Good Lessons Learned from a Chance Meeting with Utkarsh Rai

'Believe in Magic': this phrase caught my attention during a recent reading session with my son on a flight back to Bangalore. Both of us were taking turns to read a few pages of the book 'Geronimo Stilton - The Kingdom of Fantasy". The reason that phrase caught my attention wasn't just because of the richness and the meaning that phrase brought but also because it lead my mind to a recent interaction with one of finest leaders i have known.

I have known Utkarsh Rai for quite sometime, not personally but through his various public appearances, in panel talks and as a speaker. So when i got a chance to interact with him person, i couldn't let go of the opportunity. He has recently written a book named: The Fitness Currency: At Any Stage, At Any Age
I had a few exchanges, sharing comments about the book over social media that eventually led to this interaction.


I learned a few things that i wanted to share briefly here as below.

Always believe that something good is about to happen:
One of the things he shared during the conversation was this phrase:
"Always believe that something good is about to happen".

This is the phrase my attention drew towards while reading the book with my kid. I would explain the context in which he said this phrase in the next point, but in many ways i think believing in the positive phrases becomes a self-fulfilling prophecies. Funnily, this is true for most of the negative reinforcements that happens in our minds.
Our thoughts aren't stateless like HTTP is, they tend to have a positive state or a negative one. Left unchecked, the state naturally tend to gravitate towards negative one. Avoid that. Always believe in the magic that is about to happen.


Disrupt life, when the time is appropriate:
Utkarsh shared about his current life choices and used a phrase that "I have disrupted myself'. He said this as he had chosen an unchartered path where he was trying all that he wanted. As he was headed towards a future that was exciting yet unknown, he chose to respond to situation by believing that something good was always about to happen.


Leaving his lucrative job, he was trying his hand at different things like becoming an executive (certified) coach, becoming an actor, an accomplished author, trying to solidify online presence by creating online snippets of his book, among a few other things.
One of things that i had asked him during my online interactions was:

"About 40% done with the book, Utkarsh. Have an different kind of observation, indirectly related to book. I know that a thousands of people join gym mostly for health, fitness, which many achieve. But I was thinking about your motivation levels that you didn't just attain fitness but succeeded in being a thought leader (with this book as an example) in a field totally unknown to you. This is what I find amazing. At what stage in your journey did you think you should write this book ? Going by narrative in the book, appears like you were taking notes everyday about the conversations and learnings."
And i still find it amazing to see such rare ability to think big while mastering an unknown skill.

Master things you feel you are not good at:
As one of the passing mention in the conversation, he said that I want to do things that I feel I am not good at. He not only said this but also backed it up by saying that he as learned Kannada 60-70% even though he considered himself not good at learning languages. He said he did acting while in school, something he is working to rekindle. He hadn't done gym all his life but started that a couple of years (or less) back and ended up writing a book.
All of us have one life- either we can choose to live a routine, template like life not wiling to pick-up battle to beat inner demons or we live like kings, always willing to pick-up fight with the demons of mind who are working overtime to pull us back. He certainly chose the latter strategy to lead his life.

Even though it was for 30 min or so but it was a very enriching conversation for me. He was brutally honest at several instances such as admitting that the fact that he has photo-memory often comes in the way of his leading people (as people get impression that he always remembers their mistakes :-)). Another instance of such honesty was when he admitted that he tends to draw his energy from meeting people, which is something he misses in his current chosen path.

A memorable meeting for me and hopefully it was first of many such interactions in the future.

Overview of 'P-Rules' for Effectively Conducting Meetings/Reviews

There are many things that world’s renowned management schools don’t teach you. It might take a book to list all of them here but in this post I want to focus on one of them. And it is about 

conducting meetings effectively.

I don’t believe in the school of thought that proposes that meetings are useless. Meetings themselves aren’t unproductive but meetings run unskilfully are indeed unproductive.

Meetings are necessary for collaboration and collaboration is foundation of everything good that happens in the organizations.

As much as meetings are necessary, conducting the meetings effectively is one of the most underrated skills, something that doesn’t get as much attention/training as it deserves.

While writing this, I got reminded of this tweet from Vala Afshar that truly conveys the universal negligence around meetings.

