As part of our MVP Interview series, this month India MVP team interviewed MVP Awinish Vishwakarma from India region. We asked him how did he start and his experience being an MVP. Also any best practices or tips which he would like to share with the broader MVP community.
In his own words:
Talking about my experience in community; initial days when I had just started participating in the Exchange community, everyday it used to be a different experience and lot of leaning by interacting with the other community members, the great contributors and the leaders. And I must say that still this hasn’t changed much.
Some of the exceptional qualities which I could learn from them are politeness, expertise in the subjects, thought process, dedication towards selflessly sharing knowledge & ready to go extra mile for helping other members.
I was really excited and motivated to be a part of such community. I started writing my own blogs, participating in forums just to learn and share knowledge.
Those days, I wasn’t much aware of the MVP Program. One of the former MVP called me once and said he would nominate me for the award. And finally one fine morning, I received an email stating "I have been awarded as an MVP for my community contribution”.
I can't really describe it in words the joy and happiness which I felt at that moment. It was June 2011 which is also my birth month, the award became a very special birthday gift for me.
That Email changed my whole life. People started recognizing me as a Microsoft MVP who stands separate among masses. I feel MVPs are the exceptional leaders, tech experts, bringing change (thinking, adopting, sharing), inspiration to aspire others & overall have passion for technology who are ready to go to any level to help others.
MVP is an honor given by Microsoft every year to the folks who believe in spreading knowledge and making others successful in their specialization areas. You can also treat it as a recognition of the hard work & selfless effort towards the community.
To be an MVP or receive the MVP honor, the focus should be solely on acquiring & sharing quality knowledge with the others. Example, you never opt to go to school/college keeping vision only for a degree or a good job or, instead learn from different minds, interact with people from different region/communities, way to perceive or adopt the things which can be done in more efficient ways.
The criteria for passing the knowledge torch to others can be achieved in many ways. Few examples are like sharing information by participating in hosted forums, writing quality & accurate contents on blogs, through presentation, conducting seminars/events for the community. According to me everyone who work for the community without any expectation are MVPs. To be an MVP or its part, an award shouldn’t be in mind while doing community services, but sincerity & honesty in heart to help others would automatically bring you in MVP category.
