2018: Back to the Future

We’re about to head into a brand new year, and first of all, I hope you and your loved ones have a great year ahead in 2018. For me, 2018 is a year that has a special significance. In just a couple of months, I will turn forty-four. In 2018, I will also complete twenty-two years in the corporate world. It’s the ‘tipping point’ for me- where the time I have spent working in the corporate world becomes exactly 50% of my entire life so far, and every year from now, that percentage will steadily creep up, till of course the day when I hang up my corporate boots. My LinkedIn profile, and what most of you know about me, reflects that 50% of my life. My innings in the corporate world has been something I cherish- I’ve had the opportunity to work with some great people, make some lifelong friends, see new places, learn a whole lot and get the opportunity to make a positive impact to others.

However, is that all I am?

What about that first 50% of my life which you don’t see on my LinkedIn profile and which hardly anybody other than my immediate family knows? I’d like to think that first 50% of my life laid the foundations of the person I’d become and in many ways, that person still lives on in me, independent of the job I do or the designation I have. So, as I step into the new year, I thought I’d go ‘back to the future’ and reflect on the person I was before I became the person you see on my LinkedIn profile and what lessons I could learn- lessons I think are still invaluable all these years later.

True joy lies in creating something that wouldn’t exist if you didn’t. As a kid, I was an inveterate storyteller and I’d make things up all the time. My mother would find codes in an imaginary language I had made up hidden in the fridge, and for a good part of Grade 7 and 8, I had an imaginary friend called Freddy who would sit next to me in French class. I’d write tests for him and mark his attendance. My teachers were thankfully indulgent of my hyperactive imagination and as we graduated into High School, Freddy was called out and I went up on stage to receive his diploma. That joy of bringing to life something that began as nothing more than an idea in my head is what hooked me on to writing, and what got me interested in marketing later in Business School. As I fast forward twenty-two years, some of my most fulfilling moments at work have been when I have been part of creating something- not just new ideas or products, but even ways of doing things, of finding solutions that didn’t exist. However, as I think back to that eleven-year old kid and his imaginary friend, how much time in our corporate world goes into meetings and ‘administration’ versus actually creating something? That’s something I continue to be passionate about- not just for myself, but for those I work with, always trying to simplify how they can get work done so they can focus their energy and time on creating their own magic versus chasing paperwork.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the destination as long as you know you’ll enjoy the path you’re taking. I had good grades in school and back then in India (and even today, to a large extent), if you had good grades, you were supposed to become a doctor or engineer. The truth is I had no idea what I wanted to become, but I loved history and was intensely curious about the world around me. The late eighties and early nineties were an exciting period to be interested in those things, with the Berlin Wall coming down and the economic liberalization in India kicking off. So I studied Humanities in school and then Economics in college so that I could understand more of what was happening around me. I loved those years of learning and immersing in subjects I loved, without the pressure of having to ‘become’ something. As I think of the me of today, to some extent I am still wired the same way, my biggest driver of what I want to do almost always being dictated by what I think I’ll enjoy. However, I would be lying if I said that along the way, I haven’t been bothered by things like the next role I’ll have, when I’ll get promoted and so on- questions common to those on the corporate treadmill. The me of the first 50% of my life would shake his head at these concerns and tell me that if it stops being fun, don’t do it. As I step into 2018, I’ll remind myself to listen to his advice and follow his example more often.

March to your own drumbeat and you won’t wait for someone else to start the drum roll. In the corporate world, what success looks like is often defined by benchmarks others set- levels, designations, pay grades. In the first 50% of my life, I was much better at marching to my own drumbeat, and I’m so glad I was. In college, I had a blast. No, I didn’t party a lot (actually, not at all), and I didn’t have a lot of girlfriends. I published my first book and I took part in a ton of inter-college quizzes. I got the joy of seeing my book in print for the first time, and the book royalties and the quizzing prize money more than paid for my college fees (which back then weren’t all that high in Delhi University!) and allowed me to splurge on buying gifts for my Mom. I had fun, and I discovered a lot about who I was and what mattered to me. The next 50% of my life has to some extent been a ‘standard’ corporate journey- what you see in my LinkedIn profile, but I’ve tried to keep that other part of me alive- as the ‘writer by night’. I’m glad I have and if there’s something I’d want to do more of it is to bring that ‘night job’ to bear more often. What I love about writing is the ability to form connections with others and make an impact on them through my words and ideas. While most of my writing has been as a novelist, I would like to merge the two ‘lives’ I have a bit more and use my writing to share ideas with those on a similar journey as me. That’s why I enjoy posting on LinkedIn and I hope to write more regularly here.

Fulfilling a small dream can be more rewarding than chasing a big one and it’s never too late to get started. Back in school, one of the passions I had was learning Karate. By the time I was in college, I was a Brown Belt, and I loved learning Karate, not just for the fitness but for the way of thinking it inculcated- respectfulness, discipline and balance. If someone had asked me then what one of my dreams was, it was to be a Black Belt. Then came my MBA, and my career- and that dream was left behind. One way of thinking is that how does it really matter? In a world where corporate designations and business cards are what define you, does it matter whether I fulfilled that small dream? It did, to me- not because of the belt, but because I missed the person I had been when I had been practicing Karate- much more centred, much more self-aware. The good thing is that I learned that it’s never too late to get started again. In 2014, I started Karate classes again after twenty-five years, as a White Belt all over again, and with my son as a classmate. I’ve worked my way back to a Brown Belt, and hope to appear for my Black Belt exam next year. It’s a small achievement- it won’t be on my LinkedIn profile and won’t mark me out for any step up the corporate ladder, but it matters to me, because it taught me a lot- about the humility needed to start all over again, the discipline needed to get back in the groove and the joy that comes with fulfilling a small dream the me of the first 50% of my life had which I’d left by the wayside.

What you leave behind is both simpler and more profound than what you accumulate. When I was thirteen, I put together my own time capsule with photos of me and family and a written account of who I was and buried it in our front yard, imaging what future historians would make of me if they discovered it hundreds, or thousands of years later. Back then, big words like legacy meant little to me, but intuitively, I knew what mattered- my family, the fact that I was trying to be a good boy and help around the house and that I wanted to write. I also included a fictional account about how our world ended (a combination of a meteor strike and alien invasion, if I remember), hoping to mess with future historians’ minds! The last 50% of my life has taught me much- I have a family of my own now, I’ve lost both my parents, and I realise that if I were to put together a time capsule now for the future, it wouldn’t be very different from what the thirteen-year old me had included. It would have my family and the fact that I’ve tried to spend my life making a positive impact to them and others I’ve encountered along my journey. It’s also clear what it wouldn’t have- just as the thirteen-year old me didn’t include his grades, I wouldn’t bother with designations, salaries or business results. The last 50% of my life has just reinforced to me what really matters and is worth remembering a person for.

Whether you’ve spent 50% of your life in the corporate sector like me (or more!) or are just beginning your journey, remember you too were someone before you became your LinkedIn profile. As you enter the new year, consider going back to the future as well- I found it a fun journey- for who we were before we became our designations and business cards often are the real us.

Happy new year!