Stroke of Purpose: Ikigai and a story of Product Market Fit

Recently I was asked this question to sum up my last year in one word or phrase. A single word to encapsulate the past year? Ikigai. This Japanese concept, meaning "reason for being," resonated deeply. But my quest for Ikigai wasn't a recent discovery; it was a dramatic redirection.

Now that sounds deep, so let's unpack this. At the core of Ikigai are 4 questions. It's a concept that encourages people to discover what truly matters to them and to live a life filled with purpose and joy. Let's look at these and my path:

1. What you Love Doing: For me, this has always been sports, hiking, running, or doing something in the nature. Besides loving the actual act of sports/hiking etc.., even as a kid, I had a voracious appetite of reading the sports section of the daily newspaper. I enjoyed the stories of grit and resilience that made great champions or an underdog taking down a rank favorite, purely because of their determination and hard work. As I have grown through my professional life, I have had the privilege to keep up with the things that I love. They continue to be a source of delight and joy for me, but I long gave up my dreams of being a sportsperson or a sports journalist. So, the pursuit has been as a hobby or time spent unwinding from the demands of a high stress corporate career.
2. What you are Good At: While I enjoyed sports as a kid, it was clear that my natural talent was at the intellectual level. That led me to pursue engineering and eventually a corporate career in tech. Through my career and experiences that it has provided me, I have grown to be a really differentiated product leader. Clear Thinking and Leadership are some of my strengths.? This brought me regular promotions and a steady progress through my career, taking on greater responsibilities along the way. A successful corporate career plus having an opportunity to engage in things that I loved doing seemed like a perfect balance.? But was it? (more on this later)
3. What the World Needs: While there are probably a lot of answers to this, for me - this comes down to something more tangible in terms of how I can impact the people and the community around me and make a difference to them. That has sort of been the hallmark of my leadership style. As a leader, I truly believe in the principles of servant leadership. It gives me great joy at mentoring someone and helping others grow and utilizing my talents and experience to be of service to others.?
4. What you can be Paid For: I have had a comfortable life and through my successful corporate career, have been able to create a comfortable lifestyle for myself, my immediate and extended family as well as pursue my interests. I have been able to travel the world and engage in some of the more expensive sports as a hobbyist. This has been possible because I have used my talents to pursue a career that has afforded all of this.

So, reading all of that - you may say - sounds like you have had your Ikigai all along. So, why classify your quest over the last year as a quest for Ikigai? Here is the twist in the tale. Let's go back to the beginning of 2020 (Feb 2020, just before covid lockdowns):

On the surface, I had it all. A successful corporate career propelled me through promotions and international travel. My "what you love" – sports and nature – remained a cherished hobby. However, a closer look revealed a disconnect. Driven by success, I neglected my inner voice. A people-pleaser at heart, I suppressed conflict and negative emotions, prioritizing optimism over authenticity. My "servant leadership" style, while admirable, fueled a dangerous self-worth based on external validation. While I was always fit, my lifestyle and the choices were not the healthiest. All this added up and in Feb 2020, I suffered a stroke.

I have recovered now and am fitter than I have ever been in my life. It started with very simple exercises to aid my recovery and soon, as I observed the progress I was making by just training my brain to relearn very basic movements, it sparked a mindset shift. I have become a huge believer in the power of a growth mindset and treating every setback as an opportunity to learn. The simple daily exercises to retrain my brain have turned into a holistic wellness routine. I even ran the Cambridge Half Marathon in Nov’23 and am planning on running it again this year.

On the professional front, I decided that my job did not define me and communicated to my leadership that I wanted to make a change, eventually getting out of a well-paying corporate job at the beginning of 2023. I was a little bit lost for direction (knew that I needed to make a change but did not know exactly what I wanted). A set of books and teachings from some great spiritual leaders have aided me in focusing my professional journey on doing things that are aligned with the quest for my Ikigai. I have found a like-minded partner in crime in Arjun Ghatak . He is my Founding Partner at Venturis Group Inc and his answers to the 4 Ikigai questions are almost the same as me. This has led us to where we are today:

Today, we stand as entrepreneurs, having launched Venturis Group Inc that merges our passion for lessons from sports world, product leadership with the joy of helping fellow entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs innovate. This, for us, is the true intersection of "what we love," "what we are good at," "what the world needs," and "what we can be paid for”. We even have a podcast called "Venturis Stories" where we talk about things like "Business is nothing but a Team Sport" and applying lessons from Sports to Product Thinking.

We are looking forward to the next chapters of this journey and excited about what the future holds in store. Stay tuned for an upcoming episode of Venturis Stories where we will take you behind the scenes for a conversation around our “why” and sharing our story with our listeners.