Having said all this, its not that people, organizations and thought-leaders have put in ample efforts to fine-tune meetings in the organizations. One such effort that I came across recently was from Andrew Bosworth (Vice President, AR/VR at Facebook).

He summarized his philosophy on conducting meetings in these 7 rules that he happened to call as ‘P-Rules’. You can check detailed article here, but a quick summary and my sketchnote follows:

#1 NO PILING ON: When one person finds a weakness in an argument, others often feel the need to form a chorus around it. DON'T Pile on.

#2 NO PEDANTRY: Spotting typos on slides or correcting misspoken words isn't helpful (unless you think people might be genuinely confused).

#3 NO PONTIFICATION: Often leaders tend to explore some tangential topic during meetings to satisfy their own intellectual curiosity.

#4 NO PRESCRIPTION: The most damaging mistake I see leaders make after they identify problems is to propose solutions.

#5 NO PERMISSION: When teams ask for permission, they're subtly trying to move the responsibility to you. Don't let them.

#6 NO PESSIMISM: With limited time, it's tempting to shut down what seem like obviously bad ideas. It's much more valuable to react with curiosity.

#7 LET PRESENTERS PRESENT: People go to a lot of effort to prepare content and it can be demoralizing to get derailed without being able to finish.

What are your ways for conducting meetings effectively ? 

One Minute Blog: Key Learnings from Finishing Jaipur Marathon

In the first week of July, I completed the Jaipur full marathon (42.195 km), aptly named as the 'hot' run, with temperatures soaring to 40 degrees celsius plus.

Sharing some fine learnings here:

1. The route included long, never ending roads. Such tracks can lure runners to think that nothing is changing after running several km as one sees the similar surroundings, same plain roads. Breaking the monotony was the key, especially at the later kms. How does one break the monotony in a physically demanding and a mentally draining sport? - By not thinking beyond the next step of the run, by keeping a tunnel vision just on the next km.

2. One of the advices I recently read from an acquaintance who was on radio for the first time, he shared- "while on air, audience can listen to your smile. So smile and talk". Likewise, while running, especially in gruesome conditions, it helps to run with a constant smile and encourage the fellow runners. I have no scientific proof to prove this but it has worked now and in earlier runs almost as if "while on track, your legs can listen to your smile."

3. Lastly, life lessons aren't best learned while on the couch with our favourite gadgets but right in the trenches, while being amidst nature at its extremes and dealing firmly with what it has in store for you.

Zinnov Confluence 2018: Sharing a Perspective on Future of Work

I recently got an opportunity to share my perspective on the topic of  'Future of Work'. This was during the recently concluded Zinnov Confluence 2018.

Sharing below ~12 min opening note on the topic.

Please do view, share your feedback.

One Minute Blog: Key Highlights from Citrix Synergy 2018

To Quote Tim Minahan, Chief Marketing Officer @ Citrix:

Citrix Synergy 2018 is all about showing the world how Citrix powers a better way to work. It’s about unifying our vision and providing creative solutions to give our customers the security, choice, and experience they demand.

Citrix Synergy 2018 was an awesome showcase of technology that defines the future of work. David Henshall, CEO @Citrix delivered a powerful, super-energetic keynote that was followed by cool demos aptly showcasing the future of work.

So, what were the announcements made ? Do catch-up my sketchnote summarizing the key messaging from Citrix Synergy 2018.

One Minute Blog: Under the hoods- Citrix Workspace App

At the Citrix Synergy 2018, one of the most prominent announcements made was the unveiling of Citrix Workspace. Citrix Workspace provides the next generation user experience for accessing any application- SaaS, web, mobile, virtual and reliable accessing any content.

This awesome blog by Jeroen van Rotterdam explains the technical goodies behind Citrix Workspace.
Citrix Workspace: Embedded Browser vs Secure Browser Service vs Secure Browsing

If you want to catch-up with quick snapshot view of technical working of Citrix Workspace, here's my sketchnote:

#podcastdiaries: Timeless Skills for the New World

Recently came across this wonderful podcast between Ravi Venkatesan (former CEO of Microsoft India) and Pankaj Mishra (CEO of factordaily.com). This conversation revolved primarily around how careers of future will evolve.

