My Learnings

Over the weekend while watching a movie with kids: “The odd life of Timothy Green”, one dialogue stuck with me. Timothy- the boy gifted with Leaves on his ankle: “I gave them all away. It’s what you do with Gifts!” – He did it even he knows that after he lose his all leaves, he is going to disappear.

While I started a new journey in my career by joining “The Parker Avery Group”, when I looked back, I felt to be blessed with many gifts in the form of advice/ learnings from different individuals. I thought sharing few of them with my network would be the best thing I can do with it!

1.???????????Right Decisions: No decision is right or wrong. Only outcome is desirable and undesirable. Always fill the gap between decision taken and outcome comes out with your sincere efforts. Either you turn outcome in your favour or learn something out of it. At the end you will not have regrets and be happy/ proud. None other than My father- Ramakant Helwade.

2.???????????Celebrate: Celebrate your success, no matter how small. She celebrated my house cleaning efforts during one Diwali festival with everyone who visited our house when I was 8-year-old. The proud feeling gave me confidence for life to take on anything. - My mother Pramila Helwade.

3.???????????Be Courageous: Do not afraid and be Bold- No matter how small, young, inexperience you are- if it is right then go for it!- My aunt Rashmi Waregaonkar. Living with this post- Long way to go - still sharing what I have learned in my short experience..

4.???????????Experience: When you are successful you get what you wanted. When failed, you get experience. With experience eventually you can get more than your wants ??. So, keep trying and taking brave decisions! – The Last Lecture by Prod. Randy Pausch.

5.????????????Ownership: Take the ownership and accountability of what you do! My Ph.D. Guide- Prof. Alladi Subramanyam.

6.??????? Just Do it! Just go for and do it- My mentor and thesis examiner- Prof. Hari Pandalai.

7.???????????Forget and Move On: When I was putting lot of efforts for career progression for my subordinate, and she was thankless- Do what is right and forget about it. Don’t disappoint yourself by expecting anything in return- even nice words- Self learning- the hard way!

8.????????????Right Focus: Got complete failure with coaching unmotivated person for 6 months at work to learn a new skill. When put those efforts on my little kid- 5 years old, to teach the game of Chess- In just four months, she started playing professionally and beat everyone in her age category in local club! It’s better to focus on kids and family- great long-term investment ??. Besides, out of sibling competition, elder one- 12year also re-joined the game professionally and started beating me occasionally – The defeat I can enjoy, be proud of!- Self learning- the hard way!

9.???????????Priority: Fight with one wrestler at a time. Sometimes we feel we are losing precious time, however, important to have focus on one thing. Few things can wait! Make a priority list- Self learning- the hard way!

10.???????Three Steps: Work Hard, Be Successful, Be Happy is old theory! Be Happy, Work Smart, (and then you are already) Be Successful! -One of the Classroom trainings in UBS.

11.???????Politeness: If Lord Krishna with all Universe destructive powers on his fingertip- Sudarshan Chakra- can be polite then why can’t we? – Vijay Rohira

12.???????Sincerity: Be sincere in your all efforts- My Brother Rupesh Helwade

13.???????Confrontation?: He taught me the game of Chess and how to win. His favorite quote “Attack is the best Defense”. All learnings from the game equally applicable in many life scenarios. Assertiveness is important but never let anyone to take your undue advantage. Attack/ face the situation from the front- My Brother Rajesh Helwade.

14.???????End: Keep the end in mind before beginning. The product should be useful to the end user- Uday Odera. Tried to implement in my AI ML based CSR project with Pratham.

15.???????Lend an Ear: Even at workplace- that’s how you make lifelong friends! Still trying to learn the skill??- Michael Dall, Shital Patil, Navtantra Gaur, Manish Singh, Manu Vashist, Pratiksha Sawant and many more

16.???????Just Ask: Sometimes asking what you need is good enough to pave a path for others to follow. Thank you, Samir Mehta, for standing tall to support my 4 months WFH, 7 years prior to pandemic era, to fulfil my paternity responsibilities.

17.???????Ability: If you can do one thing in right way, you can do anything-if you wish. Movie- The Ultimate Gift.

18.???????Fundamentals: Start and focus on basics. Before starting her own restaurant, she worked in another restaurant hiding her identity for few days to learn key skills and minor details. Only fundamentals can bring you success- My mother-in-law Suniti Damle.

19.???????Be Replaceable: Create your back up- you can grab new opportunities, position- also can shorten your notice period :) - Wife- Prachi Helwade. Beware- Apply only for professional life.

20.???????Family: Keep your Success and Failures away from the family. Family needs Love over glory, money etc. – all the materialistic things. My father- Ramakant Helwade

Finally, do the right things and you will be always rewarded at the end- or even things come back to you again :) Thank you, Sam and George, for trusting my capabilities and starting again a new inning after almost a decade! I had a great experience with all in Prognos and now looking forward to work with everyone at Parker Avery!

There are many more learnings from many people I met so far. This is not exhaustive.?List will be endless. I owe a big Thanks to everyone I interacted so far. Hope this sharing will be useful to you!

No doubt, I have to admit that, few of these learnings I still need to master. Trying to work on them everyday :) That's how you try to become better version of yourself- no competition!

Dinesh

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