Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur who has founded several successful startups, an author of 18 books and a teacher and mentor.
In this video, he shares insights about life, career, and secrets to success.
- How his book got rejected by publishers for 159 times and how 160th time become magical.
- Hammer & nail strategy.
- Why entrepreneurship is a team sport.
- How important are stories in life?
- How to become more self-aware?
- Why smart people get stuck?
- How can people go about having a side hustle and at the same time sort of capitalizing on it over a period of time?
- Learning art through hard ways.
- Different career opportunities in the present digital age.
Career Nation: Hey Career Nation, today is a very exciting episode. Today, we have none other than Rajesh Setty. He is an entrepreneur, he’s an author and a teacher. And I’d known him for many years and he’s a mentor to many, many people here in Silicon Valley. Please welcome Rajesh Setty to the show. Rajesh, welcome to the show.
Rajesh Setty: Super exciting, uh, Abhijeet. I’m so glad to be here.
Career Nation: Yeah, Rajesh, I waited for years to interview you and finally my dream has come true. Thank you for being on the show.
Rajesh Setty: The moment you say things like that, it can all go downhill from here. So don’t set the expectations very high.
Career Nation: Yeah, that’s right. Uh, one of my mentors always tells me always exceed expectations. Any of the expectations are too high, you can reset them. So I appreciate you resetting expectations right here.
Rajesh Setty: Very good. I’m so excited.
Career Nation: Thank you. And so, um, Rajesh for those of you, for those five people who may not know you, uh, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your career journey?
Rajesh Setty: Uh, I keep my life very simple, Abhijeet. I do three things. I’m an entrepreneur. I started more than half a dozen companies. They are all in various stages except one that is in the graveyard. But other than that, a couple of them that got sold and the remaining ones are happily running in USA and India. That is, uh, two geographies that are operating. And then I’m an author. I’ve written 18 books. My first book was published when I was 13 years old. So I’ll date myself by saying that I’ve been writing for 30 plus years. Right? And then when I, I’m working on a 36 book series called Think Books, books that’ll make people think. And then lastly, I’m a teacher. I love to teach and’ve taught over 1400 entrepreneurs on how to bring their ideas to life. And everything that I do is surrounding these three things. My hobbies, I create what are called Napkin Sites, insights that can put on a paper napkin, like create thank you cards, postcards with the cool messages to thank people. And I’ve created the playing cards, which has stories in 50 words each. Uh, I keep doing some cool creative things to keep my brain engaged.
Career Nation: Wow. Is there something that you don’t do? Rajesh. Uh, that’s a lot of things. And so I’m curious about your career path. Um, I know you started as an engineer and uh, you were an engineer at sort of building technology, etc, and then you moved on from being an engineer to becoming an entrepreneur. You’re an author, you’re also a teacher and a mentor to so many people. How did you, or why did you choose this particular career path. I mean you could’ve been an engineer in Silicon Valley is like sort of the badge of honor, right? Which is the thing to do and you’ve kind of weired off that path to sort of a path that’s less beaten to those paths. So what was sort of your thinking, your approach? What, um, what led you to this path?
Rajesh Setty: Actually, the real question is why didn’t the path chose me is the real question. Because I never chose anything most of my life I never made any major choices. But whatever came along Abhijeet, I would embrace it with full passion. So that’s how I think about it. When I come into this day, I don’t know what will come into the coming my way, what God has in store for me, but whatever it is, I embrace it with full passion. So here’s what happened. When I was in, uh, about nine years old, I’ve read 700 books, most of them were useless books according to my mom, they were murder mystery, thrillers, treasure hunt-kind of books. But then at nine, I thought the, Hey, I’m playing this game that I know exactly what happens in this story. And most of the time we turned out to be wrong.
Rajesh Setty: It was something else would happen and it would frustrate the hell out of me. I said, you know what? If I write my own novel, I can decide what the characters will do. I can make, I can make the treasurer to be in some place. I can make somebody that killer. I can make some really the right guy, good guy. I choose. So that kind of a, uh, autonomy was what I liked. So, but at the time I was 10, I had written a 200 page book and then the madness started after that because then I taught, okay, how many people will write a 200 page book? I think I’ll get a red carpet welcome. I start pitching to publishers. So, and I started pitching and I was getting rejected faster than I was pitching. I don’t know which was, which was happening first. But, you know, when you are young, you can take rejections in abundance, right.
Rajesh Setty: So by the time I was 13 and a half, I got rejected 159 times the 160th time was magic. Yeah. Publisher said, I’m going to publish this. How much do you want? And then that was a question I was not prepared to answer because I never thought it’ll happen anytime soon. So I told him a hundred rupees. He got the shock of his life. But those who don’t know what is 100 rupees, it is $1 50 cents or something like that. It is. So that was a journey where I was awarded as the youngest writer of Karnataka state and magic started happening after that, people who didn’t believe me suddenly started believing me. And one of them was a editor in the local newspaper. They said that jokingly or seriously? I don’t know. He said, do you want to come and work for us, part time? So that was my very first job working as a newspaper journalist for a local newspaper.
Rajesh Setty: Over 4 years I wrote about 400 articles. Granted, not all of them are published because I used to write almost every day. And then the first six months I had mostly crap because I don’t think they were worthy of publishing. But I learned the art the hard way. And I learned some two life skills in the journalism days, Abhijeet. One is to notice and observe things that others don’t notice easily. Because as a journalist you have to find an angle and then for that your observing skills have to be really, really sharp. So that’s one thing. Second is the story itself. Everything that in life is about stories. So I learned the art of noticing and the art of storytelling and the art of, uh, communicating a message to people, that you may not ever see in person. All those things played a role in what I do even today.
Rajesh Setty: And then, uh, you know, by the time I was 17, I got six books published in my name. Then my mom got very dead that I’ll become a writer. So, and then she gave me three choices. Choice number one, engineer, number two, doctor, choice number three loser. She said, you have to pick. You come from India too. So you know, that when children don’t become engineers or doctor mom’ will think they are a failure. So I chose to be an engineer. Uh, and then, I love my mom, so I did extremely well. I didn’t want to ever feel that I am choosing engineering because she wanted me to choose. I finished my education in flying colors. So I was good in education. I was good in writing. So I thought, Hey, what else is there? I should start a company immediately. So, and then I convinced two more people, who are my classmates to start a company.
