Thank you. Good evening delegates. Welcome back for the session now which we have on leadership. We have with us our own professor of IIM Bangalore. He is Mr. Rakesh Godwani. He is the author of multiple books which you can see already on the presentation. And he is one of the most conversant and one of the most fluid people we have met and we have a lot to learn from him on an everyday basis in our classes in college. We would like to hand over to Mr. Godwani now. Thank you everyone. Thank you very much. It is such a great honor to have all of you here at campus. Let me hear what kind of colleges are you from? Christ, Christ. Okay, let us do the Christ, Christ people raise your hands. All right, well incurred I heard. Well incurred people raise your hands. RV college, RV college. Okay, let me do RV college. One lone fighter, give him applause for that. NL, Dalmia, very good. Delhi University people, oh, Entrepreneurs'University, Indraprasth University, my god, unbelievable. NIT Jaipur, Sri Sri University, BITS Goa, you just have to say Goa, that's all. Indian Institute of Plantation Management, very good. Yes madam, Sharda University, very nice. CMR, CMR, IIM Sambalpur, very nice, NIT Trichy, all right. PSG tech all right SRCC very good SRM Chen I am Bangalore yeah I am Bangalore yeah. I F M R very nice yes sir Manipal, Manipal is a place bhaiya. Manipal bol de sab samajh jayenge right MIT so mighty mighty MIT is that still going on all right yes. FMS BHU very nice, SIBM very good, NMIMS which one, Mumbai very good, Assam wow all the way from Assam engineering college very nice. NMIMS Bangalore, okay all right very good, yes madam NMIMS Bangalore very good. It is good to have all of you here, if we continue like that we will finish our lecture and I would have just gotten to know your college names. So, my name is Rakesh Kothbani, I am one of those fortunate ones who spent all the four roles that this institute has to offer. I studied here a course called PGSM, it is a part time MBA program and I do not much brains to write CAT, so I decided I will never write and I had this strange jugad kind of a thought process that I want to come to IIM Bangalore, but when I saw the huge queue and this gate called CAT, I said apne se se nahi hoga. Then I found window and windows are the PGSM kind of program, so I there was a lesser queue there and I said okay I am going to get in. I was working at Intel at that time. Then I became an alumni committee member outside, supported the institute. Then I left my corporate role and came back and did some work for the institute in the role of alumni association head. And finally, now I'm a teacher at the Institute for the last seven years. I teach PGP one and two and some other programs at the Institute like PGPM. My program now is PGP EM and executive education programs. Now my journey here has been very strange and that's what I want to leave you with that. I hope in this one hour we interact with each other. And, you get to know something about how I reached where I reached and it is all fluke that is all the one word that I leave you with it is a complete fluke. So, I come from the west part of India Jodhpur which is in Rajasthan you know you are from Jodhpur. Yes. You are also from Jodhpur, oh so many Jodhpuri is out here very good the world is coming to an end if so many Jodhpuri is not there. So, I come from there and you know typical middle class everybody in my family is a doctor. I mean everybody means everyone that my mom, my dad, my brother, my bhabhi, my mom's three brothers, their wives, all doctors. Our house if you look on the right the house there similar profile. all doctors, you look on the left, all doctors. So I started hating doctors, you know, I mean, especially when you, yeah, they're very boring people. So my brother and all of us would sit down for lunch and they would say things like that. Oh, today was such a great day. And I would be like, yeah, maybe he met his new girlfriend or something like that. And he would say that today we saw this guy with a completely broken face and you know, blood was coming out and just so cool. And I would just stop eating after that and I made my first career decision that I will not become a doctor. Yeah, seriously, thank you. Thank you such a lovely audience. I get claps now for things I haven't done. So when you are so this is around 1988 or so. So when you have made your first career choice, you don't want to become a doctor. Right as left So, I decided that I will become a chef. So, I walk up to my mom and I say mom, dad, I want to become a chef. My mom stopped cooking for two days. It was a lot of depression. Have you seen three idiots? It was short hair and we will talk about this room and there is a scene where Raju Rastogi's house comes, right? Depression, Kammo in one corner. and that strange violin playing. So imagine my house, I was very sad, you know, I can't see my mom crying. So I said, mom, please don't cry. What do you want me to become? And my mom, like a true Indian mother said, beta, I want you to become an engineer. So I said, all right, mom, but on one condition, I will not stay with you. So there was a little bit of crying and all that stuff, but not there. So, the decision was made, I will become an engineer on the fact that I will find a college in India. Now the problem is which college and this is 1990s internet is not there. So, there was this battered brochure I saw and I read about some colleges, IITs, RECs and other colleges, south there were many colleges. So, I was very confused and then you know my brother's friend who is from NIT Trichy comes to my house. You are the NIT Trichy gang, right? So, they come to my house. And he is like Rakesh what are you doing in life, you should come to REC Trichy in those days it was REC. And he said that boss we party all day, there is awesome food and I am like man I am coming to this place. So, I made my first focus in life, I have to go to REC Trichy, I mean the name sounded cool London, New York, Trichy. I was fascinated by it. Then I decided I will do computers. Now why computers and my life is heavily influenced by movies. My students will tell you very painfully. And there is a movie called Jurassic Park. Have you seen that? In that there is a scene where dinosaurs are chasing the kids. They go to a room and this girl does click, click, click and shuts down the doors and says this is the computer system. And I was inspired by that scene that boss when I go to RAC Trichy I will learn how to shut doors when dinosaurs follow you. So I made the second decision that I will study computers. So I