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.
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 willyou 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:
Stay in the present.
Let this degree not be the defining moments of your lives.
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
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