Rajesh Setty: It was a disaster will be an understatement because it was like two blind people leading the third blank person saying, you know, let’s do this. And we actually didn’t know what we didn’t know. So it was a total disaster, but it was not like a death by a gunshot, like a death by a thousand cuts. Because every time I wanted to give up, people would say, hey Raj, you wrote a book when you was 13 years old, you should not give up. You will figure it out. You know, just not give up. And I’m almost giving up because I don’t know what the hell I’ve been doing, but I kind of give up because everybody around are telling, you’re so smart, in you got state rank and engineering and 10th standard and all, you can’t give up. So, but obviously after some time you run out of money and an order of support, we had to give up.
Rajesh Setty: We shut down the company. And, uh, uh, I learned another major lesson Abhijeet, which is entrepreneurship is a team sport. What I was good at were solo sports – writing and education is pretty much a solo sport with some teammates, involved. But entrepreneurship is a hundred percent team sport. So just because you’re good at solo sports, suddenly you cannot automatically become good at a team sport. So that education came to me with a very heavy price and uh, uh, it was good that I knew it and that also motivated me to build a lot of relationships, but they played a team sport. Actually. I would rather become good at building relationships with that. I have teams all over the world. So long story short, we gave up on that and then I joined Citibank, which was called Citicorp Information Technologies Industries Ltd. called CITIL.
Rajesh Setty: So part of Citi bank, 18 months, I was there as a programmer. I worked on many markets foreign exchange and everything. Then I got a job as a, uh, as a program manager in a company in Malaysia. So I won’t go into all the details that became the CEO who was supposed to come over and take all the division was not there as I was drafted as the interim CEO because nobody else was there to take over. And six months later the interim was got dropped and I become the CEO of the division. Oh wow. So I lived in Singapore, Malaysia and a little bit in France. I came here in 1997 and then I worked for some, a couple of consulting companies. Since 2000 I’ve been starting my own companies one after the other. Uh, and that’s the life’s journey.
Career Nation: Wow. That’s incredible, Rajesh and you know, there’s so many nuggets there that I would love to unpack.
Career Nation: One of them is this story around persistence that you were rejected 159 times, but then the 160th time was magic. Um, and I wanted to continue down this path of persistence and talk about smart people who are stuck and, uh, what I want, what I mean by that is it smart people who, who, whose real potential is, it’s unbelievable. Right? If you really look at their skills, their experience, their competencies, they could be rock stars but they’re not. And you and I have met many such people in our lives and especially when I coach people, I see a lot of potential but I don’t see that potential translated into results. And um, I think, and feel free to correct me, but persistence could be one of those things that could help people sort of break through. Um, what, what do you think is preventing smart people from being successful? Because smartness doesn’t translate into success but it needs something. What is that something?
Rajesh Setty: There are so many ways we can go, right? Because remember I studied this phenomenon for six and a half years. Only one question I wanted to answer and got stuck royally there. It is why smart people get stuck? And the person who is researching you stuck trying to find out why smart people get stuck there. There is some meta-thinking that. But I found out several things. It’s part of my book called Smart But Stuck, but I’ll give you some, some things here. So there are several blind spots smart people have, which is when they get stuck, they want to get unstuck very quickly. Without even taking the time to know why they’re stuck. So what happens is because they are building their identity that they’re smart around people and they don’t, they never want to feel that they’re stuck and they want, they don’t want to be exposed saying, Hey, if I am so smart I should not be stuck.
Rajesh Setty: I should get unstuck very quickly. But sometimes to move fast, you’ve to slowdown. So you would rather go slow and find out why you are really stuck. Then trying to figure out when quick fix. Let me get unstuck, whatever way quick do it for possible. That’s one of the reasons why they stay stuck long enough because they want to get out of it very quickly without thinking. Why they are actually stuck. Second blind spot they have is they’re trying to do too much, too many things on their own because they can. And actually they really can because they have the capability. But what is against them is time because they have 24 hours just like everybody else. And if they over subscribe to things because they’re so smart, then they lose time. Well third thing is not everybody is good at asking for help. They have a feeling that if they ask for help, then little bit weaker than the other person.
Rajesh Setty: And in reality, what I have found Abhijeet is that, one of the predetermined factor for success is do you have an over supply of good help to take you through to your destination? And for that to happen, you should have been part of the help to many people in their journey to their goals. So people don’t realize that they will get an over supply of good help if they were part of the over supply of good help to other people in the past. It’s the law of karma takes over there. So all these things come together and one after the other, it comes like a Blitzkrieg of, uh, blind spots. Oh, coming from all over the place and a persistence matters. And, uh, the staying power matters because my favorite thing that I say is if you stay long enough on the course, you will find the problem for your solution. Because smart people have a lot of solutions. They don’t take the time to find what problem does it solve.
Rajesh Setty: That is so true. It’s like a hammer looking for a nail. I have a comment. So it has been used, the statement has been viewed, used as a negative thing, for a long time. I use it in a positive way as if I have a Hamlet, I will always look for a nail. I say if you learn the art of storytelling and you have a hammer to tell the story and show people the nail in their problem, then you can say, I have a hammer to put the nail. Yeah. That’s the other way to do it. Which is to find the problem to solve. Exactly. Um, and you have a certain person, they have a certain strength, certain competency that’s the hammer. And you’ve to figure out which nail should I hit. Exactly. A problem can I solve. Yeah. Because all we have is all we have, isn’t it?
Rajesh Setty: If you have a hammer, you cannot say, Oh I should need a wrench or a screwdriver. Although I do have a hammer. I’m sure that enough nail problems to be starred. You just have to tell a story big enough that uh, you know, you will find the nail. I’ll give an example. You might have heard of this person called Frederick Heron, he is a speaker, coach and everything. I met them a few years ago in Singapore and he gave me one thing. He was giving me some advice on many things and one of the things really, uh, resonated with me is why he spoke about creativity and one topic alone, he does not speak about anything else. Shall I share it with you? Yeah, absolutely. So he said he makes a few million dollars a year speaking only, only on one topic. It’s like Frederick’s hammer, isn’t it? And then it says, he goes to a company, and says, you know, what is the biggest challenge that you have?
Rajesh Setty: A lot of sales that aren’t growing fast enough. Okay. Do you think if the sales people are a little bit creative, they solve the problem? Yeah. That should be good. Okay. I have, I have a talk that I have. It’s creativity for sales people and then supposedly I’d say that of course the answer to the question was the leadership is not strong enough. Now you’ve already guessed. If leaders that create a little bit more creative, do you think it’ll help? I have a talk, a creativity for leaders. The only place it does not work is our accounting people have a problem.