would wake up in the morning RAC Trichy computers, sleep in the night RAC Trichy computers. That was my focus Arjun and the bird's eye. And for the first time in my life, I really got a good rank in my state entrance exam. I was in really good position. Everybody was surprised. My father had to read the paper twice just to see that he is he can number and that is how it was. So, anyway, counseling session begins the day of the counseling. All of us are standing in the queue. I am in a very good position. So, I am very high up in the queue about to go inside and choose. I had only one option selected RSE Trichy computers. Now I was very happy with myself, this is it, my journey is about to begin and I realized that just five places before me, another dude who had seen Jurassic Park and had a friend who got enamored by R.A.C. Trichy had already taken that seat. So, my whole dream shattered and I started crying, I was crying because the thought came that I had to stay in Jodhpur with my mom and I will go mad, I mean I love my mom, but this the thought of staying with them was very painful and I had dreamt of this dream of going outside so much that it shattered and it was very painful, you know when dream shatter it is not fun. So, anyway. So, the scene is counseling room, I am about to enter the room, my dreams are shattered, my brother sees this and he runs like a madman. So, he goes all around the college because his friends are studying there and he asks them that what are the colleges should my brother go to and he comes back running like huffing and puffing and I am like nano seconds before my turn is about to come and he says Rakesh I have two more colleges for you. I said which ones and I am about to go. And he says the first one is something called Motilal Nehru College of Engineering Allahabad. I said yeah I know that it is a very old reputed college and the second one I said what is the second one and he said Rakesh I do not know the name, but I heard it is on a beach. So I said I am going there, so I go inside the room there are these three professors sitting without looking up one of them says yes what do you want. So, I did not know what I had to ask for. So, I bent down a little bit. I said sir, there is a college on the beach, which one is that? So, now the three professors put their glasses down, looked up, laughed their heart out and then declared to each other key in our 25 years of service, we have never seen a sample like this, who walks into a counseling session not knowing where he is going. So, after some I let them laugh, I am like you know and then the middle guy looked at me and said sir, son are you serious, I said yes sir, I want to go to this college and study there which is on a beach and then he humored me, he said ok what, when did you get to know about this college, I said two minutes back. So, he laughed even more, he did like this, he looked at his friends and said sir, the future of our country is in bad shape. If such kind of people become engineers and said son that college is called Suratkal, do you want to go there? I said done sir, will cool and I asked him computers are available, he said absolutely and that is how I entered my engineering college. Yeah, thank you, thank you. Now, when you are from this kind of a background and this is how you decide in life. The next phase of my journey is the job that I did not study my four years I enjoyed. How do you get a job? So my job is also very interesting. So by the way, I have two choices for you. I have two lectures planned. You tell me what you want to listen to lecture one is that I'm an expert in communication. I can teach you six steps of how to communicate better. That is one lecture two is I can share with you six secrets of your life that you should know right now on how to have a better career. Both both time near it. Ok, ok how many of you want the first lecture? 2 of them. Second lecture? Who? My online class is there I can send you the link alright. I mean the majority wins. So, you know when in item number you have to do what the audience wants to do. So, now comes the journey of my job that how does someone like me who has never studied and is at 62% of his career get a job and I was ranked 62 not ranked I was ranked 38th in my class in my college. So, pretty bad student. So, here is what happened. So, I was a class rep. Final year first week starts and companies come one by one and you know how the placement season works right, people who have more marks get first priority. I had very poor marks ranked 38 in the class, so the toppers were sitting here 80%, 75, 70 and 60. I am not saying you are bad people, I am just giving you a perspective. So, I was sitting somewhere at the back and smaller class. So, the first company comes and this company is called Tata IBM systems limited, TISL. They come and say how many of you have 80 percent and above. So, this first row raise their hands. People with 75 get very angry. They said sir we are also very good people please consider us. They said no only 80 and above. So, they shortlist this 10 people make them write an exam and interview them and give job to 2 people that day. So, day 1 2 people gone. The same nautic happened next day Simmons comes again the same nautic. people with 70 got very upset but they said no only 75 and above so people with 75 wrote the exam they interviewed them and three people got the job so day two plus day one five people gone I was sitting at the back I said at this rate I will get my job on the 13th or 14th day so I was fairly prepared I said what what to do and this is karma theory right Now, they three the best company in the world comes call Honeywell technologies, have you heard about this company. It is right outside IIMB, yes absolutely lovely company, I will tell you why. So Honeywell comes and they again the same Natak, they say 70 and above, so I also raise my hand, I said sir people with 60 are also very good. They said no only 70 and above. So, 70 and above is about three quarters of my class. They were all made to write an exam at 7 in the evening after they corrected all the answer papers they said ki yaar you guys are amazing. All of you have written the exam so well I want to interview all of you. But right now it is 7 o'clock in the evening I have a bus to catch. So, I am going all of you come to Bangalore tomorrow I will pay for the bus I will take care of you arrange a bus leave everything else to me any left. So, I was the class rep, so I arranged the bus. I remember that scene vividly, all my class inside the bus eating chips and cola and having antakshari and I was