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Take the Leap From Being Average to Extraordinary: Your Path To Being Extraordinary · ContraMinds Podcast - Unlocking Personal Growth and Professional Excellence

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so the idea was uh to start a new series in Contrabines called the Be Extraordinary series.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to double down on how can a career professional be extraordinary in his or her work.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: So what separates the average worker, the fundamental problem today is that how am I average?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: How do I understand if I'm average?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: And if I have to cross that chasm and become extraordinary, how do I become extraordinary?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_03: Great.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so really a great question, Ashwin.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I've been searching for this uh answer, and I've had this question for a long time, right?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_03: And uh the most interesting thing is there's nobody called average, right?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: It's about uh I would say were you inspired and did you get inspired is really what differentiates the extraordinary from the average.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_03: That's one difference that I've seen after having spoken to many guests across multiple countries, across multiple professions.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_03: Okay?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_03: Uh when you really look at the ones who are extraordinary, one of the most important differences uh that I saw was the fact that their purpose, their mindset, and their practice were all aligned.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_03: And that differentiated the average from the extraordinary.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: So, what do I mean by purpose?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_03: The purpose means that do I find a meaning in what I do every day?
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_03: Is it what I want to do?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm going to be spending almost 17, 18 hours, 12 hours in the office.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_03: And that's a significant amount of time that you spend every day, right?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_03: And that's a majority of your life.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_03: And therefore, if you don't have meaning and a purpose to why you are doing what you're doing, then you don't do a good job at the end of the day, right?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: So, therefore, finding meaning is the most important thing, and that's really what I think you should explore and find out.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_03: That's really what I found most of them uh have in their life.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_03: That's the first thing, and because they have a meaning, what then happens is that their mindsets are set to say, okay, you know what, I am going to see these barriers.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_03: I believe these are the challenges that I will face.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_03: I think this is the mountain I need to climb, right?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_03: And therefore, the mindset is pretty much prepared for achieving the purpose.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: So, therefore, it the purpose allows you to have the mindset ready for the challenges that lie ahead of the person, right?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_03: And then the practice is really about saying now that the mindset is set, nothing stops them.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so what they do every day consistent consistently, right?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_03: What they do every day consistently, uh day in and day out, and which I call relentless sturdiness, coming in every day, doing this stuff every day is something that they excel at, right?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_03: So clearly the best and the extraordinary have their purpose, mindset, and practice aligned, and that's what differentiates the average from the extraordinary.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: Right, I want to go deeper into that.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: Now you said purpose, mindset, and practice.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: Can you define purpose?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: What I mean for me if you take the profess career professional, the the first phase for them is the early phase where they're out of college, they're joining a company or an organization or an institute, whatever, whatever their work entitles them to do, then the first seven years they might have a different purpose.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: Then middle management might have a different purpose.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: Once you go into senior management, you might have a different purpose.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: But can you go deeper into explaining what is the purpose that you mean?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_03: So let me give you some examples.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_03: And uh let me tell you that uh the purpose that I talk about is really what you want to be.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_03: It's about what you dream you want to be, right?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_03: That's really what I think the purpose is all about.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_03: Let me give you an example of say a cricketer like Rahul Dravid.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_03: So when you look at Rahul Dravid as a cricketer, the dream and his purpose was being the best cricketer to have played.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_03: That's already the purpose with which he started, and not that he had the talent of a Tendulkar or probably the off-drive of a Sauro Ganguli, right?