Rajesh Setty: Yeah. You didn’t want to get accounting people to be more creative for sure. That’s the only thing. But except for that, he has a hammer and he will find the nail, hit the customers, uh, situation and say, I can hit the nail on the head right on the head. So many times. The reason I’m talking more about that is many times people start thinking, Oh my God, I have a hammer. I should not look for the nail everywhere I say, you have a hammer, look for the nail. Wherever there is money and hit it on the head. So rather than looking for things that they don’t have, I’m always a big proponent of what are you doing with the things that you already have. Forget about looking for things that you don’t have. There is so much that you already bring to the table. Let’s make the most out of it.
Career Nation: I totally agree. And you know, um, because of this proliferation of technologies and devices, it has become easier to find nails. In other words, problems to solve. It’s become easier to build your network, reach out to people and figure out if they have the problem that you are trying to solve. And that way you can figure out and identify opportunities where you can participate and create value.
Rajesh Setty: That is the level one. I’ll also tell you the level two, it’s a kind of term called Hunger Engineering. So if you want to sell something to eat, you’ve to engineer the hunger in someone and say, I want to eat that. So if you have a hammer and you want to create, find a nail, you can either find it with your snooping skills or spice skills or, you can start telling stories that will engineer the hunger to save people. I have a nail problem. I never knew that I had a nail problem. I do. Thank you so much for letting me know. Now can you please bring your hammers so that you can hit the nail on the head? Like that.
Career Nation: Wow. I like it. Hunger engineering. Um, is this being used a lot in sort of digital marketing these days? Especially when I’m like both B to B, B to C because you, I mean I see a lot of folks, especially from a marketing standpoint um, paint the picture about what are the challenges, opportunities in a particular space. Um, and then they can, we can talk about this solution et cetera. Is that part of hunger engineering as well?
Rajesh Setty: People who are masters at it, they’re doing it Abhijeet without even putting a name for it cause they are to amplify the problem at hand and make them aware that they have a problem before you can sell a solution to them, right? If you are a master at crafting the problem statement, half your job is done because now you know there is hunger for that solution for that problem and then then you come to the positioning exercise where you say my solution is the best fit for the problem that
Career Nation: you are, you’re the Hunger to solve. I love it. Um, I want to take that angle a little bit more in terms of that sort of the hammer angle and want to talk about self awareness for a bit. You know, how do I know that I have a hammer? Is there a way I can become more self aware? Yes. Um, how, how do I go about becoming more self aware?
Rajesh Setty: There are many ways and there are seven ways. I’ll send the link to a blog post I wrote so that we can put it in the show notes. Tell you the seventh way is the most important way. First of all, why is that there is a self awareness problem. Let’s talk about it first. Why is that I don’t know what my hammer is. It’s because when they have a strength, which is really, really super power, it becomes invisible to you because you do it slowly.
Career Nation: So say that again one more time Rajesh. When you have a super power, it is invisible to you, why is that?
Rajesh Setty: Because it’s so easy for you. It’s common sense. Like say let’s say thyou’re really good at negotiating. Just because you’ve done it so many times, it becomes easy for you. You’ll see things that others don’t. Call that phenomenon, out-see was one of my new books that will come up. Like if you want to outperform your have to out-think, if you want to out-think, you’ve to out-see. You’ve to see more things than what other person is doing in the world of negotiation let’s say, that’s your superpower. You can see things that the other persons don’t. But you’re not saying, Oh my God, I’m so school. I can see things. You are just seeing it. So you don’t think that it’s a big thing? In fact, we were surprised that other peoples don’t see it. And then maybe we’ll think it’s so common sense. You are so plain and simple.
Rajesh Setty: So when it becomes invisible to you, you stop growing it because you’re not nurturing it, because you’re not aware of it. How will you become aware of it? Like I said, there are seven ways, including having good mentors. Mentors is one of the ways. The real way is this. You start observing and noticing the requests that are coming to you for help. When the stakes for those requests are high, it’s very important to know that the stakes are high. Why? Because people are not very thoughtful and making the requests. Most of them make requests because they’re lazy. They make it, the request because it’s convenient for them. It says somebody wants you to drop your top, drop them at the airport and say, Oh, Abhijeet, you’re going there. Are you going towards there, so can you drop me? So when in fact they can take an Uber or, some lift or something.
Rajesh Setty: Right. Of course if they are your friend, you’ll drop them but the stakes are not very high for that because if you don’t drop them, it’s not like they’re in a stranded. They will. That’s right, they have an option. They have an option, but let’s say they are negotiating a big $2 million deal and they come to you for help. Then the stakes are very high because if you give them bad help, a not so good help, then they will shave off a hundred, $200,000 in the deal because the good help could’ve given them an edge, bad help would give them a negative edge. There is word like that, so when the stakes are high and you start noticing those requests, then you know
Rajesh Setty: what the world sees you as your strength because as human it may be invisible to you, but guess what? Those superpowers are very visible to your network. Otherwise they won’t come to you asking for that help. In fact, if you a bad negotiator, think what happens. They may negotiate a deal and they know that you’re a bad negotiator, you will become a competitive disadvantage for them. If they take you along, they won’t do it. So noticing requests that are coming your way, where the stakes are high for those requests, that is one way become to become self aware of what your true stance and two superpowers are. In other words, what you are hammer is.
Career Nation: That is so true. And I’m, I’m, I really like this idea of, you know, becoming more aware of the requests that are coming in when the stakes are high and that’s how you do go through sort of more self discovery and started to figure out what is the hammer. Now, speaking of hammers, Rajesh, um, I think you have many hammers. Um, one of the hammers was these sort of these insights that you have, which are for you, it may be simple. Um, and I’m talking about Napkin Sites and ThinkBook, which was the product that you had just recently launched. Um, it may be simple for you but it is super insightful for others. And I really want to get your, get the backstory on this like sort of the Napkin Sites and then you as put that together in a book and um, I’ll, I’ll send a separate link out for the book because it’s not a book, it’s not a journal. It’s the way to think. And in this new economy we are rewarded not just based on actions but based on thoughts. I mean thoughts, innovation, concepts. Those are the things for which we get highly rewarded, highly compensated and ThinkBook. It’s, it’s a tool to basically sharpen that, sharpen how you think, how you conceptualize, et cetera.
Career Nation: What was the Genesis of this book, of this ThinkBook? Because when I say ThinkBook maybe first I think of, and then when actually saw the product it was like this is unbelievable and why didn’t someone else come up with this? But then I linked it back to Napkin Sights and it all started to make sense and I would love to sort of get the, get the skinny on this one, Rajesh because this is, this is special.