Summary of conversation:

Rebooting the Core Career Principles:

New world requires core career principles to be rebooted. What are the new principles?

    1.      The reason we were born on earth is not to have a job; most of us are searching for the reason as to why we were put on the earth. The job is only a means to that bigger end.

    2.       The biggest obstacle to your success is you. Learn to get out of your own way.

    3.       Be the CEO of your own career.  You better take charge of your career because nobody else will.

    4.       Don't get fooled into thinking that you have a lifelong career. At any moment, you need to be able to prepared to be independent and stand on your own 2 feet. If you prepare yourself for that you are going to have much better ride.

    5.       The chances of you getting a great job by pursuing it are not so great. Its far better to make yourself attractive and let the jobs/opportunities come your way.

    6.       Stay away from the sense of entitlement: Nobody owes you anything.

What are those Timeless Skills that will sustain any disruption ?

#1 Learning Ability (Learning Agility):

If a person is thrown into a situation that they have never seen or experienced, how quickly can they figure out what it takes to succeed. Learning agility is a muscle, the more you practice, the stronger it becomes.

People who have learning agility

1. tends to be intensely curious about everything,

2. they tend to like to read,

3. they tend to like new challenges,

4. they don’t like predictable things,

4. they like ambiguous situations.

No matter what you know today, in 2 or 3 years it is going to be obsolete. The ability to forget and relearn new things goes a long way.

Each time you take a risk and put yourself out of the comfort zone, learning happens. That's how this muscle called learning agility develops. Repeatedly throw yourself in a completely new situation. This is one of those horizontal skills that you can see that will never be obsolete.

#2 Ability to lead:

Second skill that is going to be timeless is the ability to lead. No matter how much automation is there, there would always be people around and the ability to lead them to do amazing things is a very precious quality. What limits the ablity of an organization to grow- it is frankly the number of leaders it has. Leadership is not the same as position of people in authority.

Most people could be a leader, they have the latent potential but a very few end up harnessing it. The first step it takes to become a leader is to take ownership of something.

#3 Ability to manage yourself:

The biggest obstacle to your success is you. Sooner or later, we each become the barriers to other's success. We have to learn to get out of our own way.

It takes high degree of self-awareness.

Metaphor of a giant balloon: Think of a giant hot-air balloon which has a huge lift, thats your potential. You could be anything but this balloon is held down by thick ropes or chains. These chains are your weaknesses, your fears.

Don't create stories in your mind that are self-limiting.

People who are able to succeed beyond luck are the ones that are able to see whats holding them down and gradually unshakle themselves.

Here's the sketchnote summary i drew for the podcast:

One Minute Blog: 2 Traits that Define World's Greatest Founders

Further to my last blog and continuing my quest to decipher the learning habits of most influential leaders, I stumbled upon this extraordinary article by Michael Simmons (Titled: 5-Hour Rule: If you’re not spending 5 hours per week learning, you’re being irresponsible.)

While i provide a brief summary below of what i learned from this as below in a few points, I would highly recommend reading through this article 

1. The founders of the five largest companies in the world—Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett, Larry Page, and Jeff Bezos— All have two uncommon traits.

• a. Each of them is a voracious learner.
• b. Each of them is a polymath.

2. A voracious learner as someone who follows the 5-hour rule—dedicating at least five hours per week to deliberate learning. When you become a voracious learner, you compound the value of everything you’ve learned in the past.

3. A polymath is someone who becomes competent in at least three diverse domains and integrates them into a skill set that puts them in the top 1% of their field. When you become a polymath, you develop the ability to combine skills, and you develop a unique skill set, which helps you develop a competitive advantage.

4. Three strong (and wrong) messages we've all been in taught in school, in college:

Lie #1: Disciplines are the best way to categorize knowledge.

Lie #2: Most learning happens in school/college.

Lie #3: You must pick one field and specialize in it.