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_03: He was somebody who was grinding his way to actually being a legend, right?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_03: But his purpose was I have to be amongst the best, right?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_03: That is the purpose with which he started, right?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_03: The fact that he started with that purpose, his mindset was pretty much set saying I have to work hard, I'm not as talented as a Tendulkar, right?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_03: And therefore, what I need to do every day is probably do hours of practice, you know.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe I need to be in the nets every day, long hours.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_03: I need to, you know, face different sets of bowlers, right?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_03: So, therefore, the mindset was he was prepared for the challenge that lie ahead of him, right?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_03: And then what he did was the fact that uh I have to be doing it every day, you know, be it Australia, be it England, be it South Africa, different pictures.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_03: I need to be at my best, and therefore, the work that he did every day, the work ethic that he started building to ensure that the practice and the mindset and the purpose got aligned is really what took him to where he became till he retired.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, but that was not where he stopped, right?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_03: Because his purpose was to actually say, you know, I want to be the best cricketer, but I also want to create the best cricketers, right?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_03: Which India has ever produced, and I would like to make cricket as an institution in the country to compete with the world.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_03: If that's the purpose with which he started, and you saw him becoming not just the coach of the India A team, but he went to the under-19 team.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_03: He said that's really the best leaders have groomed, right?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_03: Therefore, he said, I'm not in it for the glamour of it, right?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_03: I'm interested in the grinding, the work that I would be doing.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_03: I there's a lot of hard work that's involved.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_03: I had to work with the kids at the under-19 level, and therefore, he went there and said, Let me work on it, and that's not a glamorous job, but because the purpose was clear, the fact that his mindset was saying, Okay, I may need to do a lot of work with these kids, I may have to spend long hours with them, and therefore, build this institution of building the world's best cricketers out of our country is really the purpose with which he started, and therefore, he went back and then said, Okay, now let me go back to NCA.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_03: And if you look at him, he is a coach of RR.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_03: So he is remained relevant even after retirement because the purpose with which he started actually ensured that his career longevity is really really long because the purpose, the mindset, and the practice with which he does things can clearly you know differentiate him from the rest of the cricketers.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: Correct, correct, right.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: If we take his example, when he started off, like because obviously the life span of a career is much smaller than a career professional in in IT or in any other industry, it starts off with him.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm just trying to draw an analogy because he took cricket, uh, took sports.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: It is very similar in its fundamental principles with compared compared to a career professional.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: For him, first, when he joined, when he I'm only going to start from when he joins the Indian team.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: So, first he has to figure out and understand what his position is.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: Is he playing one down, two down, is he opening?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: That dynamic he has to understand.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's exactly like how we have it in as a pressure.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: What is your position?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: You need to know what once you understand your position, you know what your role is.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: Are you an opener?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: Do you come in?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: Do you are you coming at a point when you have to push the run rate?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: Do you have to play an anchor innings?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: So that is where he finds his role, and then once his position and role is clear and he has the right mindset, he gets a larger responsibility of being a leader as a vice captain or a captain.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: Once you become a captain, then you know that you're shouldering the responsibility of a much larger workforce or a team.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: There it becomes most important to know when to step back from that uh role or responsibility because you can't be the captain for your scope beyond your life.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: So you need to know where when you have to end your career, and before that, you need to figure out what format I can play in beyond a point.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: When do I have to stop playing ODI?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: When do I have to stop playing test cricket?
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: When do I have to pull back from IPL?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: You need to know that.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: And after that, once you reach a point where you're a leader, then you understand that transitioning is important for a leader.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: I cannot always say that I'll be the captain, I'll be the captain, and then you can't jump into captain and say that okay, the next organic transition for a captain is to become coach.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: No, you have to transition to understanding what a coach, the the skill sets of a coach are.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: Transition into that aspect of leadership and then staying relevant there.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: So this is how even a person in the IT industry can should understand their role.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_03: In fact, in any industry, uh whether be it you are in the FMCG industry or in the consumer durable industry or in the automotive industry, whether you're in the IT industry, the the difference is not uh you know very, very, uh, very, very different uh Ashwin because the way I see it is uh when you're starting, uh maybe I want to be a DevOps engineer, okay.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe I want to be a marketing uh you know head, okay, or I want to be a uh supply chain head, right?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_03: Then you have to have a vision for yourself and a purpose for yourself saying I have to build a supply chain as good as Apple.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe that's really the purpose with which you then start, okay?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_03: Because if you read the biographies of Steve Jobs and the way you look at those books, you'll realize that they would, you know, uh they would actually come back with a design and they would give Tim Cook this phone and then say, get it done for so many dollars, right?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_03: So he had to go back to Foxconn, find out somebody who could produce it at that price with the design uncompromised.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_03: So, therefore, then you have to say, you know what, my hero is Tim Cook if I have to become the world's best supply chain professional, right?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_03: Then you go back and look at what did he do to become the best in the world, right?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_03: And how do you balance that between your purpose and then what are the things that he learnt, okay, uh, as a professional, and what are the skills that are required, right?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_03: Which is really the mindset bit, which is to say what am I good at?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: Am I good at negotiations, am I good in forecasting, am I good in uh logistics?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_03: What are the things uh you know uh how do I evaluate the cost of materials that go into the bomb, which is bill of materials for building a phone, right?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_03: So, what are this uh things that I need to know, and I may not know everything, so therefore, which means that I'm self-aware that these are what I know, these are some of the things I don't know, right?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_03: Then I have to motivate myself every day, saying that I don't know this, I'm not good at this, but I I know I have to get better at this every day, which is really your practice, right?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_03: Therefore, you come to office every day, you just have to get better at it every day, and that's really how you become the best at it, which is really your purpose.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_03: So, when your purpose and your mindset and your practice are aligned, then your ability to enjoy what you do and become extraordinary becomes relevant.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_03: So, the other example for me is somebody like a Sri Dervembu, right?
