Rohit Arya and Jaina Gandhi on Living a Life of Passion by being Hands-on

Rohit Arya | Innovator

Mumbai | India ????

*Not on social media*

It was a sunny day in the Bay area and coincidently we both wore bright yellow ??

Rohit = Humor, Spontaneity, Fun, Innovation, Adaptability, Risk. I got to know this from my cousin who is best friends with him. He strongly recommended to chat with Rohit and see if I could crack up how his brain works! I sensed he has done multiple bizarre things in life and kept wondering how will I wrap it up into a conversation? But as he wasn't on social media, I decided to wing it :p

This was the most spontaneous conversation filled with series of adventure (his life) and loads of laughter (my response) and of course the incessant calls (at least 8) that he kept having in between. Honestly, I didn't mind it either. I needed that time to reflect in between his crazy adventure stories.

I am really curious in understanding how your mind functions? What is your story?

"My father is a retired army officer. In regards to the demands of his profession, we ended up relocating to multiple cities and hence I changed 14 schools."

Wow! Now that is something. I studied for 13 years in the same school and I still found it difficult to make friends back then. So, I drilled down the question to make it manageable - How did it help shape your personality?

"The journey of being extremely adaptable started this way... Changing multiple schools was a struggle because dad used to get a posting every year. We were changing states, dialects, languages. The teacher's accents change altogether and it was very difficult to adjust. My mother would take me to the school playground and introduce me to a bunch of kids in the new school and ask them if they could be my new friends. So, every year, I would go to the new school and introduce myself - hey I am recently transferred here, can we catch-up? Years passed by and that's how I was able to make new friends very easily.

After 6 months your entire world changes. All your friends are totally shuffled the only thing that stays constant is your family. This interesting thing has really helped me evolve. I can move from any place to any place for my jobs without any hesitation. I would be rather excited to make the most of the opportunity.

Also, my ever-changing life allowed me to learn new skills - I learned water surfing, kite surfing, beach barbeque, kayaking, fishing from the fishermen. It's because I was ready to explore without any inhibitions. I was hardwired since early childhood to walk into a person and immediately start knowing them. I was absolutely open to new experiences. I don't have any friends who have been there with me forever.

Sometimes my father would be posted in jungles and after reading the transfer letter we would refer to the Atlas to locate the unknown remote places ??

I and my sister would jump yay! one more place to explore ??. Now, I get bored with every city after a year or two."

Is it safe to call you a Nomad?

"Not really, because though my home, school, and friends kept changing we were basically transferring from one army cantonment to another. So, the quality of life was great - we had golf courses, tennis courts but at the same time my father would be posted in remote jungles where there is no road, no electricity. The only way food would come to that place is through an army helicopter that would drop food for us using a parachute. Livestock and food would be there in a cage tied to the parachute. Army soldiers would catch the cage and that's how we got our weekly food. Living in this kind of environment you adapt to making the most of every small thing you have. Hence you become the so-called 'Jugadoo (someone who is extremely resourceful)' in life."

What drives you? What excites you?

"What drives me is Innovation. I love to create things. Grown-up doing things alone with limited resources and trying to make the most of it, I became very hands-on and learned to connect a lot more dots.

I can connect an electrician to a carpenter to a mechanic and make a common thing which even they would not be able to do.

He gave an example - "In MBA (IIM Kozhikode, India) there used to be a joke around me. We had a case study on Ford company. Ford was launching a car called FordKa in France. So the question was how to launch this car? What is the target audience for it? and make a brand plan around it. Multiple students came with a suggestion - we should target women or we should target the youth, upper-middle-class people and I suggested... Sir, we should change the gearbox of this car.

The perplexed professor along with the amused students looked at me as I explained my analysis -

Check the statistics. France has traffic issues ---> so overcrowded ---> so easy to assume they will have speed regulations ---> When there are speed regulations why do you want to buy a big car? ---> You won't be able to drive on those roads ---> If I am not going to get the adrenaline from the big car, if I cannot go at top speed, I might as well get better acceleration ---> I showed the comparative analysis of cars in France and all the cars had the same gear issue ---> If I solve the gear issue then even if I don't go beyond 120 km/hr, at least 0 to 60 km/hr my car will be the fastest!!! This thought process comes very naturally to me cause I have figured out the on-ground exhibition of this car!"

