Do Things for Yourself

Recently, I re-connected with a former sub-ordinate of mine from Wipro, where I worked for around 4 years from 2005 to 2009. In one of his LinkedIn messages, he said, “Prashant, I am a fan of your articles and I am so glad that you are writing them. I have read them all, not just once, but many times. Whenever I feel low, I read them again, and they fill me with positivity and energy.” He went on to say, “But I have been a fan of yours from the first day we met. I liked your working style… you always worked for yourself. I imbibed it from you. And life came full circle a few days back when one of my sub-ordinates said the exact same thing to me!”

That was so heart-warming to hear! Because you don’t get to hear such things every day. So I thank him for telling me this. But it’s not like I had a choice of three working styles and I picked this one. ?? My “style” is the only style I know. Doing what I love. Doing it for myself, for the satisfaction it gives me, and for no other reason. Doing it to the best of my abilities, not because somebody else says so, but because I like to hold myself to a high standard.

Rahul Dravid, one of my favourite cricketers, once said in an interview, “I put a high price on my wicket. So I don’t give it away easily. I make the bowler earn it.” I liked that the instant I heard it! And I have always tried to live by that principle. Before giving my approval to a piece of work, I make sure that it is of top quality. If it’s not, I either get others to do the needful or do it myself.

In May 1999, I decided to quit Intel, a 75,000-employee behemoth at the time, and joined BTA Technology, a fledgling startup with only 29 employees; I was their 30th. My Dad also wasn’t happy with my decision and advised me to “think through carefully”; it’s not his style to force his opinions on others. In fact, even 20+ years since then, he still asks me every once in a while, “Why did you leave Intel?” ?? Many of my friends doubted my decision as well.

But I was sure that I wanted to quit Intel and join BTA, and I was also very clear why I wanted to do it: to experience the startup culture, which IMO is the most awesome thing that America has to offer and something that you should experience if you can. I did, and learnt so many things from it. My 4-year stint was also highly rewarding from a financial perspective. BTA merged with Ultima and existed as Celestry for one year. It was valued at $300 million at one point in time but that valuation came down to $75 million after the dot com bubble burst. Then we rolled up our sleeves, worked very hard, and eventually found ourselves a buyer in Cadence for a highly respectable $105 million. I made a lot of money in that deal, way more than I had ever imagined I would make by the age of 30.

Then I came back to India because I wanted to start my own company with my friend. Again, I was very clear why I wanted to do it: to learn how to go from idea to revenue. I didn’t succeed in fulfilling my entrepreneurial ambitions, but it taught me survival and business skills that I simply wouldn’t have learnt anywhere else. Also, I now see the world in a completely different light. Mind you, the world is still the same; it’s just that I see it differently because my perspective has changed. And I use this new perspective and the newly learnt survival and business skills every single day in my job today, and gainfully so I might add.

Although my entrepreneurial stint wasn’t financially rewarding, I was doing it for myself and the joy of doing that is something else! But there’s a downside to doing things for yourself, if you choose to think of it that way; if you don’t succeed at whatever it is that you decide to do, you can’t pin the blame on others. You have to take responsibility for your own decisions and actions, and the outcomes of those actions as well. That can be a big problem for people who like to blame others for the situation they are in. I personally know a few such people and I feel sad for them. Their life could have been something else if only they had learnt to say, “It’s my fault.”

There could be many explanations for not getting the desired results, but like they say, “Failure has no explanations and success needs none.” Although I agree with the spirit of that saying, I don’t quite agree with the letter. There is an explanation for successes as well as failures, and you owe it to yourself to find out what they are so that you can do more of what led to successes and less of what led to failures. But you absolutely must take responsibility for your decisions and actions. There’s no getting around that.

Acknowledging that you failed and that too because of something that you did or did not do is hard. “It’s my fault” are the three most difficult words to say. But saying them when they have to be said is the first and the most crucial step in making progress in life. Why? Because not saying them, not admitting the truth is like trying to keep underwater something that floats; you can do it, but it will consume a lot of energy. However, if you say them, you will save yourself a lot of energy which you can use to do whatever your answer is to the next question that comes up naturally, “Okay, so what do to get better results next time?” And you are guaranteed to go the “next level”. That’s so gratifying, until you hit the next wall and realize that you have to go to the next level again. And so you to do it again. After doing that a few times, you realize that what really matters is the attitude of wanting to go to the next level, exploring ways to do it, and then actually trying to do it. You start loving the process much more than the end results. But when that happens, you realize that, more often than not, you get the desired results anyway. That’s just the way it is.

That reminds me of a story I heard a long time ago. Not sure who told it to me and when, but it’s awesome. In fact, it is one of those “pearls” that I have collected over the course of my lifetime.

Two childhood friends once met for drinks. One friend said to the other, “We studied in the same school and college. Then we did engineering together and started our career in the same company. I am still in the same company. I am not doing bad for myself but that’s nothing compared to you. You are filthy rich, with your own company, which employs 500+ engineers. Why did our lives turn out so differently?”

The other friend replied, “Do you remember in our first year when we were working on our first project and we were stuck with a very difficult problem? On the way back home, I got a brain wave which I thought could fix the problem. So I said to you, ‘Come, let’s go back.’ You replied, ‘Not now. It’s late. Let’s do it tomorrow.’ But I didn’t listen to you. I went back, pulled an all-nighter, and fixed the problem. I was an owner then. I am an owner now.”

If the two paragraphs above don’t blow you away with their power, no two paragraphs will! And they essentially reiterate the same thing, that taking ownership of one’s decisions and actions, and the outcomes of the actions makes all the difference in the world! Because when you do that, you are more likely to go the extra mile if required, which is what the successful friend did in the above story. A contemporary, real-life person who exemplifies this behaviour is Rafael Nadal who has my total admiration and respect. His intense desire to go that extra mile and put the ball back into play one more time has helped him turn around many points, games, sets, and matches. In the world of software, walking this very last mile is what takes a software from good to one that has a “wow factor”.

In one of his videos, Sadhguru has said something very beautiful. “If you do things unwillingly, like prisoners do in prison, you are in Hell. But if you do them willingly, you are in Heaven. Doing something willingly, for yourself, irrespective of how big or small it is, is the fundamental of joy.” I always see this pure joy on the faces of rockstars when they are performing on stage. They might have all kinds of fights with their band members backstage, but when they perform on stage, they are in Heaven! Because music is what they want to do, for themselves. I don’t know a single rockstar who became a rockstar because their parents forced them to become one! ??

Music might not be your thing. But if you do things for yourself, willingly, do them to the best of your abilities, and go that extra mile when required, there’s nothing that can stop you from becoming a rockstar in your chosen field of endeavour!

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This article is part of a?series of articles on self-improvement for working professionals.