outside, this is karma theory that if you have not studied, why will you be on the bus. So, the bus left and I could hear them clapping and singing and playing antakshari and I really cried that day. That is the day I remembered my mom's words of wisdom ki beta padh le. did not happen anyway. So, the bus went I went back to my room cried and slept next day Wipro comes to campus there is no one in the room except 8, 10 of us. So, Wipro gets very angry what is this such bad poor people are we are giving me and he said I am boycotting this institute and I am going. So, I raised my hand because I was a class rep. I said sir I have a question, so he said yes what is it, I said sir have you come in a taxi or in a KSRTC bus. Imagine the scene very bad people, I am not saying bad people are bad people, bad marks people in the room Wipro is a top company very insulted that there is nobody in the classroom and now this guy asks a strange question which is have you come in a taxi or have you come in a bus. So he gets very angry. So, I realize my mistake I say sir I am sorry I did not mean to offend you, but I really want you to tell me have you come in a taxi or in a bus. So, he says I have come in a bus, but why you asking me this question. I said sir it is 9.15 in the morning, the next bus is at 9 in the night, what will you do. We have one temple and one beach, there is really nothing else and there is no internet also. So, he said yeah ok, what do you suggest I should do. I said sir we are 8, 10 of us I will bring electronics people, electrical people I will give you 25 people to interview, talk to us 20 minutes, 25 minutes time pass no commitments and then I will give you coffee, tea, lunch and by 6 o'clock you finish I will take you to Mangalore we will have a mug of beer and I will put you in the bus. He said wow that is a great idea and that is how I entered my interview room. So, now the interview starts, Mr. Goswami here I have a C code find 5 faults in it, I had never seen a C code in my life. So, I just rambled something. Then he said okay here is a logic the circuit diagram if I change this gate to and to or what will happen to the output. I had never seen such kind of a thing in my life. Then he asked me three four other theoretical questions and I kind of mumbled very badly. Then he declared that I was the worst student he has ever met in his life. The interview is over do you want to ask me any questions. I said yes and I asked him questions after questions. Sir what do you do in Wipro? What programming language do you use? What is your computer like? Where do you live? Do you have a bike? What bike is that? Have you gone to America? Which city? How much money do you earn? After some time he stops me and says boss who is interviewing who out here? So I said sir remember time pass nothing to do. So he said okay continue and we had 10 minutes more of conversation, we had a very nice conversation. And he asked me what is my interest, so I talked to him about the future of computers, I had a very good idea about what will happen in the future, I knew Java, I did not know how to code it, but I knew what the world was getting into because I used to read a lot of time and news week magazines in my college, I would not read the text books, they are very boring, why would you. So, after 20 minutes the interview got over and he bid me goodbye. I came back to my room smiling and I read my book and I slept. At 6 in the evening I was called because I had to do a vote of thanks. I was a class rep. Very reluctantly I went there because you know very humiliating to go there and your name is never there. Anyway, so the Wipro guys announcing the results and when they were announcing the results my name was there. Yeah seriously. So, I walked up to this guy after pinching myself that this is too good to be true. I said sir is everything ok with Wipro. No hiring people like me is not a good idea. So, he said a sentence to me that I think I should share with you which I have never forgotten. He said Rakesh I go to all the best colleges of India, I hired the toppers there. And when I bring them to Wipro, it takes me a year, sometimes more for me to teach them how to behave properly. They're all rattoototas and parrots and magus and I would teach them how to communicate, behave like a leader and manager. And that takes time and I find that it's difficult for me. But you on the other hand, talk very well, are able to articulate yourself and I'll make you an engineer in one month. So, I slapped myself like that sir I wasted 4 years of my life and you could have made me an engineer in 1 month. So, this is how I got my job and then that is why I teach communication and I will send you my online course as well. So, that you can learn from it, but I will probably share with you 6 messages I wish I knew when I was your age. By the way I am not very old. So, do not think that it is a generational topic, I am just few years above you and, but I wish I knew these things when I was your age. And all these 6 things are 6 stories and 6 movies that you could all watch and learn from. Let me see if this thing works and I want you to remember these messages because I will then quiz you if you have remembered this or not. By the way this is my college, this is me the class rep doing Macarena not the Macarena we are supposed to do a oath that day and this is me in the year book very happy. This is how my 4 years were absolutely happy. And, this is my 20th year reunion, we went there last year, this is my entire batch and I will talk to you about these 6 messages going back and forth between these 2 points. Because some of these messages are connected to meeting all of them after 20 years. I am sitting here, this is me and if you see many of them do not have hair left, which is very essential message of life which I will share with you. So, here is my talk that I will give you six messages that I hope you remember and I hope you apply today because I did not know this when I was your age and now when I look back at life I think these six messages are something you should know. Alright, so here is message number one, we are all sitting in this room where this incident happened you know who he is right, Chatur Mahalingam or Chatur Ramalingam or Mahalingam. Chatur Ram Lingam, alright so he was standing here and this is where the whole audience was but I think I truly believe this character was so well designed, we all have a Chatur around us don't we, you know some guy who mugs up so well and gets marks and spoils our life because our mummy and teachers will always take his example to you know teach