He was such a cheerful and enthusiastic person, once I asked him what drives him? He himself questioned and answered the major part of the interview ??

How did my journey in business start?

"I listed some personal properties on Airbnb. Airbnb says you have to put air-conditioning (AC) as an amenity. The innovative thinker inside me started contemplating how can I put a password for the AC and keep it optional? People are most likely going to select AC. I searched online for password-protected ACs and they amounted to Rs 70,000+ and the regular ones were around Rs 20,000. I put a password on the AC, not for Rs 50,000 but for Rs 150. In the business sense, it was a big hit. It added 10% to my gross margin. Imagine people run their entire business on 10% and one innovation let me gain 10% additional gross margin. What drives me is I love to solve problems by innovation and not really jumping into it and throwing a lot of money at it."

How to shift your mindset? How to connect more dots?

"You need to have the attitude of being hands-on. Not having any hesitation in trying new things. For e.g. - before doing your dishes, try and organize them then you are getting your mind to think in a very organized way, and doing that will help you become a very hands-on person. In order to be more resourceful, you need to try doing as many things as possible at home. It's not just about doing household things. It's about connecting many different areas and dots.

At this point in my life Jaina, I have realized you get success in life through your strengths. You can continue to improve on your weaknesses but don't put too much focus on them. All the major jumps I did in my life have been because of my strengths only, never because I have been able to overcome some weaknesses. Weaknesses should definitely be conquered, I don't deny but focus more on polishing your strengths.

You are born with certain strengths and those need not be one in a million strength. Even if you are above average in some particular thing that is your strength. You have to continue to hone your skill. The more you hone it, the better you become and the more you will be able to leverage it. So, if my strengths are innovation and adaptability then you have your own strengths too, and here is a little secret - your strengths are based on the way you have been brought up. If you figure those strengths out at an early age it will really help. Don't give too much importance to your weaknesses but you should be aware of them.

In fact, I would also say, your hobbies and areas of interests should also be around your strengths because when bad things happen in your life your hobbies are the most important thing that pulls you out of it.

Have the ability to take risks. I am sure I am able to take more risks than others. I went through a messy divorce. It was such a mess, I was in that marriage for 20 days and the divorce procedure lasted for 8 years. I was able to come out of it purely because of 'Jugaad' (being resourceful). I found a loop-hole in the case and turned the tables in the final hearing. I took a great risk by losing the case and eventually winning the battle.

If there is a problem in front of me, I am constantly thinking about it. If I have to make a resume. It will take me a whole week to make it. It doesn't mean I am sitting in front of the system to think about it. While I am driving, while I am listening to people...I am looking for keywords all the time and the moment I get a keyword, I put that in the resume so the way to do it is you always keep your problem on the top of your mind and you keep thinking about it and automatically one fine day it clicks. That is one way you can start picking-up this thing of creativity."

Being hands-on also helps you save people's lives Jaina. So I remember while working in Philips I went with a junior for a visit to a very busy market. As I was crossing the road, I heard a big accidental bang in the background and when I turned behind I saw that there was an Innova guy who had got an epilepsy attack while driving the car. This guy pressed the accelerator instead of the brake and ran over a dozen people. I saw people fluttering with blood on the floor and to my horror, people encircling them were having cold drinks instead of thinking about what to do?

I instinctively ran down to pick up one person and asked my junior to pick one more. I told one person to call the ambulance. Imagine how god helps, there was a government hospital just 200 meters away! I picked up one person and behind me, the entire mob picked up other people and ran and we were able to save all of them. It just happened because of the fact that I am not hesitant to pick up things.

Do you always have this care-free attitude towards life?

"Yes, it has helped me a lot. I have always been like this. After 10 yrs of corporate, starting an entire business, putting so many innovations behind it, I invested a lot and was looking for an amazing season starting march and the lockdown happened! Going from taking a big jump to crashing, now all these calls you see are me slowly trying to wind-up the business, keeping it at a small scale so when the time comes, I can again expand."

Rohit shared one after other interesting snippets of his life all tying back to one thing - Resourcefulness. As soon as our conversation ended, I went straight to my bathroom to try my hands on fixing the broken toilet flush. It was a successful attempt. I would have never messed my hands had I not understood the 'Attitude of being hands-on!'.