Rajesh Setty: Yeah, definitely. In fact that there is a lesson here that once I say it to you, you would say oh it makes a lot of sense, which is many times for something to happen, Abhijeet, we always think there should be a triggering point. In reality that are multiple triggering points with multiple things happening. They all have to come together. It’s like three or four rivers coming together and the meeting point of those rivers. That is what happened in this case. So what happened was remember when I was 13 to 17 I was a, I was a generalist and then I started noticing and observing things that other don’t, because for me there was, it was my job requirement that I find a story angle, isn’t it? So that one thing that all of that was always there is I can notice things that most people don’t because they’re so busy with the other one Facebook or whatever it is that they’re doing.
Rajesh Setty: That is item number one. Item number two is, years ago I had a medical situation which was, which almost knocked off my ability to write. And then I used to go to the doctor and said, you know, um, it’s writing is a problem. And they said, okay, Raj I think you can give up on your writing. Now you can just find a voice record or something because there are tools there. But you know, I insist that you next time when you come and see me, I want you to show me a few pages that you are handwritten and then you put the dates on the pages. You know, as I said, I know that you are not bringing some old stuff. So and then like it was really difficult for me and then to write an napkin site, which is only a few words, it took me 15 to 20 minutes.
Rajesh Setty: And then I said, if I’m spending all this time I want, I don’t want to right Jack and Jill went up the Hill. Because it’s a useless thing to do. I said, let me think, what should I do? And you know, I had this meditation and yoga practice that I do every single day. So every day, once I finished my meditation, I would just close my eyes and think what’s coming to me. And then I would write for 15, 20 minutes and it would create one napkin site after that. And then I would say, now that I have it, why don’t I post it on Facebook using a camera on the phone and posted it on Facebook. And then a friend of mine who was really amazing designer he said, uh, I only met him three times. His name is Ming. And Ming said, do you want me to visualize this, I won’t charge you a lot of money, but I want to help. So now Facebook becomes a transport mechanism, fire transport mechanism to Ming. So, uh, for now it was all going on because I had no business
Rajesh Setty: idea on this. It is just going on. And then after about 15, 20 of this, uh, one of my friend called Chris who was making a conference. He Said, hey, these are, these are insights that can fit on a napkin. You know, what are you calling them? I said, I’m not calling them anything because I had not thought of making a business out of it, so he said, why don’t we call it Napkin Sights, insights on a napkin and then the the URL is available. You should book it. I booked it because again, all these things are happening without any goal or destination in mind and my goal was to reach a hundred napkins. It’s all my goal was because it takes me a lot of time and then I started getting a small following, very tiny following. People would say if I don’t post it, for a while, people, some people would email me and saying, what happened to those Napkin Sites?
Rajesh Setty: And then when we get that kind of positive reinforcement, we’ll say it’s good that I’m reaching my goal. You know what happened? When it reached 100, something happened. I had two more things to say and it became 102 so now it’s an odd number. I said, no, I cannot stop. I think I should go to 200 right? Because I can’t leave it at 102. It’s not even a hundred or it’s not 150. Something is wrong. So i reset my goal to, let’s make it 200. And uh, it kept going and going and every time I reach the number 100, 200, 300, I would overstep it a little bit and then I cannot leave it in an odd number. Finally, now I have 2046 as of today. That’s credible Rajesh. Along the way. Uh, I was designing something in Notebook. One of my friends said, why don’t we put this napkin site interspersed in this notebook?
Rajesh Setty: And then that became a ThinkBook. And as I was designing it, uh, you know, my friend Michelle from Mind Valley, you said this would be a great book to give away in the Mind Valley conference. And uh, my, my, no interest in creating one anytime soon. I was just designing it because there was a a friend who wanted to give this away at a conference. I fast-tracked it and became the first ThinkBook. So the journey is, is to get them many, many eh, things that have happened in the past. And the whole Napkin Site is a play on words. Where did that come from? 2002 I joined a course called Business Professional course, which is actually a linguistic philosophy course. I was there in that course for seven and a half years. The whole course was about, your words will create your worlds. So I became a really good student of language and play on words. So if you think about it, my journalism base, my medical situation, the inspiration from friends as well as the, the love for the language and the words, all of them came together and now it looks like magic. It was the elements of that magic were happening over the over decades. Good there.
Career Nation: Yeah, I mean all of those incidents, all of those skills,
Career Nation: of those milestones, all of those things compound over a period of time. And it gives, they give you results that you know, you may not have expected. And it basically creates a lot more upside over a period of time. And again, going back to persistence, um, if you persist long enough and you, once you have a hundred, you go to 102, if you have 300, you go to 302 and then you get to the next milestone, you keep doing it. It just creates the kind of momentum that, um, you may not have believed in and when you just started out, and quite frankly, it sometimes things like these are not just a momentum or a brand but become a movement. And I think Napkin Sites is sort of in that category, which is a movement. People can share it, people can talk about it, people can put, put up in their offices.
Career Nation: And uh, you know, now it’s in the form of a book and I’ll drop the link in the notes here. And it’s a phenomenal book for anyone who is a creator who is a thinker who likes to bring in innovation, new concepts into her team or his team. It’s a, it’s like a Swiss army knife that you should have. And by the way, you can do anything with it and you can be totally creative and you can build a whole stack of concepts on top of the ThinkBook. So I would love to, um, I’d love to do that. Um, after, after we published the show. Rajesh, thanks so much for those insights. I really wanted to get it into a little bit more of you and your personality. So I wanted to play, we played this game on the show called favorites and we basically ask you a favorite thing and you have to tell us what is that thing and why is that thing your favorite? Are you ready, Rajesh?
Rajesh Setty: I’m always ready. But I’ll phrase it with something. Yes. Suppose let’s say I asked you, Abhijeet what makes you happy. Don’t answer that question because the moment you answer that question, it’s a trap because nothing should make you happy because it’s happiness is a default state that you don’t want something to make you happy. In fact, the answer should be, you know, if you ask me the question what makes you unhappy, I’ll find some things. But I am already happy. There is nothing made to make me happy. So I am saying this is when we look for favorites. I have so many favorites. I pick one because it’s good for the show, but I am either, I have only two states. I am either excited or very excited. Like the conversation with you is my favorite thing because that’s happening now and we both have a relationship for years. So as much as you are looking forward to the conversation, I was looking forward to the conversation because I don’t know what will come out of it but I know some magic will happen.
Career Nation: That is a brilliant way to start the favorites conversation. Um, and it’s actually deep and insightful as always. Rajesh, thank you again for sharing that. Happiness is a default state. It’s not something that makes you happy. It’s not a trigger point. It’s a default state. You have to be always happy.
