20 divided by 2

I have completed 20 years of my professional life today. It still feels like yesterday that I had joined my first job on a bright and windy day in Hyderabad on 15th July, 2000. Twenty years from that day, it feels like an exciting journey with still no clue of destination. I know…I know.. we should have destination fixed, then determine where we are and lay out a plan to go from here to there. I too have read that and tried to implement many times. But isn’t life more fun when you still have a blurry vision of your destination and you are still experimenting and figuring out? I really like the exploratory process of figuring out what’s next. Though I miss the fresh and energetic feelings, devoid of any inhibitions, on that windy day 20 years back, but still have the energy to start over and figure out stuff from scratch.

Today, I met a teenager who has passed his first board exam in flying colors and interestingly, instead of asking me about what to do next or the technology field, he did ask me to narrate my top two learnings from last 20 years. Honestly, I was taken aback with that question and the next few seconds were spent going over many experiences and learnings in last two decades. It felt like the highlights of a full length cricket match.  However, since the guy was waiting to get a response and the silence was getting a little uncomfortable, I had to quickly gather my thoughts and come to two points that I think are the most important. This very uncomfortable couple of minutes made me magically realize the most important learnings of my life which, in all probability, I will hang on to even on my worst days when my self-confidence might be at its lowest. It’s just amazing to think that a little nudge from a teenager did make me unclutter my thoughts and brought-in clarity on my priorities in life and all in just couple of minutes. 

Below is what I had shared with the teenager today. Not sure how much he has grasped, but really I would want him to experience it himself and learn rather than remembering what I had said.

1)   Be genuine 

As I had traversed through different experiences of life, one thing that has always paid dividends is being genuine. As much as I have acted, pretended, trained myself to say certain things and more, nothing has been more effective than getting stuff internally wired in your system before getting it out. Practice before you preach, feel before you say, learn before you teach has really worked wonders for me. What I have realized over the years is that we often underestimate others’ ability to perceive or overestimate our communication skills, that we think that our immediate words and action are more effective than the underlying conviction of what we communicate and do. I have always been inspired and moved by people who has genuinely cared, felt and acted on stuff that they believed than the well-articulated words, presentations & vision statements of people, who had failed to demonstrate their conviction by either their body language, emotion and follow up actions consistent with what they preached. Of course, I had made mistakes in reading such cues, but all such experiences have honed my skills of being genuine and be connected to genuine people. It is you who is unique in this world, almost everything else is copied!

 2)   Invest in yourself

 You are your biggest asset in life, and you need to continuously invest in yourself. Carve out a time for yourself on your own development, physical and mental well-being. Many a times we get so busy with our work and family obligations that we lose ourselves in the daily chores of life. Life will throw some unexpected curve balls at you and it’s at that time you will have to use your own skills, knowledge, resilience, physical and mental strength to pull yourself up. It’s the strength of your inner self that matters the most and you need to keep that strong and healthy. Try to get some time for yourself on a daily basis and keep working on developing and strengthening your inner wires. Put yourself at the top end of your priority list and not at the bottom. You are your biggest investment.

To summarize, the journey of last 20 years have been amazing. It had its own share of ups and downs, but most importantly there were so many unknowns and surprises that it made it more exciting and self-exploratory. There has been no greater pleasure than seeing how I have learned and evolved through these experiences.

Wishing myself the best for next 20!