I recently read a wonderful tweet by the Management Guru Tom Peters, “If you ended up where you planned to end up on 12/31, it was [by and large] a lost year. A rich life is about ending up in places you couldn’t have imagined existed on 1/1. Success is all about surprise.”
This quote sums up my 2017 well. It was a super intense year for me, full of many surprises. The picture for me on 12/31 is very different from what I had planned at 1/1 though in a good way. I had planned to transform the wild west world of Ecommerce in India, but I ended back in the more known world of Technology and Analytics Services. I had planned to stay committed to Flipkart, but I ended up starting a new journey with Incedo. I had planned to move my family to Bangalore, but we ended up back in the familiar environs of our beloved Gurgaon.
The biggest of all surprises, I took a 4 month career break, something I had never visualized myself doing. Those 4 months have defined my year and have created experiences and reflections that will hopefully power me for a long time.
As I sit down to reflect in the last few hours of 2017 (and before the big family party starts!!) I wanted to share my blessings and learnings of the year.
Blessings of 2017
It was a wonderful year and I have to be thankful for so much. Sharing some of my blessings of the year (jn no particular order!!):
- Love and support of my friends. When I faced some tough times, a set of friends rallied around me and galvanized & re-ignited me. Their unconditional love, support and mentoring was key for me to bounce back and come out stronger from some challenging circumstances.
- Incedo. Very grateful to have the opportunity to build and grow a very exciting company in a space I love (technology and analystics) and to do so with some wonderful set of colleagues.
- 20th wedding anniversary. Arpna and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary together this year. A nice milestone to celebrate our wonderful life journey together.
- Career break. I mentioned this earlier, the 4 month career break was much needed. Initially the vacuum was unsettling but eventually it gave me time and space to think and generated a lot of clarity that will hopefully power me for years to come. I strongly recommend taking a break at some stage to all my mid-career friends!!
- Karmishtha joining Scripps College. My elder daughter started college at Scripps in Claremont, California. Arpna and I had the opportunity to settle her down there in August and I visited her there again in December. It is a wonderful place and promises to provide a great learning experience for Karmistha.
- Being close to the nature. Over the past years I have developed a love of nature. I love being away from the hustle of busy city life and find solitude in the lap of nature. This year I was fortunate to have many such close to nature experiences – visiting the Giant Sequoias National Park in California, many long walks in Central Park in New York, walks next to River Ganga in Rishikesh and enjoying the beach in Visakhapatnam.
- Speeches. One of my passions is sharing my life and business insights especially with students. This year I was able to write 13 blog posts and give 20+ speeches in locations ranging from London, Mumbai, Delhi to Lucknow, Indore, Visakhapatnam and Ludhiana on topics ranging from Technology disruption, Entrepreneurship, Spirituality to Success Mantras for young professionals.
- Art of Living Advanced Course. I have done many Art of Living courses, but the one I did this October in Rishikesh with Rishi Vidhyadhar ji was very special. Off course doing a meditation course by the banks of Ganga ji is in itself a divine experience, but Rishi ji made it all the more special. His commitment, engaging personality, logic and sharing of knowledge left a deep, positive imprint on me.
- IIT Delhi Reunion. One of the greatest blessings on my life has been the opportunity to study at IIT Delhi and build many lifelong friendships there. Those four years have shaped me like no others. We had our 25th year reunion this December, which was a most awesome experience. It was great to feel the same connect and energy with friends as before but also huge joy and pride to see how well people have done.
- Health. Very thankful that all my family members had good health, which end of the day is one of the most important things you can ask for in life. I continued to play squash and also managed to lose some weight (though did put some of it back on by end of the year!!). Hope to do even better on this front in 2018.
5 key learnings of 2017
2017 was an intense year with some deep experiences, which taught me a lot. Sharing 5 of my biggest life learnings of the year with you:
- Accepting the greys of life. I am an idealistic person who often sees life situations and people in black and white. This year I got a better appreciation of the reality that in the enormously complex world we are operating in, there are few blacks & whites and many more greys. I have typically had little tolerance for greys especially when I see lack of values in conduct. However, I got some valuable coaching from my mentor to enhance my levels of empathy and awareness as a way to deal better with the “greys”. He asked me to do a simple exercise, to reflect if I had ever done actions that I find irritating in others. That self reflection brought me down from my “high horse” and bring more empathy for others.