"It’s important to teach to the problem, not to the tools. Let’s say you’re trying to teach people about how engines work. A more traditional approach would be to say, ‘We’re going to teach all about screwdrivers and wrenches, and you’re going to have a course on screwdrivers and a course on wrenches …. That’s a very difficult way to do it.A much better way would be to say, ‘Here’s the engine. Let’s take it apart. How are we going to take it apart. Oh. We need a screwdriver. That’s what the screwdriver is for. We need a wrench. That’s what the wrench is for.And then a very important thing happens. The relevance becomes apparent.": Elon Musk

Do catch my sketchnote on this article below:

One Minute Blog: How To Learn Anything In Half The Time

I read these 2 things recently that resonated quite well with me in the midst of the world being redefined rapidly by technological forces:

1. Technology usually takes away professions, not jobs.

2. We won't run out of jobs, We will run out of trained people.[Credits: Abhijit Bhaduri]

I found the second statement profound majorly for the reason that it is progressive. It does gives confidence that with right kind of (and timely) training and learning strategy, it is possible to approach the future with great vigor.

Learning is no longer a tactical function or should i say organizations that take learning as tactical stands to reach obsolescence sooner than later. The organizations that treat learning as a strategic function stands a great chance to beat the multiple forces (technological and beyond) organizations are dealt with.

In my quest to figure out learning strategies for the future, i ran into some wonderful content by Jim Kwik,  founder of Kwik Learning, is a world expert in speed-reading, memory improvement, brain performance, and accelerated learning. 

This blog is a sketchnote presentation of one of his popular YouTube video on the topic: How to Learn Anything in Half The Time.

Enjoy the learning and please do share your feedback.

What Type of Goals are the Most Effective: Performance Goals or Results Goals?

India’s athlete Neeraj Chopra recently came 4^th at Javelin event at Diamond League. Diamond League is a world cup of sorts for athletics. He is a small-town athlete from India. India has never been known for its athletics prowess at the world stage. And this very fact makes Neeraj’s performance beyond commendable.

An ESPN author, Jonathan Selvaraj,  recently wrote an article on Neeraj which included some conversations both of them had. While most of the article rightly reflected the pride Neeraj felt at this moment of triumph but there was another part of their chat that caught my attention. And before I tell that part, let me explain something about the sport of Javelin.

As Wikipedia explains, Competition rules in Javelin throw are similar to other throwing events: a round consists of one attempt by each competitor in turn, and competitions typically consist of three to six rounds. The competitor with the longest single legal throw (over all rounds) is the winner.

At the Diamond League event, Neeraj threw 87.43m in the second round and his throws in all other rounds were either fouls or the distance less than this. A Javelin throw of 87.43m also happens to be a new national record for India, with Neeraj beating his own record by more than 1 cm.

Below excerpt from the article explains the gist of the conversation:

"I was hoping to do a personal best and so when I got it in just my second throw, a little part of me felt satisfied. That should not have happened," he says.However, with his focus suddenly shot, Neeraj fouled his next three attempts. "I was trying too hard. I was running in too hard and when that happened I lost my technique. I tried to control myself for my last attempt but when you start thinking about your throw it never comes the way you want."

The mention of “trying too hard”, “lost my technique”, “when you start thinking about your throw” made me tweet to Jonathan the following:

[Anuj] Interesting how mastering softer aspects is so important in a physical sport like Javelin. Neeraj's mention of his trying too hard and overthinking about the throw really tells how keeping things simple is one of the most complex things to master in sport, and in life.

[Jonathan’s response] It was interesting to me that once he achieved his personal best in his second throw,he wasn’t sure how to motivate himself in a competition. Very honest to admit that.

[Anuj] Got reminded of what @bhogleharsha 's book talks about goals. The difference between performance goals and results goals. More focus on result goals, adds pressure. Wonderful to hear about him being honest to admit. Future looks compelling.

In their book, The Winning Way: Learnings from Sport for

Managers, Anita and Harsha Bhogle emphasize the difference between performance goals and result goals. As they say, winning a gold in Olympics is a dream, but you cannot really control how others are going to perform. A swimmer, for example, rather than swimming for gold (results goal) swims for timing (performance goal), which is in his control.

Small, precise, performance-related goals can produce extraordinary results.

Both performance goals and result goals are important. Without result goals, end objective is not clear. Without performance goals, the end may become more important than the means and it may become more difficult to replicate success.

In Neeraj’s case, apparently, more focus on results goal seem to have add that extra bit of pressure  that didn’t let him reach the peak performance after he had achieved world record in the earlier rounds.