Rajesh Setty: And then remember that what is against you, Abhijeet is the, in the world of advertisements, what is the standard method to advertise something? They’ve to show that if we don’t have that something the life is a mess, let’s say it’s a vacuum cleaner. How will they show that vacuum cleaner advertisement? They will show that the house is messy, it’s dark. It is stuff everywhere. And then voila, that vacuum cleaner appears. Suddenly everything is bright and then you lose the magic wand and then everything is spic and span clean. So what are they trying to say? That your life is incomplete without this whatever vacuum cleaner they’re selling and then if you have it, suddenly you are happy? That is one way. Second way is the social media. If you don’t, um, if you’re not fullly thoughtful about this, what will, what are people posting on social media?
Rajesh Setty: Their happy moments, not their 24 hours a day. They’re not livestreaming. They’re just picking and choosing things that are good and exciting for them. It is an exception, not a rule. It’s not like 24 hours in a day. They’re meeting some cool people, they’re are having a party, they are also making their bed. They’re also cleaning the vessels. Then also doing the dishes. Everything is happening but they don’t post that on social media. So if you’re not very thoughtful, you’ll think, Oh my God, look at me. This vacuum cleaner is not that I’m unhappy, but look at everybody in the world. They seem to be always have their vacation. They got a new home. There is a new baby, something is wrong with me. Oh my god, why are you targeting me? I should also be happy. So you can become, it can become a super messy thing. It can mess with your mind. So you have to take every information that is coming your way with some thoughtfulness. What is it actually saying?
Career Nation: I love it. Maybe Rajesh next time I should post a picture of me doing dishes. I think that would be most appropriate.
Rajesh Setty: You know, it’s one of those things that I read in a book, Abhijeet called Click, have you read it?
Career Nation: I’ve heard about it. I’ve not read it yet. Yes.
Rajesh Setty: So it’s a really small book Abhjeet and you’ll finish it in one hour. It’s two brothers, Ori and Rom Brafman. Uh, I believe they’re in San Francisco, if I’m not mistaken, I read it a while ago because one of my friends gifted it to me and the book was about why some people instantly connect and why most people don’t. And there are several characteristics and one of the characteristics, bright and bold, is vulnerability that somebody who can expose who the really are and be vulnerable. Suddenly they get closer to the other person if they also express vulnerability because they are now two human beings talking with each other. When you post it in ways of doing dishes, you’re just being vulnerable, you are just showing that you are also a human being. It’s not like somewhere you are doing something that nobody else in the house does isn’t it? Nobody else is posting it. So the more there are two things, you’ve to be comfortable with who you are. And you have to be extremely comfortable when people show who they are and you’ve to behave in a way that they know that you are comfortable with them being who they really are. If you do that, you become instantly connected to the person because it’s two human beings, two souls talking, not the masks pretending to talk. Does it makes sense?
Career Nation: It makes a ton of sense. You know, Career Nation, Rajesh, he’s dropping value bombs after value bombs and this is happening even before we get into the favorites part. Um, that’s part of the reason why I like, um, talking to Rajesh and always uh, treasured his mentor-ship. Um, let’s get into the favorites part. And um, the first question Rajesh, is your favorite app.
Rajesh Setty: My favorite app is a mind mapping tool that use called MindMeister and uh, only because it’s so simple to use but easy. And then my mind thinks in like a mind map kind of things. So I always think where does it go, their relationships, their interests, everything is like a mind map, like a transits or things. And I tried many, many tools like a CRM kind of tool. But the way my mind thinks it is all very going all over the place and mind map captures it brilliantly.
Career Nation: Oh that’s wonderful. So Rajesh, just double clicking on that one. How do you use a mind map? Do you use that to um, let’s say think about a new project like conceptualize or sort of ideation. Um, do you use that to plan a project or do you use that for um, you know, developing something new along? Like let’s say it’s a new partnership that you’re developing. Like how do, how do you use?
Rajesh Setty: I use it for two things, Abhijeet. One is for projects so that I can start thinking in a project, let’s say a new startup that I’m doing for of my existing startup. Then I can say, you know, what are the partnerships that should be there. Then I put that branch there, then each partnership I can say, you know, why should they care about, so you can keep evolving it. What is the value proposition? So there is a so many elements for a project for the way I use it more frequently and more powerfully for people. Because people I have interests, I want to know what they care about. So when I meet you, for example, I have a mind map for you. I know that Career Nation is important so before I meet with you next, I look at your mind map, I get in one five 10 seconds I get a full picture of you so that I know what you care about and during the conversation my goal is to bring some value to things that you care about because that is good for both of us and that is good for me when selfishly because I get to apply for what is called a translation from an abstract to specific.
Rajesh Setty: So if I read, I read about one book a week, it’s all abstract knowledge but it’s useless to you if I say things without contextualizing to your specific needs. The one of the fundamental skills that people should develop is the fast translation from abstract to specific at a moment’s notice. So that is where the value gets created. There is abstract knowledge, that is specific situation. We translate abstract knowledge to specific situation. You create value. When you do that you become a positive possibility in the future they are creating for themselves. And for me to become a master at it, I have to do it more and more and more. So every meeting I use my skill to translate abstract a specific and create value. The more I do it, the more I become better at it and it becomes effortless after some time.
Career Nation: I love it. So going from like ideating on a project and then going from abstract to specific, I love those use cases because then we can use mind maps to get that context, figure out and also maybe collaborate with others. And uh, quite frankly I think you’ve said it right, which is in some ways it could be better or even sort of complimentary to our CRM system. If a sales guy is sitting there and they have a mind map created for a particular customer or customer account, they can figure out that, Hey, this is the context for the customer. These are the top care abouts. Um, there could be really interesting ways to apply mind maps to sort of a business environment as well.
Rajesh Setty: It’s pretty cool. 100% Abhijeet. In fact, the people try to remember somebody’s birthdays and anniversaries and all those things. It’s a, it’s almost, there is so much of fakeness in it. It’s almost like silly when it happens that way. But if you truly care about what they care about, you will do something that will move the needle in a measurable way, when that help is given. Something will happen that people would say that is progress made. It’s not, uh, like, uh, it’s not any, nothing fake in it. Plus it is not something, it’s a feel good thing, but it’s a real progresses happening. So for that to happen, you need to know what they cared about. And mind map is a great way to capture what people care about.
Career Nation: Outstanding. Rajesh, let’s move to the next favorites category. Do you have a favorite quote, something you live by or something that you’d like to see on the top of a billboard?
Rajesh Setty: Yeah, there are two of them. Uh, first I’ll tell you a person that I really admire. He is no more. Uh, unfortunately we lost him. His name was Jim Rohn and uh, he, when I met him, uh, in a conference you gave me one quote and I have lived by it since the day I heard it. It is called, ‘every disciplined effort has multiple reward’ and the, what is the, the focus immediately becomes, you know, whatever I’m doing, I should do it with discipline because there are multiple divides coming, right?
