Achievement Drive: The Hunger That Powers Star Performers
Achievement Drive is the hunger that never gets satisfied. From BB Thombare to Virat Kohli, here is why stars at India Inc. never settle at their saturation point.
In 2019, when I met BB Thombare, the Chairman of Natural Sugar, Natural Milk & Milk Products and Ellora Seeds, he told me something that has stayed with me ever since: "Natural Milk is already one of Maharashtra's top milk suppliers. But our mission is to make it number one in Maharashtra and India by 2030." Twenty-two years into building his empire, and still hungry. That hunger has a name. In Stars at India Inc. I call it Achievement Drive, and it is the quiet engine underneath every star performer I have ever trained.
In short- Achievement Drive is the relentless hunger to chase excellence and never settle, even after you have already succeeded.
- It is a self-motivation trait on the EQ (left) side of your Winning Kite.
- Stars never reach a saturation point. They keep asking, "How can I do better than yesterday?"
- Real hunger comes from flow, the state where challenge perfectly matches skill, not from money or comfort.
- You can build the drive: find your flow, set your own goals, seek feedback, embrace uncertainty and grow.
Where this sits on your Winning Kite
Achievement Drive is a self-motivation trait on the EQ, the left side of your Winning Kite. In The Winning Kite (KITE Leadership Framework), EQ (Emotional Intelligence), RQ (Relationship Intelligence) and PQ (Productivity) together lift you to Success at the top of the kite. A kite only flies when all four sides pull in balance. Achievement Drive is the inner tension on the EQ side that keeps the whole kite climbing instead of drifting down. Without it, talent goes flat. With it, ordinary skill turns into an extraordinary career.
What Achievement Drive really is
Achievement Drive is the relentless hunger to chase excellence, to set challenging goals and to constantly improve yourself, even when you have already achieved success. It is not about competition with others. It is about pushing yourself to the next level.
Think about how most of us start. We chase promotions, that first house, that first car, that first big achievement. But what happens after we get it? For many professionals, they reach a saturation point. They become comfortable. They settle. The fire that once burned inside them slowly dies down.
Stars at the workplace are different. They never stop and never settle. No matter how much they achieve, they still have that hunger to do more, learn more and be more. In Hindi we call it "bhookh", hunger, but this is not physical hunger. It is an emotional hunger, a hunger for mastery. Achievement Drive is like a shappat, an oath you take with yourself: "Nahi, mujhe aur behtar karna hai. Mujhe aur next level par jana hai." No, I need to do better. I need to go to the next level.
I saw the same fire in a friend of mine, Mr. Nitin, who founded a training company in Pune. When I first met him I thought, "He is so lucky, settled business, good team, everything running smoothly." But after spending years around him I realised something. Even after nine years of running a successful business, Nitin still had the same hunger he had on day one. Building-design software, car design, IT, automation, digital marketing, animation, the moment a new tool launches he has that drive to learn it, master it and implement it. That is Achievement Drive in ordinary business life, not on a stage.
When Achievement Drive is tested: two cricket stories
Some of the clearest examples of this hunger come from Indian cricket, where the whole country watches the drive play out in public.
Virat Kohli's relentless fitness
Saurav Ganguly once shared a story in an interview. His trainer, a former cricketer, saw Virat Kohli walk into the gym one evening after playing a 167-run innings in Vizag. The trainer was shocked: "Virat, you just batted for six to seven hours. And now you are going to the gym?" Virat's answer was simple and profound: "I want to convert scores like 167 into double hundreds and triple hundreds. And that can only happen if I work on my fitness, if I can train even when I am exhausted."
Around 2012 Virat had noticed something. Australian bowlers were dominating with sheer fitness, and fitness was the one thing separating good players from great ones. If he had stuck to old methods he would not have survived. Today, after all the records and years at number one in the ICC rankings, most people would ask, "What more is there to achieve?" But Virat does not operate from saturation. He operates from Achievement Drive. That is what makes him a star.
Ashish Nehra's comeback
Ashish Nehra played for India for over 18 years as a left-arm fast bowler, through injuries, competition and setbacks that would have broken most people. But he never lost his drive. In the 2003 World Cup, tasked with defending a modest 250 against England, he took six crucial wickets and pushed India towards the final. Then came 2011. Struggling with injuries and not initially in the team, his passion pushed him back in, and in the final against Sri Lanka he bowled a critical over in the dying moments that helped India win the World Cup after 28 years. Achievement Drive is what lets you push through when everyone else gives up.
Who has it versus who lacks it
Let me paint two contrasting pictures from an IT floor, because this is where I see the difference most often.
