Podcast Themes

Bill Burnett speaks about how he thought about navigating through various choices and transitions and how he balanced pursuing his passion and being pragmatic in terms of providing for his family without swinging too far to one side.

Neeraj Aggarwal speaks about how he has tuned into the vital few things that energize him (good conversations with good people, kids, sport, Plaksha). He speaks about how he has been intentional in architecting this portfolio.

Michiel Kruyt speaks about how Ambition can be a finite resource which could empty at some point in time but Purpose can be a perennially replenishing driving force if we tune into it.

Jeffrey Pfeffer speaks about how he came around to studying Power. He also goes on to speak about the kinds of career choices he has made and what he has said No to over time as his Power increased over time.

Tarun Khanna speaks about how enduring families think of dealing with the question of the next generation entering the business. He speaks about how the more evolved families give the next generation an opportunity to actualize their potential and go on a process of self-discovery.

Alisa Cohn speaks speaks about how with certain Founders, their passion can lead to them turning into a “bully” when they lead teams. Their internal drive and energy can spill over into the team and that can have negative consequences for the organization

Alisa Cohn speaks about the phenomenon where the Founder, as the company scales up, has to give away some part of the job that he or she really really enjoyed. As the company scales up the Founder often needs to get involved with the building of the company and not really the specific activity or function that really brought him or her energy. And that can be a non-trivial transition.

Ravi Venkatesan refers to the work of Charles Handy and says that in the future, there will be three broad kinds of work – Creatives, Caregivers and Custodians. He goes on to say that it is critical that we map ourselves into one or two of the three and develop deep capabilities to ensure that we are the top of that particular field as there is a significant risk of commoditization if we are an “also ran” in a field.

Harsh Mariwala speaks about how his children are charting their journey. He goes on to say that he would like them to make choices on their own terms based on their interests and skills.

Harish Bhat speaks about him taking a sabbatical 25 years into his career. He reflects on the fact that he was in a good place in his career and there were enough forces that were urging him to continue. He speaks about what he gained from the pause.

Tom Vanderbilt speaks about how sometimes we get caught up in a race towards mastery on a topic where we are amateurs. But in our mind, there is often a misplaced sense of professionalism that can sometimes have negative consequences without us realizing. I guess these are individual choices that we make but being aware of this phenomenon and having a clear Why behind some of these pursuits is often helpful.

Dan Cable speaks about how we could play to our potential by keeping the concept of death close to us. He also speaks about how we can unlock others’ potential by providing timely feedback to others without falling trap to the notion of eulogy delay.