us what to do but here is my. Here is what I learnt from my reunion that day, in my 20th reunion we all called our teachers and all of us are meeting each other after 20 years too. So we said we are going to take the mic and introduce each other one by one. So one by one my friends came up and they said that I am Rakesh, I am from computer engineering and I am now teaching. One guy said I am Mahesh, I am from electrical engineering and I am working in a bank and I started thinking that man I am Rakesh. So, what happened to our entire degrees and what we are doing right now. So, after the session was over we called all the students and I designed this program and I asked only one question is there any correlation between your marks and your life and all of us about 70 of us were there that day they all unanimously said 0. There is no correlation between your marks and your life and that is my first message to you that please remember that all of us are always collecting something. So, I want you to collect 6 things differently, here is the first one collect knowledge not marks, because what I think is important is the depth of knowledge that will shape who you are. And Chatur is a great example where he would memorize things and he could not manage that situation and made a fool of himself. This is exactly what happens in the practical world. A classroom is a way to appreciate life but if you are going to focus only on the marks then I think you are going to miss out a very important concept called the knowledge of that classroom. And that comes from questioning, discussing, going deeper into the concept till you finish understanding that. not mugging it and writing an answer, getting marks and then going to a company because one day it will not work and all of my friends that day after the 20th union unanimously said that hey in fact one of them was a one of us failed also, he actually is by far the richest guy in our batch right now. Now I am not saying that you should stop studying that is not my intention, but I am saying collect knowledge. instead of marks. So that's my first message, collect knowledge not marks. Here is the second one and this is one of my favorite stories, I have met this gentleman, there is a movie called Padman, right. I have seen the gentleman, I have met with him, we invited him here, he gave a lovely talk here and I think his story is so inspiring that you must either watch the movie or see his videos and read his blogs. I have written a blog on him as well. To design something you need lot of skills and here is a person in Coimbatore who does not have much degrees that many of us have, I have lots and so do you and if you combine there is lot of degrees in this room. But I do not think we are capable of doing what he had, because he had something which at least I do not and I hope you should have and that is the skills of doing a job. So, he designed a sanitary napkin without even knowing how to do it, he created a machine to manufacture it without even knowing how to do it, he created an organization that sales and markets and we at IIM Bangalore sometimes can't even do what he is doing. And the answer is that you need to collect skills not the degrees. Degrees are pieces of paper. After a point they don't really matter. Just papers. In fact there is another story which is from the old Vedic system. So there was this tiny village, lovely village where there were people who would live. There were farmers, fishermen, agriculturists, hunters, gatherers, tradesmen. and very close knit of people and this village was secluded from the main city, there was a river that you have to cross and one day on that boat to cross there was this enlightened Brahmin and few commoners around him and the Brahmin would ask these commoners as the boat was going, he asked one person who is a farmer, he said ki have you read this particular Ved in our Vedic literature and this person said sir I do not know I am sorry I have not. So, the Brahmin said that oh then quarter of your life is wasted. Then he looked at the other person and said that oh have you read this other text in our systems. The other person said so no sir I am just a simple hunter I have not read anything. So, he says that oh half your life is wasted. He does the same thing with another person and declares that three quarters of your life is wasted. And after some time there is a very big storm. The river is in turmoil, the boat starts to rock. So one person asks him Maharaj, do you know how to swim? The Brahmin says no. Then he says that your entire life is based on it. And that is what I think you should remember from these stories, these stories teach us a very important part that while we are trying to be an MBA or engineer or a B.Com, M.Com, M.Sc, B.Sc, Ph.D, I.As, I think the world needs this a skill. And I encourage all of you to collect one skill, whatever that could be and make sure you are a very good skilled person on that because that is what the world wants. Nobody cares about your degrees and your marks. They all care about your knowledge and your skills. So my second request to you is please collect skills not degrees. Are you with me so far? Alright, here is my third one. This is again a great movie. What is the name of the movie that I have? No, this is the waiting room. A very intense movie, it is a hospital's waiting room where two characters meet and in that meeting there is an entire movie. And I will tell you the background of this particular concept. This also happened in many other movies. In fact, there is a very nice movie that I keep suggesting. One of them is called Wreck-It Ralph. Have you heard about that? Wreck-it Ralph is this cartoon character who punches things, it's a cartoon movie. And Waiting Room is also similar. That all your life you're working, you have lots of followers and people around you. But in that Waiting Room, there was no one to help you. And that's what Kalki Kekla says in the dialogue that I have 5000 followers on Twitter, but not one who is there to help me right now. And, sometimes we forget that when we are trying to collect things, we forget to collect friends. And I hope you have good friends that are there with you when you need them most. At least I can proudly say that at least from my batches I have very good friends. And when I need them they are always there. And friendships are what you should be collecting not followers. This new world of Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. They will give you followers. It will give you a sense of joy because when they like you we do like it. Who doesn't like being