original!
Be pro-active

21. 15 Habits of successful articles!
Focus!
Be creative!
Keep the child in you alive
B +
Set high standards for self
Try – No one learns swimming by reading!

22. 15 Habits of successful articles!
Don’t ignore ‘small’ advises of seniors around you!
Don’t start enjoy luxuries of life!
Have problems? Its goods, as adversity makes a legend!

23. Thank you !
CA Pritam Mahure (Pune)
For guidance on Articleship, we are happy to help!
Mentor team Mentor team
pritam.mahure@lawgical.in/ +91 9920644648 sahil.tharani@lawgical.in
sachin.totala@lawgical.in bhargav.amuru@lawgical.in
vaishali.Kharde@lawgical.in gaurav.suryawanshi@lawgical.in
jaishree.kaltari@lawgical.in lavesh.solanki@lawgical.in
shruti.golecha@lawgical.in harsh.agrawal@lawgical.in
This presentation is for student guidance purposes.
Pics, dialogues, songs etc are work of respective rightful authors.