At work, what works more for you- performance goals or results goals ?

Do leave your insights in the comments.

Image source: 
https://www.hindustantimes.com/other-sports/neeraj-chopra-sets-new-javelin-mark-two-qualify-for-commonwealth-games/story-ALMeNaSCzVbnfCggRIi0PN.html
https://www.amazon.in/WINNING-WAY-LEARNINGS-MANAGERS-Learning/dp/938065832X

One Minute Blog: 8 Standout Learnings from the Book: “The Innovator’s Dilemma”

Recently got to read the “Summary of The Innovator’s Dilemma”, a book that has acquired cult status in Innovation circles and I have seen this being quoted in many Innovation discussions I have been a part of in my professional life.

Have shared 8 learnings, that I reproduce from this book, read on:

• New Technology Improvements: Improvements to a new technology are easy at first but become more difficult to achieve over time.
• Categories of Tech Innovations: Technological innovations can be divided into two types: sustaining innovations and disruptive innovations.
• Price Point Plays a Role: Disruptive innovations are often able to earn a place in the market by focusing on price point.
• Listening to Customers not Always Helpful: Listening to customers and responding to their wishes can actually be counterproductive. Disruptive innovations create their own markets.
• Conducting Market Research not Always Helpful: While market research is a key point of product development in large firms, it is impossible to do market research with customers and clients of new technologies.
• New Entrants Often Have More Advantage: Market dynamics can favour new entrants into a business’s sector at the expense of well-established firms.
• Bureaucracy is an Innovation Killer: Large companies are bureaucratic. Innovation within them is often difficult as a result.
• Make Special Effort to Retain Top Talent: Defectors who leave successful companies to start rival firms can be a serious challenge to the position of established firms in the market.

If you have read The Innovator's Dilemma, please share your thoughts in the comments. If you haven’t read it, would highly recommend reading it.

Would You Prefer an Anish Bhanwala or Tejaswani Sawant in Your Team ?

With Commonwealth Games concluding today, it left behind

many incredible moments.

One memorable moment for me happened on Day 9.

On Day 9, Anish Bhanwala won the Gold in 25m Rapid fire Pistol event. Anish is a 15-year-old athlete (yes you read it right, 15 years).

On the same day, Tejaswani Sawant won the Gold medal in 50m Rifle shooting event. Tejaswani is an 37-year-old experienced shooter.

Shooting is predominantly a precision, skill based sport. A 15-year-old winning a Gold is stunning given the maturity, calmness, nervelessness needed at the very moment you are competing. A teenager exhibiting such poise is phenomenal to say the least.

The sport also requires a sharp mind and vision and that makes a 37-year-old winning Gold very special. During interaction with another exceptional medal winning teenager, Mehuli Ghosh, Tejaswani seemed to have said “You are 17 years of age and my shooting experience is 18 years”.

I feel these stories are important to be told and reflected upon because they are the reflection of the world that we belong to. Two different personalities, from two different generations but both brought glory to the country.

Delving deeper, these instances also gives a fine glimpse in the current and the future workplace. I share a few of my inferences below:

1. Among the employees at workplace, It is now a new normal for team members with generational differences.

2. With right kind of mentoring, guidance and support systems, millennials can deliver punch much above their weight.

3. The rules of game are fast changing but the right kind of experience will have a valuable place at workplace. The tacit knowledge and situational awareness that experienced people brings in, will remain treasured.

4. The way we measure experience will evolve from mere age or years of doing something to more meaningful ways. In my humble opinion, years as an unit of measuring experience is more an indicator of time elapsed, not necessarily an indicator of superiority of skills or presence of extraordinary wisdom.

5. In today’s world, the time taken to master skills is shortening considerably. It is a new imperative for both the experienced people and millennials to discover newer ways to shorten skill learning cycles.

What are your takeaways?

Agree or disagree- do leave your thoughts in comments?

Image Source:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/commonwealth-games/cwg-2018-15-year-old-anish-creates-history-tejaswini-rolls-back-the-years/articleshow/63756028.cms

http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/commonwealth-games/cwg-2018-day-9-highlights-shooters-break-records-bajrang-punia-bags-gold/

One Minute Blog: My Speech at Illinois Institute of Technology Graduation Day

I recently blogged about this in detail, but for those of the readers who prefer brevity, here is a concise version of the blog. This speech got a sizable traction in social media with 15000+ views on LinkedIn and 500+ on YouTube.
The key points that I shared during my speech are summarized below, followed by a Sketchnote.

