Nuggets of Wisdom received from my Mentors through the Years!

As 2019 comes to a close, and we usher in 2020, I decided to put together - in fact for myself - as a note, a few nuggets of wisdom and advice that I have had received in the past, throughout my career, and personal life having lived across multiple continents, nations and cities.

Yes, I was fortunate to work under some amazing Leaders; who became my Mentors, irrespective of whether I had initially met them in a professional setting, or outside, in my personal life. Here's the top ones that I still remember, and do make an effort, not to forget as the years roll on, and I start getting a few grey strands of hair on my head.

#1:

Stay humble. It is a quintessential trait of the powerful. - Chairman of my first full-time job in the U.K. when I was returning to India. I am still in touch with him, and he played a vital role during the formative years of my career. A self-made millionaire, he was the true epitome of a perfect well-bred Eton-educated English gentleman.

#2:

Spend every day making a sincere effort to have someone like you. - My ex-boss of one of my previous employers, who advised me to read, Guy Kawasaki's 'Enchantment'. A highly successful executive, he was one of the smartest Executives in the firm.

#3:

Prioritize tasks on the scale of 'urgent' versus 'important'. It will make your life better. - My ex-boss at the second largest software firm in the world.

#4:

Deals come and go. The relationship lingers on. - My ex-boss at one of my earlier firms when I was upset that we did not win a Cloud deal even after having put in a lot of effort. He was correct, the very same year, I reached out to say 'Happy Diwali' to the customer who had not given us the big order, and he asked me to come instead and gave me 2 Projects without discussion.

#5:

Grow depth in one tech stack. Grow breadth across all. - My ex-boss, who is without doubt, one of India's most revered, well-known cross-platform Cloud Architect, Advisor, Writer and Public Speaker at one of my earlier firms when I was leaving, and I had called him for any advice on my career.

#6:

You have to work hard for ensuring your own success. No one - absolutely no one- not even the mother who gave you birth - owes anything to you. - The person who said this, is currently settled in Kolkata; during his peak, he was the one and only Bengali (Indian, in fact), Chairman and MD of one of the largest British Conglomerate firms globally; and used to travel in helicopters during his peak days, since his time was invaluable. After returning from the U.K., I had met him at his house, since he's related to us from my mum's side, and he had shared 30 minutes of his time with me and my dad. At 70, he's still Non-Executive Director and member of Board of as many as 14 companies, as of today.

#7:

Intent is more important than result. Hire people with positive intent; results will always follow. - My ex-boss at one of my earlier firms, whom I had reached out to when building a team at one of my earlier firms.

#8:

Focus on Knowledge. People, teams, organizations gravitate towards knowledge. Everything else is secondary. - My mentor currently at Microsoft.

The main purpose of putting them together, is to read them from time to time, and ensuring that I am following them, or at least trying to, in my daily life. Sometime you have to bend the rules, but then exceptions are fine as long as they remain minor exceptions and do not bend the rule themselves. If you've a few special ones in your life, do leave them as comments!