Why am I listening to “Papa Kehte Hai” & Hugh Jackman’s “A Million Dreams” these days?

Everyone who follows Bollywood has known the song?Papa Kehta Hai-?an iconic song of the late 80’s that is set at a farewell party of a group of graduating students. Even after 30 years you will hear this song being played at college farewells across India. Meanwhile?A Million Dreams?from Hugh Jackman’s?The Greatest Showman?is another all-time personal favorite that is set in a similar situation. Off late I found myself listening to these songs quite often.?

Although both these songs deal with a similar situation – a farewell party – they are markedly different in what the protagonist feels at the time of leaving the student environment and stepping into the world of responsibilities. The emotions, the aspirations and the approach to life are totally different.?

Papa Kehte Hai?is about a guy who is not quite sure about what he wants from life.??Whereas his father has high expectations from him (like every parent !!) and hopes he will make a great name for himself.??The protagonist believes that his friends have decided on what they want to pursue in the future. However, he is not quite sure about what he wants to do with his life. He is not too worried about this as well and is more inclined towards his romantic aspirations.

On the other hand, “A Million Dreams” is all about dreaming to create a world that you want. It’s about being confident about dreaming. It’s about having the courage to being called crazy.?

Every night I lie in bed?

The brightest colors fill my head?

A million dreams are keeping me awake

?A million dreams, a million dreams I think of what the world could be?

A vision of the one I see?

A million dreams is all it's gonna take?

A million dreams for the world we're gonna make

So, what do these two songs have to do with SALES - a topic I often write about, am passionate about & I have made a successful business out of. Well, just a few months back we launched our MBA internships and are onboarding a bunch of freshers from B-schools.??It is refreshing to meet these young energetic graduates & interacting with them as they make their way into the world of business – a world of responsibilities, a world of competition a world of seriousness & sometimes boring stuff.

Our experience of meeting these young minds has been quite interesting. When I interact with these candidates, I am reminded of both these songs. Both songs give a lot of insights into the thinking of a young mind that I found relevant as we bring them on as our colleagues. There are shades about both?Papa Kehte Hai?and?A Million Dreams?in them. Noting down some learnings that I feel are relevant for young organizations like ours that is built & run by young, raw talent.??

Aspirations

“Papa Kehte Hai” deals with the aspirations of a father from his son.??Youngsters begin their careers with not just their aspirations but those of their parents as well. It is almost as if parents’ success is defined by the first job their children take. The company name, salary, location, job role and job content, it matters. Young graduates want to make their parents proud of what they are doing. We realized we must make sure we build roles that they & their parents feel proud about. We must help them do something meaningful that makes a genuine difference.?

On the other hand,?A Million Dreams?is about personal aspiration to create a world you want. About dreaming unlimited without any boundaries. Almost rebellious!!??We learnt that everybody’s aspirations are different, and we need to appreciate and accommodate these differences when we work with these young minds.?

Confusion

Papa Kehte Hai?is about a sort of confusion or unclarity in life. Who isn’t confused at that age? Confusion doesn’t need to be cleared. Confusion needs to be embraced. Youngsters wanting to explore different career options during their initial years is acceptable. How often you find hiring managers expecting freshers to tell them if they want to do sales or finance or marketing? Are you sure you want this job? Would you continue with us for long? How do we expect these young minds to know something they have never been fully exposed to? So, it completely unacceptable to expect them to firmly decide on their careers at that age. We learnt to embrace this confusion.

A Million Dreams

All these youngsters are dreamers. Everyone has a dream, and these dreams maybe small or big. It could be about changing the world they live in. It could be about creating a new world for themselves. Or it could be as simple as a stable job, a simple appreciation, a foreign move, a permanent home with parents, a decent place to work. Everybody has their own view of the world and their dreams. What I learnt from talking to these youngsters was that we cannot expect everyone to have our world view. We must respect their dreams Big or Small, Right or Wrong. We cannot blame them for thinking too big or too small. Their dreams are dependent on a host of factors – persona, family situation, financial status, health, and many factors. We learnt to embrace their?Million Dreams.

FEAR (LESS)

They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy?

They can say, they can say I've lost my mind?

I don't care, I don't care, so call me crazy?

We can live in a world that we design

They are?FEARLESS. They take failures in their strides. They are not afraid about being called crazy. They do not always have the worry of the next promotion, a job loss, or the next pay rise. They are confident. These young minds have nothing to lose. They don’t fear failures. They move on fast after a setback. Letting the fearless minds make their mistakes is key to giving wings to their talent.

This also means that these young minds are better at?EXPERIMENTING?than those with experience.??They can experiment different things without feeling threatened. Some of most radical ideas we implemented in the past few months came from our bunch of new hires who joined fresh from colleges. They wouldn’t stick to the traditional means of doing our work. They would find new ways to do it. They were better at it. I learnt to encourage these bunch of people with their experiments that sounded crazy at first. That was the best thing we did to them and continue to do.?

In?Papa Kehte Hai?the protagonist says that he dreams about a beautiful face that brings freshness to his life. His interests are more?romantic?in nature, and he isn’t too worried about his future. This is so relevant when we hire young minds. We can never underestimate these emotions in people of that age group. As their colleagues we need to be empathetic to them about this side of things. Someone in a bad relationship can have a few bad days at work. Can we be harsh? Can we be tough? There are no easy answers, but we need to handle these aspects carefully. Each youngster can be singing?A Million Dreams?today and?Papa Kehte Haitomorrow. We need to be ready to accept both.?

But we have just started and have a lot to learn, a lot to dream. We must align our million dreams to theirs. We must help them create the world they dream about, the one they want to live in. We must embrace their confusions and accept these as part of their (& our) lives. We must make sure their Papas and Mommas are proud about the work they do.?

And as I dream with them my dreams become bigger a million times and more aligned to theirs. I feel like I am with them as a fresher from college wearing the convocation gown…

Every night I lie in bed?

The brightest colors fill my head?

A million dreams are keeping me awake

Samrat Parasnis is the Founder of NovaVente- the Home of technology selling. After working in sales for leading technology firms he set up NovaVente offering Sales as a Managed Service (SaaMS), Sales Outreach and Sales Partnerships to technology firms across the world. NovaVente is now in its sixth year and growing.?