1. Stay in the present

• "Just block all the future thoughts and bask in the glory of current moment."
• "Embrace this time with all your senses."
• "Seize the moment."

2. Think Big:

• "Let this not be the defining moment of your life."
• “Educational Qualifications are not the ends in itself, they are the means to achieve something greater.”

3. Embrace Non-linearity

"Skills do have an expiry date and this expiry date is shortening by the day."

"Continuous learning is not a differentiator anymore, it is a mandatory."

“If we do not change the way we teach, 30 years from now we will be in trouble."- Jack Ma

"Learn Empathy"

One Minute Blog: Learnings from a Recent Graduation Day Speech

I recently got a chance to speak at Illinois Institute of Technology's Graduation day. 

Sharing thoughts at an event like a graduation ceremony is usually the reflection of one's own lifelong learnings and experiences.

But this post is not about my speech. This is about the speech of my friend and mentor Tathagat Varma (TV), which I found quite inspirational. The detailed speech can be found here, but sharing quick summary and a sketch note as below.

His top three advise for graduating class were:

1. Be a Learner

   It is important to be a lifelong learner. If we sit on the laurels of the past, we are eventually destined to become irrelevant.

   The real "learning" will only happen when you start putting all that to practice and realize that there are things that you don't quite know, or you begin to question what was taught in the classroom.

2. Be a Maker

   If you want to continue being relevant in your careers, make sure you discard the charms of being a manager and simply adopt the seemingly-less sexy but more gratifying life of being a tinkerer, a builder, a maker.

3. Be a Giver

Education is an obligation, education is a responsibility...to give it back to the community, to enrich the society, to help those lesser fortunate than us to get an education.

I found this profound as this is applicable not only for the graduating class but also for everyone else. Thank you TV for this inspirational speech.

My Address at Illinois Institute of Technology's 19th Graduation Ceremony

I was recently invited at the Illinois Institute of Technology, India's 19th graduation ceremony as a dignitary and had to address the graduating masters students.

[Update on 26th-Mar, the video of speech available on YouTube]

Sharing the part of the speech that i could reproduce as below:

I always see myself as a sportsperson disguised as a corporate professional. I have never been a natural advise-giver but in the spirit of trying, i will share some things today.

Stay in the present, enjoy the moment:

In Jan 2018, I ran Mumbai marathon. A full marathon is a distance of 42.195 Km. Depending upon your speed, it may take up to 3, 4, 5 or 6 hours. Marathons are also considered as metaphors for life because a runner has to typically deal with so many ups and downs while on track.

I was running in my zone and completed till about 30 km when I bumped into a runner who looked very exhausted, his shoulders dropping and barely able to move. I decided to break my momentum, slow-down and talk to him (with intention of helping him). He told me that he was a first time full marathon runner and finding it quite hard at the moment. (Around 30 Km mark is incidentally also known as “hitting the wall” in marathon parlance. It’s when your body is out of every ounce of energy, your legs are heavy and feet blistered and you are mentally battered with the constant pounding your body has undergone in the last many hours.). Eager to learn and finish the run, this runner asked for my advice. I clearly remember the advice I gave him-

"don't think about the finish-line, don’t think about how you will feel at 35 or 38 km, don’t think about the up-slope that’s coming, just think about the next step, then the next one and then the next. And block your mind of anything else. If you are able to compartmentalize your life to just thinking about the next steps for 2 hours or so, you will see the distance.”

I was very glad to see him at finish line close to 2 hours later.

In short, what I was telling him was to stay in the moment and not to get overwhelmed by enormity of what lays ahead.

This is the first thing i would like to mention to all of you. It's your big day, and I know unknowingly your mind would be playing tricks today and lure you to think about the future- how this degree will help you, how will it shape your career, how will  you make a giant leap.

I would ask all of you to take a step back, and with all your senses embrace this moment. Just block all the future thoughts and bask in the glory of current moment. You deserve it with all the hardships that you have undergone to reach this stage and it will be a shame if you are not able to enjoy the today. Today is the great moment in your lives and the careers so stay in present and seize the moment as well as you can.

