Life Lessons Learnt & Some Reflections on the Subroto Bagchi’s podcast.

Avinash Raghava
Jul 10, 2017 · 7 min read

It was really nice to listen to the podcast of Subroto Bagchi where he shared 6 life lessons. I probably listened to this podcast for over 6/7 times and then there were areas where I could reflect upon and also learn a lot from his learnings and apply them in my life.

Those of you who don’t know Subroto, please do read up about him on his Wiki page. He was one of the early members of the Wipro leadership team and later on, with a few others, started MindTree. Currently, he is heading the Orissa Skills Development authority. He is also the author of several books like Go Kiss the World, High Performing Entrepreneur and one on his talks that he delivered at IIM-B. I had the good fortune to interact with him while at Nasscom. He was a keynote speaker for one of the EMERGEOUT events and later, conducted a 2-day workshop for the Leadership team at Nasscom. I always admire his ability to connect with people and get the best out of him.

So, let me begin by narrating the lessons learnt and some reflections :)

Life Lessons Learnt…

Lesson 1: We shouldn’t fret about where we are going.

People are always worried about jobs, about their future and where their life is going? Subroto gives a very good analogy of life & rivers….so read on…

A lot of similarity exists between how a river starts it journey and how it ends it…at the confluence where it meets the ocean. Have you ever thought about how rivers originate? The origination of river is a trickle….Yamnotri, Gangotri, etc are origins of the river Yamuna, Ganga. The only control that the trickle has is …MOVEMENT…It moves. Another unknown entity joins. At this stage, the river doesn’t look for familiarity, doesn’t ask for assurance. When a huge mountain comes in front of the river…it doesn’t antagonize/fight…it finds a new path and goes on. In our lives, we spend way too much of time fighting adversity. When the road ends for the river it’s a fall. It is not a tragic movement. The whole world comes to see the waterfall.…the river roars when it falls. When the river meets the ocean…the ocean gives way…the ocean becomes the colour of the river. You have to trust the fact that Life will take care…good things will happen….Things will happen. We need to emulate the river…Life is a Journey and Every Life is a River.

Some Reflections on My Life:

As I look back, it is easy to connect the dots now. It is always a struggle especially after class 12, the profession one should choose, since a lot is at stake and one isn’t quite sure how things will shape up. I somehow picked NIIT as my chosen path and completed B.Com (graduation) from DU. After graduating from NIIT, I was lucky to have been placed with a Chennai based company called RiteChoice Technologies. I spent some 6 months with them and joined DSF Internet Services subsequently, where I learnt the basics of WWW. I used to give training on how to use the Internet, send/receive emails, etc and also sell softwares like Netscape Navigator (yes it was a paid browser) and modems :). Website, domain names, hosting, etc. added to my range of offerings. After working for two and a half years, I moved to Trisoft Systems, a web design & solutions company. I picked up vital skills on design, a little bit of product management, and most importantly, I also learnt the art of selling and building relationships with customers. After working for four and a half years, I moved to Nasscom, never really fretting over about the work profile. Having joined as a webmaster, I would take care of networking, installation of software, manage the email server and gradually helped in managing all softwares which were custom built for the organisation. I always took up new challenges and moved into new roles every 2 years. Made a lot of friends in the industry, and helped members/people wherever possible. I gained a lot of good karma which helped in getting easy access to product leaders when we started iSPIRT. Many people came forward and donated because of the relationship that I had built. I never actually looked at what’s in it for me….but always tried to do something for the nation and also for the eco-system, companies, etc.

So..I am fully endorsing what Subroto mentions here — many people are perennially worried about the future. I think it is always important to be focussed, be happy in what you are doing and also keep doing good work…the moment you start expecting stuff from people, that’s when we run into issues.

Lesson 2: Power to Receive

The fundamental difference between ordinariness and the capacity to achieve…is the least known thing called, Power to Receive. The Power to Give is important. In life, but is the power to receive which is the bigger determinant of success. Great people are partly blessed with the power to receive and partly they cultivate it. People who will make a difference in life would have instilled in themselves the Power to Receive.

The mountain cannot hold a drop of water, what will hold is a lake/valley. The valley has the power to receive. If we want to do something in life, it requires humility, etc…you have to have a mind of the valley and not the mind of mountain.

Some Reflections on My Life:

This is so powerful. Many a times, we are always in the mode of giving and very few times, we are trying to receive from others. I have gained a lot from four mentors who have shaped my professional life:

1. Anmol Taneja — He was my first manager at DSF Internet Services and I always received a lot from him on how to sell, how to build relationships with customers and always remain calm, whatever be the situation.

2. Hemant Sharma — He was someone who was very passionate about tech (he was an ex Microsoft guy) and design. His communication was just perfect and had an eye for detail. Every meeting with him, I would get to learn a lot. He would make us cry if there was a typo in the proposal or for that matter if we did not meet his expectations. Any wrong communication and you are gone.

3. Sangeeta Gupta — She is the Sr VP at Nasscom and someone who has lots of patience. Very committed and always gave me a space to operate and encouraged new ideas. I really did excel in my role and was able to make an impact in several areas.

4. Sharad Sharma — I have been working with Sharad for almost 9 years now and I have learnt so much from him about managing relationships, ideating, being a perfectionist and always being humble. Sharad is someone who has got a big heart and always stays positive. He has the ability to connect with a 10 year old, including someone from the non-tech world in a matter of minutes…his words of appreciation is what everyone looks forward to.

Apart from the above, I get to interact with many people and I always try to learn from them and remain humble so that I can benefit from their wisdom. There are many people who are always wanting to give and I enjoy the power to receive from them.

Lesson 3: Life is a constant negotiation.

If you are not negotiating enough, you are not making progress. In life, no wisdom is stand-alone, everything is inter-connected. Life is a state of harmony.

This is another life lesson and I realised it after listening to Subroto, how at each stage we are negotiating with colleagues, friends, people that we meet and family members.

Lesson 4: Over-Achievers

They are their best friends & worst enemies…they don’t need any external stimulus. It’s all within. The downside is that they don’t need an external destroyer….the destruction is also something which is genetically coded. Double-Helix : The left side is the secret of success…the right side is the secret of destruction. Don’t be quick to look down on normalcy. You need to be blessed to be ordinary. If you are receiving victory by walking over dead bodies, then is that worth it? Over-achiever is an over-rated thing…the lesson is “Over-Achiever” is her best friend.

Some reflections on My Life:

This one again, I found very powerful. I am blessed to be an ordinary person. There are way too many over-achievers that I meet in my life and I can also see them how they are destructing themselves. I will continue to be an ordinary person and be humble.

Lesson 5: Resilience & Self-Doubt

Life is not a sprint…it is a marathon. Life is not about smartness…it’s about tenacity. I’m not the most intelligent guy….but I stay with the problem longer. Self-doubt is a starting point for humility. An instrument of deflection…Institutions have sanctity.

This is probably the most powerful piece that I received from the podcast. These are few little things which make a good human being and I would like to continue to remain focussed, grounded, humble and be helping others. I’m always having a self-doubt and the way things have been laid out for me.

Conclusion.

Someone said, life’s a marathon and not a 100-metre sprint. While being cognizant of this truism at all times, we should not break down this marathon (called life) into 100-metre dashes. It isn’t. That would be being transactional. Also, it’s about motion, constant and untiring like the river. Never to stop. It’s not over, till it’s over — as someone rightly said.

Although, I have shared my lessons, reflections form the podcast, but I am not too happy boasting about myself….don’t know if I should be writing all this. Will be good to get a second opinion about this.

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