Career Nation: Wow, that’s deep and super insightful.
Rajesh Setty: Yeah.
Career Nation: And Jim Rohn is a legend. He is. Um, he’s trained so many people and I think you are super fortunate
Rajesh Setty: to have actually met him and attended. Um, some of his teachings. Oh, the meeting was like 15 seconds Abhijeet. So share that meeting like I was one of the many people who was getting his book signed but I got my 15 minutes of a brilliance with him and other quote is what I came up with and then it helps me tremendously. Uh, it’s called ‘I am here. Where next?’. And what is, what is it saying is it’s always there with me. I carry it. I am here, puts me in the mood of acceptance, whatever happens. However I got here, I’m here talking to you. I have to accept it. Not over-analyze anything first is mode of acceptance. Second question, second part where next. It is a mode of wonder because there are multiple possible, now that I’m here, the possibilities are endless and I have to situate myself in the mode of wonder to crack those journeys in the new possibilities. I am here mode of acceptance, where next mode of wonder. Two modes, extremely powerful in combination.
Career Nation: You know, that is such an important and also a useful tool just so that
Career Nation: we can center ourselves. I mean we are always running is back to back meetings. We’ve got devices, we’ve got so many distractions. By the way it Raj, the distractions don’t seem to reduce everyday. They only seem to go up and when in that in that mode that you just mentioned, I’m here and where next I’m here is a great way to center ourselves, put the focus back and really make sure that we understand our environment and we accepted and then we know sort of we are in the know and then where next is it just kind of opens up so many possibilities that you can take your relationship to to the next level, your business to the next level, your career to the next level and so many opportunities and possibilities that you may not have even thought about and where next. That question Mark that question Mark is so powerful because you’re really asking yourself that question. You’re also asking the environment that question where next, where do you want to take me? And it kind of combines your personal wonder with the serendipity of there could be so many opportunities out there that you can take advantage of and be a part of.
Rajesh Setty: That is so true Abhijeet. Being present is the hardest thing for many people to do. I have a trick to…
Career Nation: Oh, including myself, but keep going…
Rajesh Setty: I have a small hack for it. Shall I share it with you?
Career Nation: Please, please. I’m all ears.
Rajesh Setty: If you put yourself in a mode where you say, I’m having this meeting, it is my responsibility and my duty to give unlimited access to my limited brain to Abhijeet. Then I’ll be in a mode of, um, peace. Where I know that I’m present. Why? It is my duty and responsibility to give unlimited access to my limited brain now and here and earlier I wanted to say something like this. I wanted to give unlimited access to my limited edition brain, but then I thought, I wish I was still a long way to go. Slowly I may never get there, but now it’s unlimited access to my limited brain.
Career Nation: Okay, that’s great. And it comes from a place of generosity and um, you know, generosity. And I want to touch upon the generosity and we’ll get back to the favorites part, but I think you have a, you coined a term, it’s called the Practical Generosity Quotient.
Rajesh Setty: Yes.
Career Nation: Can you like what is this? What, what, what do you mean by that? Like how, how can, how can I or anybody else use the Practical Generosity Quotient?
Rajesh Setty: Uh, I’ll give you a little bit of background and I’ll tell you what it is. So suppose I ask her when I teach young people, always ask them if there was one skill that you need to develop that will give an ultimate competitive advantage for the rest of your life, what is it? And people give its about leadership, its about taking initiative to getting things done. Not enough good answers. And there are no wrong answers. People are smart. They, they don’t give any stupid answers. But in my opinion, the answer is this. Your ability to give meaningful gifts at scale the very low incremental costs. So let me repeat it. Your ability to give meaningful gifts at scale at a very low incremental cost to you. So for that to happen, there are so many good things that have to come around because to give a meaningful gift, you should know one that that person cares about.
Rajesh Setty: Otherwise, how will it be meaningful? You should listen to them. Otherwise, how will you know what they care about? So knowing what they cared about and listening are already good skills. Cascades into this. At scale, which means you should be able to do it at will. It’s to lots and lots of people. That means you should learn the art of communicating and learn the art of storytelling. You’ll see how other skills that are coming into the picture. And at a very low incremental cost to you for that to happen the meaningful give test to be given in an area which is your super power. Otherwise the cost will be very high. For that to happen you need to know what is your superpower, which means you should know what is your strength. That one sentence I pack a lot of things that people are to do but make it look like, you know, just start to do one thing and that is a another trap here you, because people are smart, they can give some gift, some random gift and say, you know, my job is done.
Rajesh Setty: I gave him meaningful gift, I send art. Not yet. If you give a truly meaningful gift, the recipient will miss you in their past, which means that you know. If I ask you Abhijeet, do you know all your teachers from kindergarten to master’s degree? You’ll say no. If I say do you know some of them? You’ll always say yes. In fact, there was a Toastmasters event where one girls trying to put, I know every single teacher., Every one of them said names that I know everything. So there are exceptions that are, people who remember things and most of them don’t. But they remember some of them, of the, some of them they fall into two categories. One. Those teachers were very bad, which means they set the standards for the lowest level of teaching and they were so bad that they became memorable or they were so good.
Rajesh Setty: In fact, they were so good that you attribute a lot of who you become, to their teachings and experiences that they created for you. Those are the people you will miss them in your past. You will say, that teacher made my life. I wish I met the teacher five years before I met. We extended to when they give a meaningful gift, if it is so profound that you say what a gift. I wish I met this person a few years ago so how would we do it practically that’s where the practicals and also the question comes in. The PGQ is the ratio of the capacity you added to the capacity it was needed by the person who is pursuing something meaningful and impactful in in their world. Like a, if somebody was wanting to start a company, there is a bunch of capacity that they need.
Rajesh Setty: How much of what they need did you add. That is your relationship. If you just said, Oh, you are starting a company, you should read this book, it’s called a Startup, blah, blah, blah, and then you can find it on Amazon, then that is almost a meaningless thing. That PGQ will be 0.1. One, because we just have to put some numbers in there. Otherwise it’s really zero. But if you say something like, you know, let me help you think through the business models, the pricing, the business plan, and a bunch of things that they don’t know and make some connections to some investors or cofounders of something, then the PGQ could get to 60-70. I have found that when the PGQ cross a 60 or 70 the power of reciprocation kicks in as people will say, is there anything can do for you? Because you have been so helpful. And if you have a to do this on and on and on and on, like you have what I call it, reservoir of reciprocation, you and over-supply of good help waiting to be tapped into at a moment’s notice whenever you push a button. And that is real competitive advantage.
