Don’t just BE. BELONG.

Rohit Agarwal
Nov 6 · 3 min read

Text below excerpted from my email to employees. I hope this resonates with a larger audience and you can find your belonging as well.

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

- George Bernard Shaw

I’m thrilled to join such a fast-growing SaaS startup which is not only reimagining technology in the Wellness space but also stands for so much more than just being a software company.

When I first started to know Sudheer (both as a client and a friend) and then the rest of the folks at Zenoti, I learned about Zenoti’s unique value systems. Basis my initial reflections, I was able to put some of these values into perspective, however a whole lot of them were just ineffable. I connected with the interesting conversations, felt good around the people but could not ascribe depth to my learnings. And then during the grand unveiling at DASH (our quarterly event), I had an epiphany. All my unexplained feelings couldn’t have been better presented in words. What we stand for, our credo, our values, resonated so well with me that I couldn’t say that I disagree with anything there or even further I don’t subscribe to any of those. Don’t think a new joiner can ask for a better way to get started at a company.


Management can create Values but Employees create Culture.


When I pondered further on this, I wondered if others had similar feelings as I had. Did they feel a similar alignment with the values? Are they motivated to wake up and come to work every day? After all, Management can only create Values, it’s the Employees who create Culture by living them. In my brief interactions, I felt that most people felt aligned with the values but perhaps were a bit unclear on how to live them. My take on the answer is in ‘Belonging to Zenoti’.


Don’t just BE. BELONG.


The two words “Be” and “Belong” are genuinely far apart. Successful companies cannot be built without a Culture (which is always unique) and Culture cannot be built without Belonging. Each day. Every day.

So what is Belonging?

Belonging is ‘being yourself’, ‘being present’ and ‘being mindful’.

Let’s decompress this a bit:

Being Yourself — Every individual is unique. No two individuals have the same experiences, mindset and personas. Great things happen when diverse perspectives contribute to something bigger than the common denominator. One needs to feel high self-esteem and a sense of pride that they can contribute something unique to the team. Also, it’s not just about the work product. We all spend more than half of our waking hours at work and it’s certainly not fun to work with robots. So smile and bring your whole self to work.

Being Present — We are all part of this larger organization. For us to really succeed, all of us would need to contribute to the success. It can’t be that just one person’s efforts can make the whole company successful. So be present to your surroundings — with employees / customers / family / community. Make your presence felt, acknowledge others’ presence and enable others to elevate their presence. Make others feel good. Good karma never goes waste.

Being Mindful — This is perhaps the biggest hack to achieving anything. Be thoughtful of your actions and bring purpose to them. Weigh the various ways of doing things and their consequences. Be intentional about the steps you are taking. One could just be absorbed in their day-to-day activities but that’s not going to take you much ahead. We need to be mindful about everything we are doing — why we are doing it and how we are doing it. And most of all, doing in a way which aligns to the Zenoti values.

Feel good about yourself. Make others feel good. And let’s find greatness together.

Don’t just be at Zenoti. Belong to Zenoti.

#belongtoZenoti

Rohit Agarwal

Written by

Global Indian. Strategy, Finance, Biz Dev at high growth SaaS. 12 yr Software IB. Passionate about bringing in positive influence in corporate settings.

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