appreciated? But please remember when you need them. I do not think anybody will come. What you need is people who are around you when you need them most. In fact, one of my friends has this amazing story he tells me, he tells me that Rakesh when we were in college. We had this group of very good friends and we didn't have enough money so we would all share a bottle of beer together and it was to be such a cherished moment. That time the beer was like 30 or 40 rupees but we would take one sip and there would be 400 of us. So imagine the sips would be very short but that joy was amazing. That same person when I met him in the reunion is now a billionaire and he said Rakesh I can buy an entire beer company but there is nobody to share it with. All my friends are here and I barely meet with you. That story hit me very nicely that I think we sometimes realize what is the purpose of friends only when we miss them. So my third request to you is please collect friends. They're all around you. Invest time in them. Know them where they're from because they all will grow with you. In fact, our entire alumni association is built on this one focus that we all will help each other. And that comes from knowing people that does not come from liking each other on Facebook and Instagram all right, what are the first two messages very good second, third, third, Excellent, let us go to the last three. Here is the fourth one. This is a great movie called the bucket list and you should see the kind of movie. It is two men who are about to die, have lot of wishes to complete and they all complete that using the bucket list. This is Jack Nicholson and that is Morgan Freeman and the same thing happened to many of us. If you look at life, one day it will just pass away and you won't even have health. There is this lovely Kannada saying. that anybody understands Kannada, okay I will I am very bad at it, so please correct me if I am wrong, I will tell you what I know about it. The quotation says or the saying says which means when I have a jaw, I do not have peanuts to munch and when I get peanuts, I do not have a And that is what happens with life that today you have health but after 20-25 years probably you will have less of it unless you invest in it. A big problem in many of our entrepreneurial dreams is health. Everybody wants to start something but at the age of 40, 50, 60 our bodies and minds are not going to be as healthy as when we were 20. So, if you want to do something do it now, because you have health after some time it would not be as good as what it is today, unless you collect it religiously. And many times we are not able to focus on health, because we focus on the next thing which is the wealth. In fact, all of us go through that we take our first jobs, money comes with that money we buy a bike, then it becomes a car, then it becomes a house, then we get married, the loans and that is it end of everything. And that is something I wanted to request right now that please invest in your health. This is the fifth one, Mountain Man right, have you seen this movie, Dashrath Manji, Mountain Man again phenomenal story and if you have not seen the movie actually the real story is much better than the movie and Nawazuddin Siddiqui did a great job, he came here and did a talk on this concept as well. Here's how the story unfolds, if you look at this gentleman it's a true story, he is dead now. Somewhere in the 1970s when he got married and had a young wife, he lived in a very impoverished village where there was no hospital. And the nearest hospital was in the next village and there was a mountain between these two villages. So, you have to really circumvent the mountain to get there. And it would take many hours to circumvent in a bullock cart or cycle, buses were rare in those days. So, his wife is suffering from a deadly disease maybe tuberculosis and he puts her in the bullock cart and on the way she dies, because she could not get the right medical help. So, he comes back puts all the cremation and does the Kriyakaram and the next day morning he picks up a axe and a shovel and starts to dig this mountain and everybody in the village thinks that he has gone mad. that you know his wife died, maybe he's got a shock or a trauma so they left him and they felt that maybe in 3-4 days he will return back to his senses, that 3-4 days never happened. Every day he would wake up, pick up his axe and shovel, start digging, take the dirt and put it aside and he went on doing this for 22 years, 22 years. I mean many of us don't even do something for 22 minutes these days. We get bored or somebody will say, hey what are you doing wasting your life, we just leave it. This man 22 years kept digging because he had only one mission that I have to make sure that nobody else goes through what I went through and in that he experienced a tremendous focus of his life that experience of getting up singular focus driving it paid off and one day this road was constructed this is the entire cut that he did and there is if you google there is a Dashrath Manji road and this man I think you should all really think about him whenever you feel low in life whenever you feel like giving up think of Dashrath Manji. That if he could do it for 22 years, why can't we, if he could live in a village where everybody thought he was mad, why can't I face some people who think I'm mad. And that's the mental experience you need to start doing that please collect experiences. He did not even get a reward for this journey. But I think many people like him don't care for the rewards, they care for the experience of the journey. And that is what is the most interesting thing when you want to become a leader and manager. So the fifth message is please collect experiences not rewards. These scholarships, these cups are meaningless, but the experience to get to them is extremely important. And in that experience, a very important word that you must remember is failure. Failure is an important experience, not winning all the time. So when you feel down, remember it is an experience that will help you somewhere in life, which is what stories like Dashrath Manji talked to us about. And last and final is this was my favorite movie. What is the name of this movie? Kung Fu Panda. I think I can't tell you the importance of this movie and many more movies. Last week I watched another movie called Tamasha. Have you seen that movie? Three Idiots is one of them and so are many more other movies, they all have a consistent message and the message is that hey collect your purpose, your purpose is I love Kung Fu. Not what the position it