Career Nation: I love it. And that basically becomes the key to unlock so many opportunities going forward. That’s brilliant. Rajesh again. How about we talk about another favorite topic this time. It’s your favorite book. Now this isn’t going to be difficult for you, partly because you’ve authored some really, really great books and not only great but useful books. And I’ve read so many over the years of Beaton and so many others over the years. So what is your favorite book?
Rajesh Setty: You know, earlier I used to, uh, answered saying that, Hey, well it looks that like my children, everything is their favorite book and it’s like this traditional way. Anybody else? You learn onset. But then I said, you know, if I have to rank order some things, then I should be able to do it because it cannot be all equal. Right. So my upcoming book called Smart but Stuck is my favorite book because first of all, I got royally stuck writing that book. Right. That’s ironical. Yeah. So, uh, and I, because of that book, I studied a lot of things. I became self-aware and then there are, about 15-20 ways people get stuck. And if somebody reads the book and they either will find something that they’re getting stuck or they’ll find something that somebody that they love is getting stuck and then there is always something that they can take away from the book because I’m always big on the return on investment for an interaction.
Rajesh Setty: That is why I’m very big on it. Which means people are talking with return on investment for money, I talk about ROII which is the return on investment for an interaction. When somebody buys this book, 25 30 bucks. They are giving me the most precious asset, which is their attention. They could have been a reading, another book, they could have been watching movie they would could have been in Disneyland. They are giving attention that is so precious to them that I have to take care of it. And for that attention I have to give that return that’s really, really big. And I have a feeling that I have captured that in this book. And I also feel good about it because a lot of really amazing people came in and helped me with the book. So like I am the main actor in the book. There are a lot of, is an ensemble that came in and said, let me help you take it to the next level. So that’s my answer. Smart but Stuck.
Career Nation: I love it. I can’t wait. Um, let me know when it comes out. And um, last but not least, what’s your favorite restaurant, Rajesh?
Rajesh Setty: You know, and when it comes to restaurants or any eating places, I am very interested in places where people are happy and when they’re serving they’re, they see happiness. So, and then that is very important for me. So close to my home. There is a restaurant called Sangeeta, you might have seen it and then I go there every time the people are happy. So that’s more important for me than the quality of food. And believe it or not, if you go to a happy place, food will always be good because they bring their heart into it.
Career Nation: That’s great. I can’t wait to go to Sangeeta next.
Rajesh Setty: So shall I share one insight that people can use, put it to use immediately. Yeah please. So I have a rule called this just like no child left behind. That is a no insight left behind. So let’s say that our audience, people who are listening to the show, let’s assume that they get one insight from me, just one. The goal has to be to apply it immediately whenever possible. And there is a lot of good things will happen because they might not be in a project where they can apply it immediately, what will they do? They will look at their friends’ projects, projects that we are people care about. And just because there is a no insect left bearing rule that they agreed to, they suddenly become like Santa Clause in the real world because they are lists, they have an insight on their plate, they’re the create value and they become masters of this translation from abstract to specific because we never took a business when we’re talking, you’d still, we’re still talking obstruct things but the value never gets created in the abstract value gets created in the specific. So just keep that, I want to practice the no insight left behind rules immediately you become a Santa Claus of value creation.
Career Nation: no insight left behind. That’s fantastic. Rajesh, I don’t know how you come up with these really useful um, sort of concepts and well that’s kind of part of your brand as well because whether it’s napkin sites or these insights or concepts that are sharing, it’s, it creates value and it’s so useful. And I really want to get into, you know, you know, you come up with these concepts, but I want to get into sort of a little bit deeper in terms of how do you come up with those? Like what are some of the techniques, what are some of the habits that you’ve applied to your career over the years? Um, for example, do you have a morning routine? Um, like is there a place you sit and you come up with ideas? Um, once you have an idea for a new project or a new start up, how do you validate that idea? Like, are there certain techniques and things you’ve honed over the, over so many years that you, you’d like to share?
Rajesh Setty: Very good. And then you had so many questions that we’ll answer one by one. Let’s talk over the morning ritual. So, for a long time, uh, since 2007 when, uh, I met Sadguru, uh, um, is a big teacher in India. I know
Career Nation: Isha foundation.
Rajesh Setty: Yup. Yeah. And I, uh, I attended a program, Isha yoga program and then my teached, she’s in Canada now, her name is Namath. And then I asked her a question, at the end of this thing, you know, Namath, if I want to incorporate this ritual in my life, how many days should I do it? And then the moment I asked did I know that it was a really, really idiotic question and she looked at me like as if I was the one. Because I said, if you want to do it, throw their like what a silly question it is to ask how many days should I do it? Then I said, no, Namath I really wanted to see if it has to become my habit. How many days does it take? And she gave me this phone that are so many ways.
Rajesh Setty: People, I’ve sent it 14 days, 21 days depending on the research. Right? That is enough. Not answered, spot it, but she told me something. It’s a gift that I’ll never forget. She said, if you’re really serious about it, I have a technique, for you. It’s a hack. I said, Hey, I’m really serious about it and she probably wanted to talk to me or some things is, I don’t think you will do it, but let me try it. I said, they going to bring it on, I will do it. And she said, you practice this ritual twice a day, once in the morning, once in the afternoon. And you cannot skip for the next six months. You cannot give an excuse and uh, you cannot say bye bye I was traveling. No you cannot. And I took up the challenge and then I, I did that.
Rajesh Setty: Whether I was traveling, I would have a mat in the airport or a towel. And I would just do my yoga and meditation right there. And in 2007, as you know, it was not that hard. Yoga meditation and all of them look at me as if I’m like, what is this guy doing. Now if you’re doing it to people that are very curious, they want to know what kind of thing is that and everything? Long story short that has become my internal uh, uh, internal way how I do things. I meditate and do yoga every single day. Uh, since 2007, I skipped only two days. So I always practice it, that’s, I don’t one want to call it ritual because it has now become so much part of me, I don’t know me without pit. So that is what a, I call it reengineering your being. So rather than saying you have to incorporate a new habit, I say can you reengineer your being so that the habit is part of your being. So there is no habit because it’s you in a new way isn’t it?
Career Nation: I love it. Version two contains these new features.
Rajesh Setty: Exactly. You upgrade your software so that it’s now there is no previously, it’s not an add on. It is operating system level upgrade, but it’s there permanently and you cannot say, Oh I’m previous, version operating system with this ads and it’s already new. Previous version is gone. Right. So that’s my, if you want to do something good then you reengineer your being. So that there is something good is baked into the soul of you then there is no question of, because if you say habit ritual, it seems like work that you have to do it, but if it is part of your being, it’s not working when there’s no work to be you.