- Obstacle is the way. I faced a serious challenge in 2017 (leaving Flipkart, taking a career break) but that ultimately ended up opening a whole new world of opportunities for me. It was a great learning – challenges are inevitable, they will test you and try to break you down. But if you stay strong and adapt yourself to the new situation, the obstacle itself will end up creating a new set of growth opportunities for you. I saw a beautiful and vivid example of this principle in visit to the Giant Sequoia National Park.Giant Sequoias are special. They are not just the largest trees in the world, they are also the largest (and amongst the oldest) living organisms on earth. They are on average 200-300 ft tall, have a diameter of 25 ft, with the oldest growing up to 3000 years. Perhaps the biggest secret of Giant Sequoias longevity is how they tackle fires. The Sierra Nevada region, the habitat of the Giant Sequoias is dry and prone to lightnings. This is a deadly combination that results in many fires and thus a big challenge that Sequoias have to face. We found many Sequoias in the park having large fire scars. However, Sequoias have a great mechanism, their bark to overcome fires. Their bark is very thick (~ 3ft) and has tannin, which protects it against fires. Therefore, Giant Sequoias are able to not just survive fire but use it for both regeneration and growth. Fire clears the undergrowth and opens the cones allowing seeds to germinate. Moreover, fire removes competing thin-barked species promoting growth of these ancient giants. In fact, fires are typically followed by a growth spurt in the Giant Sequoias.Giant Sequoias mastery over fires is such a powerful lesson for us. Life throws many challenges our way. The way we tackle them determines how we grow in life. We need to develop our own unique coping mechanisms (thick bark and tannin for the Giant Sequioas). The most successful are able to not just survive the challenges but use it as an opportunity for fuelling further growth.
- Aligning external achievement and internal happiness. I strongly believe that all of us are born to achieve some unique purpose in life and finding that unique purpose is one for the most important quests of human life. A few months back I came across a simple but powerful framework that I found helpful for this quest. The framework recognizes that we as human beings need both external achievement (e.g., money, status, power) and internal happiness (e.g., time with family, giving, caring). Path to sustainable success is finding and doing work that aligns your needs for both external achievement and internal happiness. I like this framework because it is practical and doable and recognizes the realities of life.This framework along with the “Sweet Spot” framework (finding the intersection of your passions, unique strengths and what somebody will pay for) provide a good basis for finding your unique purpose in life and thus the path to sustainable success and happiness.
- Power of Karma. We can plan and act, but the eventual outcomes can be very different. As I have shared earlier, my 2017 is a very good example of that, my plans and outcomes were very different. This was further reinforced in discussions with wingmates at our 25th year reunion. It was amazing to see that major growth that most friends had in life was driven by a set of coincidences. The pattern of cause and effect of live is too complex to decode. You cannot plan everything or control all the outcomes of life. Best is to follow the path of Karma – do your best and focus on the action in front of you, have faith and do not worry about outcomes, and be in the present moment so you can capture the opportunities that nature keeps on throwing your way.
- Play the long game. We are living in an incredibly fast paced world, that is constantly changing and where speed is king (VUCA world). It is easy to get caught in it and become short-term and in process lose perspective. Having come out of the frenzy of the Ecommerce industry, it is a reminder to play the long game. That is how I learnt business in both McKinsey and Fidelity, two great firms who have sustained at the top of profession for many decades. They have done so by taking a long term view that allows them to make the right decisions. For example, always putting the clients interests over their own interests. My own experience of doing a failed startup (ActiveKarma) and then successfully building the McKinsey Knowledge Centre as an Innovation hub is similar. When you set up a big, hairy goal, in two years you might find that you are underachieving but if you stay the course for 5 years you will find that can you hugely overachieve even some very ambitious goals.
As the countdown begins to bring the current year to a close and ring in the new year, I feel very thankful for all the blessings and learnings of 2017 and look forward to new adventures and learnings in 2018. Wishing all friends and family a very happy, healthy, joyful, exciting and inspiring 2018.
God bless!!