brings or the returns it brings and in that journey you find your ultimate meaning of life and it is not a very difficult thing to do, the only thing you have to do is keep trying and if you look at the movie including Tamasha, Three Idiots or any movie that inspires you, you will find this as a consistent message coming to you. In fact not every movie has this kind of an ending which is very happy ending including Three Idiots. There are movies which also talk about how sometimes these journeys are very depressing and one movie is called Inside Llewyn Davis, a very gut-wrenching movie of a struggling singer in New York and his the film is about three days in his life that's all. It starts in one morning, he is struggling, he takes a guitar and goes to these pubs and joints and they call it a gig and for every gig he would get 3 to 5 dollars. Imagine, imagine You are surviving in New York, which is one of the most expensive cities in the world. You love singing, you will do it any day and you are struggling to find that gig. So sometimes he had to travel from one end to the other end in snow and he would be cold and shivering but the moment he would be on stage and singing he would become a different person and everything would be forgotten. The same as Kung Fu Panda, the same as Tamasha that if you love something make it your full purpose in life. Everything else is secondary. It is not impossible. There are millions of cases around us. We just have to be a little bit more gutty and gritty around it and apply the first five messages as well. I think there is a gold mine out there for everyone who finally realizes that finally if you are a cook, you cook. Don't become a banker. If you love math, go and do something with math and hopefully bank is one of the places where you can do something with math. That's how purpose is designed. But just because a bank pays really well, don't go there because it will stress you, you will be very unhappy and everything else falls out of the order. So, if you want to be a great leader, I think you have to find the final sixth message which I will give you which is collect your purpose and not your position and power. So, here are my six messages. What are the six messages? Let us repeat them one more time. Very good. Very nice. Excellent. You guys are amazing. Wow. I am so proud of you. Thank you. All right and the last one, so this is how leaders and managers are made it is not that straight forward, but it is not impossible. So, with that I will open the floor to any questions we have 10 minutes or more for questions and then the floor is yours yes madam NIT switchy right yeah. Sure, yeah I get your question by the way do not get frustrated. All right, this game requires you and you and I all of us to work together on it. All right, do not stand outside the system and throw stones at it. Join the system and change it and be a part of the system. That is how we have to do it. So the first step is we identify a tiny goal that we think or at least I think I can do. All right and I go and focus on that. And I think I will ignore the other parts because they get very tactical, I can tell you the world has reached a point and please sit down, the world has reached a point where already companies are coming and saying we do not care about marks, let us bring the students we will ask them to speak on a topic, then we will take them and have a dinner with them and there is a different recruitment process happening, marks many of them do not even see. There are many entrepreneurs you would be reading about who are not even graduates these days alright. So the world is changing, but yes change takes a little bit of time. This entire concept is thousands of years old. All of us are struggling in it and I can see that students like you, I and many more have to do one drop at a time. What is that one drop? You follow the sixth one. You have a degree from NIT Trichy great, now find something which is a purpose and go and do it, because it will help you and then help somebody in NIT Trichy to find their calling and that is how we need to stay connected. Please remember our country also is waking up from a emerging system, we are not there yet, we still need to walk a lot till we reach a maturity stage, where students can decide what they want to learn. Where companies can decide what they want to do and that will take some finite time not hundreds of years another few decades maybe all right. Thank you great question. Thank you. Got it got it got it. Why don't industries allow people without degrees? I can tell you 15 companies have already started that. That news came in CNBC last month. Oracle is one of them. Yeah, there is a finite time between how this will impact you all right. Here's my request to all of you, don't wait for that day to come to you, go and grab it right now. I think you need to start understanding that one is this utopian world that everything is possible, but please understand the world is very real. It will not change unless you want it to change. I do not think many companies will agree with this they should not also. If the whole world becomes in one world I think it will be different not everybody can become an entrepreneur, not everybody can follow their heart. We need a mix of the world, we need five fingers to make this world. So, some of us will find a calling in jobs. In fact, I know many friends who love their jobs, maybe you do not and that is what I want to request you that. do not wait for companies to reach that place, go and do something and apply these techniques, it will take some time, but we have to work together. All right, we have many more hands, but we need mic control, I will go ahead. Pick up something that you love that answer that purpose is this not a very highfalutin concept very simple what do you love most doing that is it and start doing something on that even if it is something simple as sleeping, sleep more first then we will figure out how to get your job or sleeping by the way there exists a job like that I was told that there is a bed company who will hire good sleepers. there is a pillow company who will give you money if you sleep in their offices. So there exists lot of things but first find out what you love most and the answer will come in 5 minutes it doesn't take 50 years to figure this out. Yes sir, who said that to you? Thank you. Yes, then my life we would not have met today. But I think I know the question a big part of this is called luck and none of us have any answer for that. While there are lot of academic theories that try to understand it, there is a larger