Raj learned C++ and Java five years ago and got comfortable. Whenever his manager suggests Python or AI, he says, "I am already doing well with what I know. Why should I change?" The result: his career has stagnated, younger colleagues who learned Python and AI have overtaken him in promotions, and now he complains that the company no longer values experience.
Priya also started with C++ and Java. But when Python and AI became important she did not resist. She took online courses, practised after work and became proficient within a year. Now she leads a team on cutting-edge AI projects. Same starting point, opposite trajectory. The difference is Achievement Drive: Raj settled into a comfort zone, Priya never stopped learning.
Why professionals lose the drive
If Achievement Drive is so powerful, why do so many capable people lose it? In the book I trace it to four reasons.
They reach saturation. This is the most common one. People chase a goal, a first job, a house, a car, a salary figure, and once they get it they relax. "Yaar, bahut ho gaya. Ab aish karne ka time hai." Enough has been achieved, time to enjoy. Think of the cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar, who played at the highest level for a few years, then lost the will to practise and drifted towards music. Once you saturate and drop out, a comeback becomes nearly impossible, because it means starting the hard work all over again. The same happens to entrepreneurs who start with fire in the belly, then turn insecure: "Jitna hai, use hi bacha lo." Let me just protect what I have. That is where the decline begins.
They fear uncertainty. Achievement Drive requires you to embrace challenges, and challenges bring uncertainty. When companies roll out ERP systems, new software or automation, many employees resist because change feels painful. If you want the drive, you must learn to see challenges as opportunities, not threats.
They do not track their progress. What gets measured gets improved. People without the drive do not set goals or measure performance; they just drift and react. Stars are obsessed with feedback and specific, measurable goals.
They do not operate from flow. This one deserves its own section, because it is the deepest reason of all.
The secret ingredient: flow
People assume happiness comes from material things, a big house, a fancy car, lots of money. But research tracking over 50 years of data shows that once you cross a basic income threshold, more money does not increase happiness. So where does real happiness come from? It comes from being in a state of flow.
Imagine riding a bike through Ladakh, cruising through those cold valleys, controlling the machine effortlessly, the breeze on your face, your mind completely calm. Those moments stay with you forever. That is flow. It is the mental state where nothing else matters, where concentration is so intense that problems do not even register, and creativity and efficiency become effortless. Surgeons feel it in operations, musicians while composing, batsmen while batting, video editors while editing, businessmen while closing deals. When we are in flow, the brain releases dopamine, endorphins, anandamide and serotonin, the reward and motivation chemicals that give us drive and happiness from within.
The concept of flow was developed by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his work Finding Flow, and he mapped it with one simple diagram of two axes, challenge and skill. If the task is too challenging, you feel anxiety. If it is too easy, you feel bored. Flow lives in the channel where challenge is balanced with skill. And crucially, at the bottom-left corner, where there is no challenge and no skill, lies the Area of Apathy, the zone of people who scroll Facebook all day, play Ludo endlessly or watch TV for hours and wonder why they feel stagnant and negative. Achievement Drive is the discipline of moving from apathy towards ecstasy and staying in flow.
Here is how to use it. Start with a task that challenges you moderately. As you improve your skills, increase the difficulty and keep pushing yourself into the flow channel. The moment you enter flow, raise the bar again. Achieve it, re-enter flow, raise it again. The intensity keeps building, and you keep climbing to the next level. Flow, in the end, is happiness, and it is exactly where growth happens.
How to diagnose Achievement Drive
Whether you are assessing a candidate, a team member or yourself, five traits reveal the presence of Achievement Drive.
| Trait | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Taking calculated risks | Constantly challenges themselves and pushes beyond the comfort zone instead of playing safe. |
| Setting challenging goals and innovating | An innovative thinker who seeks new ideas and sets ambitious goals for self and team. |
| Supporting others | Believes in teamwork and lifts colleagues, employees and partners rather than only the self. |
| Hunger for more | Never satisfied, always seeking the next opportunity. This is the defining trait that separates stars from average performers. |
| Constant information seeking | An information addict who actively pursues knowledge to reduce uncertainty and do better. |
Real-life examples from India
BB Thombare, the relentless leader. He started as an accountant at a sugar factory in Ambajogai, spent 25 years gaining experience at Godavari, Jai Jawan Jai Kisan, Manjara and Vaijanath factories, and in 1998 launched his own Naturals Sugar & Allied Industries. Twenty-two years on, his hunger has not dimmed. He still plays with uncertainty, still innovates aggressively while competitors stick to tradition, and his HR policies reward excellence and release non-performers. His company's core value says it all: "Doing better than yesterday."