Let this not be the defining moment of your life:

Secondly, I want to tell you a short story related to India winning the Under 19 Cricket World cup recently. After winning the world cup, the legendary coach of India team- Rahul Dravid was asked about his comment on the victory.

After praising the team that achieved a spectacularly one-sided victory, he said something like "It's great to see the team win so comprehensively but i don't want this win to be a defining moment of the young team's life. They should be thinking bigger than this."

He then went on to say- "the 2012 final featured India and Australia; the result of the final will tell you that India beat Australia. Six years down the line, while only one of those boys played a couple of one-day games for India, four-five Australians have gone on to play for Australia. So, more of their guys have gone on to play first-class cricket. The debatable point is actually who won that final, if you look back six years later."

I found this so simple yet so profound. Profound because the core purpose of U-19 tournaments is to build the talent pipeline for the future, which Australia had clearly achieved despite losing the world cup.

With due respect to all the efforts you have put in to attain the degree and with due respect to Illinois Institute of Technology for providing a wonderful platform, I firmly believe that 

“Educational Qualifications are not the ends in itself, they are the means to achieve something greater.”

Please don’t let this moment become the defining moments of your life. In all fairness, this is a great milestone (as I had said) but you should promise yourself that 5-6 years down the line when you look back at today, you would have defined and achieved your own world cups, scaled your own mountains and you would achieved something bigger and made your company, surroundings and the society better.

Embrace Non-linearity:

One last thing I would like to share today. It would be clichéd to talk about the impact automation powered by technologies such as AI/ML. There’s a lot being said about it by the industry leaders and a lot of contrasting opinion emerging.

However, I do want to mention that the workplaces are

undergoing a tremendous change. The skills have much shorter shelf life. I mean skills do have an expiry date and this expiry date is shortening by the day. During the dot com time of 2000, it was said that if you know Java, you are set for life. There is no such phrase as “set for life” in today’s world. Continuous learning is not a differentiator anymore, it is a mandatory.

I would request you to consider the phrase- “non-linearity” when planning for careers. All the respected dignitaries who spoke before me and the ones who will speak after me- none of them had a career that followed the linear path. I am sure their motivations weren’t to just reach the next level. Their motivations would likely be to enable and create as much impact as possible. Their missions were neither tied, defined nor limited by job descriptions. They thought beyond the traditional organizational career paths and defined their own path.

The concept of “non-linearity” also would be instrumental in dealing with the fast changing world that we are approaching. In our career-times itself, we would be competing with one important variable- machines for the jobs.

Jack Ma, the legendary CEO of Alibaba, recently said in an World Economic Forum event-

“If we do not change the way we teach, 30 years from now we will be in trouble. -These are the soft skills we need to be teaching our children Values, Believing, Independent Thinking, Team Work ,Care for Others -We should teach our kids- Sports, Music, Painting, Art”

More we focus on perfecting the human skills, the more we will differentiate ourselves in the future. Empathy as a skill will find a large space in careers of the future. I don’t see as many courses on empathy today, as I find on AL/ML/Blockchain. I feel that will change in next 5-7 years’ time.

Satya Nadella in his book "Hit Refresh" mentions-

"It is impossible to be an empathetic leader sitting in an office behind a computer screen all day. An empathetic leader needs to be out in the world, meeting people where they live and seeing how the technology we create affects their daily activities."

I would like to sum-up my talk by reiterating these 3 nuggets:

1. Stay in the present.
2. Let this degree not be the defining moments of your lives.
3. Embrace non-linearity.

I too have done majority of my higher education alongside with the job. I bet you would unanimously agree with me the role your family members have played to let you reach where you have. As i end my address, i would want all of you to give a big hand to your family.

Congratulations once again, Thank you and all the best!

Images Source:
http://liverhythm.blogspot.in/2013/09/mind-full-or-mindful-exercises-in.html
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/u-19-world-cup/under-19-world-cup-this-wont-just-be-a-memory-that-defines-them-says-dravid/articleshow/62768056.cms

https://inpursuitofsomethingnew.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/success-a-nonlinear-path/