Career Nation: Great. There is no work to be you if you’re, if it’s already a part of you. Yes. Um, Rajesh you know one thing on career nation we are always interested in is as people think about their careers and the possibility of their careers and their trajectory. One question that comes up often, especially in my conversations is side hustle, which is, you know, people have their day jobs, they are working in corporate America, they’re working in a large company, medium sized company, small companies, startup, what have you. But at the same time they want to have this side hustle, which is their sort of passion project. They might be into photography, they might be a swimming instructor, they might be whatever. Right? And it’s a way for them to express themselves, but also it could be their future. It could be a future of career direction, could be their future business. Even what, what are, what are your thoughts on side hustle? Should everybody have a side hustle and what, what, how can people go about having a side hustle and at the same time sort of capitalizing on on it over a period of time.
Rajesh Setty: The, it’s a good question. What should we have a side hustle or should people not have a side hustle? So my to answer to that is only if it makes sense. Right? So for example, you’re already in a job where you are having a dreamlife and then every single moment you are wanting to bring value to it. And what you are passionate about is what you’re doing in the corporate world it says somebody is really amazing in sales. It thrives on building killer sales teams. Hmm. And that is what he wants to do. And there is no need for side hustle. Right? You could use that one time such as this, have some free time. They could use it to volunteer for something that they care about, isn’t it? Because we were good. The NGOs need amazing people. But let’s say that that is a family situation or personal situation where they cannot do exactly what they’re passionate about, but they have to pay the bills.
Rajesh Setty: They’re doing something as a stop gap alignment. They’re doing their good job, but they know that in the end, that is not their calling. And that is when they say, you know, what can the side hustle be? We thought breaking the promises I’m making to my employer. Right. It shouldn’t. It should not affect the real work because that’s a promise you may be getting paid for it. But do you know that that’s not the calling? And that’s when you start looking at the side as, as a means to an end, to the transition or during the transition to go there. Does it make sense?
Career Nation: Yeah, it makes a ton of sense. Um, and, and speaking of side hustles and speaking of hustles in general, that could be a project, right? And there could be a single project or multiple projects and Rajesh at any given point in time you have so many projects that you have running at the same time in parallel there are many trains that have believed the station on time and come to the station on time. How do you make time for your projects? I’m in, I mean if I think of you as like you’re writing books, you’re doing shows, you’re speaking and like you’re coming up with concepts and at the same time you’re running multiple startups and so how do you prioritize your time? How do you prioritize your projects and how do you, how do you think about that from a sort of concept and execution standpoint?
Rajesh Setty: I suppose there is a lot of moving parts. I agree. And then the design of this projects where I’m getting involved in some way has to blend itself into creating multiple rewards at the same time. Remember, my favorite quote is every disciplined effort has multiple rewards. Like for example, I’m writing this book Smart but Stuck. What will happen? I’ll have to meet other authors. I learned to interview them. Remember the interview. Cool, cool people and all those things. You know, my latest meeting startup is called Advisor, which is like Spotify for micro podcasts from really smart people. Yeah. Along the way, I’m writing this book, I’m meeting a bunch of smart people. What will happen? They all become experts on our ways. It now did it take double the work to get them as Ordway as their experts? I interview them for, no, it’s designed to be in such a way that it creates multiple rewards that to benefit multiple people.
Rajesh Setty: So I look at myself as a joker card. In that pack of cards, I can become a set or I can make them a sequence, but on my own I’ve learned that powerful. But as a sector, a sequence, I’m really powerful. So I’m always thinking about smart partnering. How do we get them? When I hire people, I look for three things. I call it ACE, which is autonomous, which is they don’t ask me a lot of questions. They get their job done, competent, they not only get their job done, they do it very well and E for empathetic. It means they know what the end customer of this project is, they have some empathy for that end customer. So if they are, they have the characteristics of ACE, ACE-characteristics and I have them have, I made mistakes many times, but they will get not good the next project with me because it costs me. So imagine if I have a set of people with ACE-characteristics, how easy it is to get things done.
Career Nation: I love it. Autonomous, competent and empathetic. It’s a great set of qualities to have, um, and be successful with those qualities. And B, make basically not only be autonomous and competent and empathetic that helps you with the job, but it also helps you because now you can scale up and have more leverage and other things. Hello rodesh as we wrap up here, we would love to know as career nation, what are your, what is your advice to us? All of us people working in corporate America, working on ad jobs. We want to Excel, we want to get promoted, we want to have better jobs. We want to learn new skills. There’s so many things to do. As we, as we wrap up, what are your thoughts on sort of our careers? How, how do you think we should approach it? What are the things we should be thinking about? Um, your thoughts please.
Rajesh Setty: One of the things that I always think about Abhijeet is how much does it take off you to create significant value to others? So if you think about how much of you has to come, who create a lot of value, if you can, designing their careers so that the of you is required to create enormous value, then what does happen then you unlock a powerful force of leverage, isn’t it? So the higher the leverage, higher the outcome and output and higher the premium that people will pay you in your job. For that to happen. If only a little of your to come to create a lot of value. That little of you V extremely powerful isn’t it? And that whatever is your super power, it cannot stay a super power unless you nurture it. So first is to identify your superpower. Second is to master it like nobody’s business. There is no tomorrow. If I am super power is story telling. Then take the next course on storytelling. Go to a workshop, do whatever it takes because that is your super power. You have to double down on it rather than saying, I’m not good at accounting, let me learn accounting. No, there is find a person who is good at accounting and partner with them. You are super power is storytelling. Double down, triple down on it. That’s my 2 cents.
Career Nation: Awesome. And I would love to link that back to the self awareness topic that we discussed earlier in the show and then knowing more about yourself, what’s your hammer, what’s your strength? And then now figuring it out, double down, triple down on it. Um, gives maximum results not only to yourself but to the community that you serve, to the organizations that you serve, to the companies where you create value and to your customers. Correct. Fantastic. Rajesh, it’s been a absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for taking the time. You are a super busy person. Um, but you chose to spend time here with the audience and share your fantastic insights. Would love to do a follow up at some point. I’m just, I didn’t ask you this, but I’m just making a statement that I would love to do a follow up. Hopefully you will honor it and which with much love and respect, Raj, thank you again for being on the show.
Rajesh Setty: You’re most welcome. I totally enjoyed it. It was a pleasure talking to you and anytime we can do a follow up.
Career Nation: Awesome. Great. Thank you. Rajesh have a great day.