Mr. Karaiadiselvan, the motivating visionary. Managing Director of CADD Centre Training Services, he joined as a trainee in 1992 and rose to head what is now the largest engineering-design-software training institution in Asia. Even with 500+ entrepreneurs to handle every year, his drive never stops. He is a voracious reader who constantly seeks feedback, and one line of his has stayed with me: "Feedback is the breakfast of champions." I started my own career journey looking up to his energy, and whenever I hear the words "Achievement Drive", he is the first person who comes to mind.
Sharad Pawar, the unstoppable. Chief Minister, Union Minister, he has achieved everything possible in Indian politics, and yet even today his drive to gain more and push further has not diminished. That is the hunger that never stops, even after you have reached the top.
Mukesh Ambani, the innovator. Despite coming from a wealthy family, he has continuously strived, growing Reliance into one of India's largest conglomerates. His drive led to Reliance Jio, which disrupted the entire telecom industry, and his passion extends to owning Mumbai Indians, multiple-time IPL champions. His hunger for success is limitless.
How to develop Achievement Drive
The good news is that this trait can be built. Here is the practical work I take teams through in my corporate training programs.
1. Find your flow. Match challenge to skill, then raise both as you improve, so you keep re-entering the flow channel and climbing.
2. Set challenging goals regularly. Do not wait for your manager. If you are a salesperson hitting monthly targets easily, push to exceed them by 20 percent. If you are a developer, learn a new language every quarter. If you are a manager, commit to developing three high-performing team members this year.
3. Seek feedback constantly. Money is one form of feedback, but not the only one. Track customer-satisfaction scores, project completion rates, skills acquired and problems solved, and gather feedback from managers, colleagues and customers.
4. Surround yourself with achievement-driven people. The people you spend time with shape your mindset. Comfort-zone company pulls you down; driven mentors and colleagues pull you up.
5. Embrace uncertainty as opportunity. One of our six emotional needs is certainty, comfort and predictability. But Achievement Drive asks you to welcome new technology and change as a chance to grow, not a threat.
6. Focus on personal growth, not competition. It is not about beating others. Ask yourself every single day, "How can I do better than yesterday?"
7. Develop a growth mindset. Treat setbacks as lessons. Instead of "I failed, I am not good enough," ask "What can I do differently next time?" This is the same growth-mindset shift Carol Dweck describes, and it is what keeps the drive alive under pressure.
The power of Achievement Drive in your career
Here is the truth I leave my audiences with. Technical skills might get you hired, but Achievement Drive determines how far you will go. Companies are not just looking for people who can do their jobs; they want people who exceed expectations, set their own standards of excellence and push themselves without being pushed. Those people are self-motivated, take ownership, take calculated risks and work hard toward their goals. These are the people who get promoted. These are the people who become leaders. These are the stars at India Inc.
So let me leave you with the same question I ask in the book: what is your saturation point? Is it your first job, your first house, a certain salary? Or have you taken the oath to never stop pursuing excellence? Are you comfortable where you are, or are you hungry for more? Will you settle, or will you soar?
Achievement Drive is one trait on the EQ side of the kite. To see how it connects to the full picture of star performance, explore The Winning Kite (KITE Leadership Framework) and the deeper leadership work in my signature programs.
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Avinash Chate TEDx Speaker · Founder, The Future Corporate · Author of Stars at India Inc. Avinash has trained the Indian Army, BRO, RBI, BARC, JSW Steel and 1000+ corporate leaders across India. His work focuses on leadership, emotional intelligence and behavioural training rooted in Indian values and modern business needs. |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Achievement Drive?
Achievement Drive is the relentless hunger to chase excellence, set challenging goals and keep improving yourself even after you have already succeeded. It is not competition with others but the drive to beat your yesterday's self and never settle at a saturation point.
Where does Achievement Drive sit in the KITE Leadership Framework?
Achievement Drive is a self-motivation trait on the EQ (left) side of the Winning Kite. Emotional Intelligence, Relationship Intelligence and Productivity together lift you to Success at the top of the kite, and you rise on balance, not strength alone.
Why do professionals lose their Achievement Drive?
Most professionals hit a saturation point after a big goal like a first job, house or car and become comfortable. Others fear the uncertainty that change brings, stop tracking their progress, or drift in a state of apathy instead of flow. The fire slowly dies down.
How can I develop more Achievement Drive?
Find your flow by matching challenge to skill and raising the bar as you improve, set your own challenging goals, seek feedback constantly, surround yourself with driven people, embrace uncertainty as opportunity and adopt a growth mindset that treats setbacks as lessons.
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