force up. And, maybe it is called destiny which is what even Kung Fu Panda talks about go and make your destiny happen. Nobody has a clue what destiny is it is just as good sounding word. That was a big question by the way, what is the small question now we have to move on. Okay. So, many of my friends who I studied with are still there and they are doing very well. In Jodhpur there is a big law company started by one of my batch mates that law company is doing international work. He loved law from the beginning because his family was into it and right from the childhood he was a great debater. So I don't think you need to leave some place. In fact the best thing you can do is to stay in the same place. where you were born because after a certain point in life your roots do call you back like my roots are still Jodhpur and sometimes they do call me so as I get older I would love to go there so if you can stay there and do something nothing like it now please understand there is one word I haven't told you about that world is called that word is called choices everything is a choice and it comes with the price So, if you do not go out, you do lose out on various experiences, which can be very helpful to you when you come back, but it is all about choices. So, this friend of mine took a personal choice that I will ignore the other experiences and focus what I enjoy most and choices is how we govern our decision systems. So, change your choices by not just money, but by experiences, which is a fifth message I gave you collect experiences. I am sure Jodhpur will give you many experiences. All right. So, first thing is I will justify or may be I may not be able to justify fully, but I will give you my perspective. When I was in that classroom and everybody was studying, everything was about marks right and then there is a GRE, GMAT, CAT, but I wish somebody else had told me all these things at that time, which would have given me a mindset to think differently. So, I ended up in a job, then I stumbled in something else, then I stumbled in something else, then I stumbled in something else and I am still stumbling. So, it always helps to have this kind of experience from someone who has gone through that grind and the concept is in your friend circle and I wish you have this friend circle which is very diverse, it is not just about people like you. A good thing at least in my life was that I had friends who were much more older to me even in IIM Bangalore, we have very good professors who are 20 years senior to me and such amazing experiences they will say. I go and sit with them in the lunch table and I sometimes pop the question, what is that one thing you regret doing most and that is it, that one hour will be a great message which will come out, which will help me that okay when I become 60, I should probably think of it today. And that is how we learn that today you are 20 something, there is no harm in knowing what will happen tomorrow and here somebody is willing to share, by the way all of us are very, very we love somebody who comes and talk to us, you know why, you know why I love teaching and all these question answers, nobody listens to me at home. Here you are trying to ask me a question, so it is very self gratifying right, so go to your faculty people tomorrow, sit down at lunch with them and pop the question, okay sir any mistakes of life. And you should see the amount of information they will give you and watch out for two things if your course is not over he will give you an answer and if you apply it then your marks are in trouble. But do it after your course is over because you get friendly with the person. A very big part you are all missing is your connect with faculty and that's because students nowadays don't engage with faculty that much. It's the price we are paying for education system. In the olden days in IIM Bangalore we had faculty and students almost living together and same in our engineering colleges. Nowadays emails is the communication, barely any communication happens and we do feel distance from them. So, I encourage you to go and talk to your faculty. Here are some questions you can ask them. Sir, what are the top 5 books you have read in your life? That is a great question. You must make a list and write down these books and okay after writing down there are two more steps. Please buy these books or find them and what will I say next? Thank you very much. Just knowing which 5 books he read is not enough. And reading is a very big problem with our generation because we are losing out on this information. Anyway, we will try our best to do that. So that's the justification that it helps to know what will happen in the future so that we can take a better decision now. It just opens our mind. That's all. We will still do what we have to do. But it helps to open our mind. Oh, I so I will email that to our organizers and they will send it to you. In fact, I encourage all my students to ask me this question. I have not prepared those five. I have seven now. I'll give you 10 also. Huh? That also I send you. So I have but my movies is a little more philosophical and all that stuff. I'll tell you I saw a wonderful movie. I mean age has a very important part to play. When I was 20 my movies were different, at 40 I am different. But I will tell you I saw a lovely movie with my wife called Ali's Wedding. It is in Netflix. This all you know. Very good, very nice. So Ali's Wedding. It is a simple movie about this boy who is from Iraq and falls in love with a girl who is from Lebanon. Big problem, big big problem like you know world will end kind of problem. But this movie is a very lovely movie where he does fall in love, he is outcasted from his entire society and in that there is a scene where he was supposed to get married to another Iraqi girl and the other Iraqi girl after the marriage is broken says something very nice. She is asked a question that if given a choice will you go and marry this guy again and she says yes. So, her father is puzzled, why he rejected you and went for that Lebanese girl, this girl says that dad I like one thing about him that he tried to fulfill his dreams and to me that is very high respect than what I see in other people around me. And this movie gives this message that hey to fulfill your dreams itself is a big leadership lesson, whether that dream results in success or failure is immaterial. So, it is that experience of fulfilling that dream which you should pick right now, because after 20 years your body and mind will not give you support, at 20 you have all the energy. So, make it happen right now, you