How Skillfully Are You Mixing Your Palette of Data?

At a recent event, I was fortunate to hear Ronnie Screwvala, Founder of UpGrad, talk about his learnings in life. Though it was only a 20-minute conversation, he packed in a huge number of gems.

One of the things he said hit me pretty profoundly.

He said he was passionate, but not emotional – and that there was an important difference between the two.

He shared how he had made some important decisions rationally and was passionate about them. Pioneering cable TV and then selling his company to Disney.

At the time, some of his team had felt abandoned. But it was the right decision for the company and the people in it.

He shared how he was passionate about the Swades Foundation he had founded and its work in empowering people in rural India.

And of course, he is passionate about UpGrad.

He is passionate but not emotional.

But passion is an emotion.

I interpreted his words as meaning he is careful not to become overly passionate about a business or a decision. Balancing the ability to handle the rational facts and figures with the ability to understand his feelings, and specifically, to be alert to the possibility of being carried away by his passion.

Based on his overall success in life, he seems to know how to blend his data - both the rational and the emotional.

Reading his book, he appears to have learnt from several failures, but he has learnt from them rationally – by analyzing what went wrong – and then before taking a decision, always considering what the worst outcome might be.

But he has also learnt by leaning into his optimism and confidence – and knowing that with effort, he can figure it out.

He learnt by observing and thinking rationally – by being alert to opportunity and taking the associated calculated risks.

One example is of being in the UK when a company his father is visiting announces it is scrapping some toothbrush machines. He is incredulous to learn that the machine is only 3 years old and still has another 10 years of life in it – and right there, he quickly understands the opportunity. He is in his early twenties at the time.

Against the background of a vibrant and energy-packed Mumbai, it seemed he was working with a palette of data. Mixing the passion, the intuition, the awareness of what he did and didn’t know with his ability to work out solutions logically.

That palette of data is available to all of us. Analysing what lies within the thoughts and beneath the feelings is something we can all do.

It just takes a constant level of practice. And the constant awareness that you control the mix.

? Andrea Stone, Stone Leadership

Andrea Stone is a former marketing leader in tech-oriented global companies, turned Executive Coach and Educator, who works with technology leaders and their teams to improve performance and achieve self-defined success.

She runs signature programs and designs customized learning and development engagements combining leadership, EQ and technology to enable sustainable growth.