2020 Reflection
Welcome back to my (now) annual reflections on the year gone and my goals moving forward. Last year I made the decision to focus my goals on ‘who I wanted to be’ with the hypothesis that ‘what I wanted to do’ would naturally fall into place. In 2019 it did and coming into 2020 I was adamant on enjoying my last year of university, investing more into my relationships and knocking off a few goals along the way.
Honestly my 2020 goals were probably the least ambitious I’d set and this was intentional. Being my last year as a uni student I wanted to take it all in. I felt a little regret for not prioritising friendships and beers in preceding years and sometimes missing what was around me
Note: Upon reflection I think this whole notion is false and I had an immense amount of fun throughout, however this is the story I told myself going into the year.
The beginning of this year was characterised by diving head first into work at Young Change Agents. This included being Margarets right-hand man, attempting to set up a partnership with Deloitte and partaking in inspiring programs around Australia. The most notable was an Academy of Enterprising Girls program in Melbourne, I left absolutely touched at the leadership potential and ambition of the girls we worked with. This solidified a growing desire within to become a more pronounced gender equality advocate.
The rest of this period was comprised of a ‘Game Changers’ induced month of becoming vegetarian, the enactment of a daily cold shower habit and the beginnings of a poorly executed (but stubbornly continuous) yoga ritual. This led to the beginnings of Covid and the steady departure of ‘normal life’. However, in the last weekend before we went into lockdown, I was lucky enough to have my 21st. Getting roasted in front of my closest friends is something I was extremely grateful to experience.
I’m reluctant to say too much about Covid purely by virtue of being comparatively unaffected by the virus. The news a constant reminder of those who have lost loved ones, careers and had their lives ripped apart. The period of lockdown however did bring my closer to my family, my mum and I beginning a daily coffee adventure and Saturday nights were spent watching movies (instead of on a dance floor). As an extrovert I struggled with being at home, my plans of enjoying my last year of university replaced by pixelated zoom tutorials. However, in this period I came to a seemingly important realisation. Almost every activity in my life (uni, gym, work, podcast etc) I was always trying to progress in some way. When human interaction and travel was abruptly cut out I realised that there was no activity I did purely for enjoyments sake. Maybe described clearer byOscar Wilde, I didn’t have my own version of ‘art for arts sake’. Attempting to remedy this issue I bought a new board and begun surfing again. The weightless feeling of drifting along a clear blue wave did the trick and for the first time in a while, I felt truely present. Looking back on this now, it’s hard to weight how much of this ‘reflection’ was anxiety induced, non the less nothing beats being out in the water. Another reflection regarding in the Covid period (that I hypothesise will be common to a lot of people) is that it concentrated my close relationships. When you strip away the layers of conventions and parties you feel obliged to go to, it’s interesting the people you actually want to spend time with.
As the year progressed and we begun to adjust to the new ways of the world, I found myself being exposed to an array of new opportunities. From guest judging, writing articles to being featured on podcasts, the movement to virtual work had its advantages. Not ever classifying myself as an ‘academic person’, I enjoyed the external validation of coming first in two subjects and the excitement of blossoming new friendships.
However, one of the biggest Covid induced shifts, was in our podcast, The Sachin and Adam Show. As we got more deliberate of reaching out to guests there was a scaling effect where we begun to have conversations with people we thought we’d never meet. Moving predominantly to Zoom, we spoke to leaders from New York to London growing our network with every episode. The most pivotal aspect of this whole experience was that I finally have a clear vision of what I want to do. Throughout my university career I’ve been flirting with the idea of mixing business and impact, first through social enterprise and later impact investment. I can now clearly say that I want to run a social impact VC with Adam and a lot of our actions are trying to move closer to that goal. That’s not to say some of my other ambitions are off the tables, however the thrill I get, pulling apart businesses, predicting trends and being around founders that will change the world, is second too none.
A pivotal moment of the year was finishing university. It is humbling reflecting on the inferiority I felt in my first weeks at USYD, coming from a public school and not knowing anyone. Fast forward 4 years and some of best friends come from uni, I’ve travelled to another 18 countries, lived overseas, experienced many different industries and feel unconstrained in achieving anything I want. Of course there were many moments where I questioned my degree, the one-dimensional nature of some business students and felt the heart break of broken relationships. However, I can safely say I don’t have a single regret of my time at uni and am so grateful for a perfect 4 years.
This year I also started to appreciate the tinge of grey that colours almost every social, political and economic debate that I’ve had. The world is an incredibly complex place and whilst I think assertiveness is a prerequisite in achieving something meaningful, I am now painfully aware of my past sanctimoniousness in almost every topic I’ve discussed. Everyone is ‘empathetic’ until you are 1 hour deep into an argument with a conservative Trump supporter and it’s a true super power to truely appreciate where they are coming from.This temperament is something I hope to extend into next year as well as mastering the gentle dance between acknowledging how much I don’t know, whilst speaking about things I ‘kind of know’ with conviction.
All in all 2020 was an incredibly developmental year. The goals which I fell short on was the Ted X speech (for obvious reasons) and keeping my room and desk tidy (again for obvious reasons ,for those that know me). I became closer to my family, attempted to integrate some form of balance to my chaotic type A personality, developed a more wholistic exercise routine, found a clear direction and had an amazing last year of university.
Writing my 2021 goals was more of a reflective process than I anticipated. Diving into full time work constrains the amount of free time I have and I had to be more selective about what I wanted to achieve. My primary goals will be focussed on learning as much as possible at work and networking to build both knowledge and connections for our fund.
2020 will go down in history for many reasons, however I hope everyone reading had at least a couple of positive things happen. Until next time.