want to dance, dance today, you want to cook, cook today, you want to do math, do math today, do not bungle it up because the world wants you to. Alright, last two questions and then we will go last one or two questions. Yes. Oh, that is very interesting. I can tell you, I can tell you the date also. So, so when I went to Wipro, I enjoyed my work. For the first time I learnt computer engineering in Wipro. I switched on a computer. I am like, oh wow, this is a floppy disk and all that stuff. So, I became a decent programmer, not a good programmer. I went to America. So, at the age of 21, I had a car and I was living in America. I did not like America a lot. You know that country is big and huge but I just didn't like it. I felt coming back. So, I came back to Bangalore, went to Intel. But from 1999, I had a second job. I started teaching on weekends and I was doing that in my college but I kind of subdued that dream. I always loved to teach. When I was 18-19 I knew I probably am a good teacher or because my parents are also teachers there is a genetic effect maybe but at that time I was like no no I'll earn money buy a car all that stuff. The dream came back in 1999 I started teaching and the dream became so solid that I would wait for weekends to come. So any place where I could get a class I would go and teach. So I started teaching in every college, every place, even in my own organization. And one day I had two lives. Life A, lot of money and this thing and life B, amazing happiness. So one day I sat down in Bombay, I was posted there, I was in Qualcomm. There's a lovely cafe in Bandra bandstand. I was sitting there alone at 11 o'clock in the morning. I ordered a cup of tea. I said, yeah, I've done this PGSM MBA from IIM Bangalore. Let me apply two by two metrics to my life. That is what we teach here, 2 by 2, everything is 2 by 2. So I plotted the y axis, I wrote money and happiness, x axis I wrote Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Monday to Friday, high money, I was one of the highest paid guys in the corporate world at my age, but zero happiness, I was bored. And this happens when you probably reach a certain stage realizing there is a rainbow there, but there is nothing. So, when I was studying here, I wanted to be a CEO, I was on that journey, I was a director at that time, I realize it is very hollow, no point and I was making the same PPT again and again, good salesman, but very I felt unaccomplished. But on Saturday and Sunday, zero money, but tremendous happiness, like I would come out of a classroom as if I can ready to, I was ready to teach 8 more hours, till I collapse. So I asked myself that question. So on 30th May 2008, I finally resigned. I actually wrote down my resignation letter and I took two months to think what I will do. Came back to IIM Bangalore. I mean this institute really takes good care of me because I'm an ex-student and my faculty professors love me a lot. They said, we need help. So I set up the alumni office and then I started warming up to teaching here. But I continued my teaching journey throughout. So, life will tell you exactly what you want to do, you will probably subdue it or you will postpone it kal karenge, but that is where it kind of you know kind of you need to start thinking that do it right now, there is plenty of ways to do that to figure that out all right. One last question and then we will go yes. Yeah, that is my pet question. In fact, I have done a LinkedIn talk, there is a webinar you should look out for. I find these titles really funny. So, many students write gold medalist from some university, IIT, IIM graduate, God's gift to mankind, whatever. I am just making it up very I mean there was this one person whose LinkedIn profile had this sentence that cut me and I bleed technology something like that. Like why would you write like that and why would you why would you say I am a IIT IIM graduate or NIT gold medalist, DU gold medalist. I mean I understand why we do that we need recognition we need validation from others. So we feel it is a very important thing for us so we put there. But once we are in this journey of purpose, right? I know I am what I like to do. I don't need to tell others what I am. In fact, there's a lovely story. I think my father taught me this. Can I take two more minutes and tell you one last story? So my father is my teacher and he's a professor of pharmacology, retired, teaches me every time when I go home and now we've become best friends. Earlier I used to hate him because he was a tough father. So, we have a small garden behind his house and he built that garden with his retired friends themselves and they are all retired and when the garden is completed now there are people who come there, mothers bringing their children up, playing and in one part of the garden there is a white colored plaque where all the names of the patrons are there who have contributed to that park. My father's name was not there. So I felt a little bad, that you were one of the founding fathers of this garden. What happened? He said, Rakesh, some politics happened. I did not like it. And my name is not there. I decided that I don't want to be part of that committee and all that stuff. So I said, Dad, but you work so much. The world should know what you have done. So he made a very remarkable sentence that day that I think is why I write nobody and I hope you think about it. But he said, Rakesh. I know what I did in life. My family and my loved ones know what I did in life. I don't need a white plaque to tell the world what I did. And in fact, people, you know, spit on that white plaque in Jodhpur. And that philosophical message, I think, is why I put that nobody that to me, these designations and titles don't matter. What is important to me is the class, this experience. Everything else is secondary to me. So, that is why I think we should all think about who we are actually the ultimate objective of knowledge is this one question who we are. and you define who you are right now I'm very happy with this title it's been 10 years I had that title when I left Qualcomm I actually put that there that was around 30th May and I haven't changed it since and I think I will never change it hopefully and let's see what happens but this titles are meaningless it means you want external validation of the world and if you are strong from inside and if you found your purpose these things are immaterial all right so thank you very much I had a great time with all of you One last message. All of you find your purpose, become big billionaires and give me 2 percent of that. Thank you. Bye bye.