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, he actually has taken a path which is not done by many, right?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, ideally, you would want to build a software product out of the Silicon Valley, right?
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_03: And he's somebody from IIT, uh, he decided to go to Princeton.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, he's do uh you know he did his PhD there, and he decided to come back at some point in time, right?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_03: But his purpose in life was to build a world-class software product out of India and not just from the metro cities, but from you know, can I get the uh you know, I would say the tier two towns and the engineers from there or the people from there, not even just engineers, right?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_03: How can I enable an economy of building software products out of India from tier 1, tier 2 cities?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: Right, his purpose was actually building those kinds of products right out of India for the world, right?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_03: So, when he then looked back, that is his purpose, right?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_03: Now, was that easy?
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: No, that was not easy because you know you needed an infrastructure, you know, people were not ready to build products in the cities and the towns that he wanted to set up Zoho offices, right?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_03: So he had to go back and build the Zoho School of Learning, okay, where you they had to train uh you know the rural folks to actually do programming, right?
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_03: So, therefore, the mindset that he decided to actually go through was the fact that it is a challenge, it is going to be hard work, it's a long grind that I have to go through, and I'm not willing to take VC money, right?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_03: Again, that's another purpose, which is I want to be privately owned, right?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_03: Therefore, the purpose was clear, therefore, the mindset of going through the grind and the challenges was something that was something that he was prepared for, and then the practice every day was actually ensuring that you build this world-class process of building these products out of India, and therefore, you know what would what would I do with my developers every day, with my programmers every day?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_03: How do I build my uh you know, wireframes for my products?
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_03: How do I build uh you know quality in these products?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_03: How do I ship them out?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_03: What's the infrastructure needed if I'm building a SaaS product?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_03: So, all these were things that probably were not known, but the practice of saying, Okay, how should I build it?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_03: What are the processes that I need to put in?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_03: How do I ensure that I do product reviews every day?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_03: How do I set up my customer service?
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_03: So, clearly, that practice of ensuring that it gets done is really what you have to go through the I would say the discipline of doing it rigorously every day, right?
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_03: The purpose, practice, and the mindset.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_03: If you see the purpose, mindset, and the practice, you know, have to be aligned, and that's really the reason why Zoho is where Zoho is today, and that's really where he's extraordinary, right?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and that's really what I think professional professionals need to look at.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think well, also a personal extreme who stands out is more for me in the mindset because he didn't follow the template of other uh IT companies having to set up a large in a tier one city, construct a big building, get the best of talent, go do campus interviews, get the IITs and the IIMs, uh pay them huge salaries, put them on bench, figure out what the project is, uh and go that route.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: He and beyond a point, those are the kind of companies that started saying that India has an unemployable workforce.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: Correct.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: They were only blaming the system.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: What his mindset was I will change the system, I will re I will reinterpret what efficiency is.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: I will go to the grassroots, I will pick talent, I will train them, I will make them work within the grassroots so there is a generational shift in uh that workforce.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: The that person's will be the first graduate in his uh family, and he has a significant shift in lifestyle.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely, and uh therefore, Ashwin, the example that I always give is that would you want to go to a mediocre doctor?
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_03: No, right?
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: Correct.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_03: So so, therefore, if you want to go to the best doctor, the best doctor has to have a purpose saying that this is the way you know I would treat my patients, this is really how I would run my profession, right?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, I would actually do all of this, I should be the best at what I do.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_03: Then the mindset of then saying, Okay, what are the skills as skill sets and challenges that I will face?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_03: How do I prepare myself for it, and therefore, what would I do every day, okay, to ensure that my purpose is there.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: So, therefore, you have to take examples from adjacent industries and then start applying it in a corporate world, right?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_03: Because a corporate world actually does not teach you these things, right?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_03: And even from our schooling days or college days, it these are not taught to you, right?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_03: And therefore, you are you have to spend enough time looking at the purpose why you are doing what you are doing, and then getting your mind ready for what it takes to achieve your purpose and doing it relentlessly every day, irrespective of you know any short-term gratification that you might get or not, right?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_03: And I always say efforts and outcomes are non-linear, right?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_03: Therefore, and the extraordinary ones understand that, and that's really what differentiates the average from the extraordinary.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_03: And uh as I think back, if there's one more example that I want I can give you, is uh Nandan uh Nilakani, right?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, if you look at Nandan at a very, very uh you know important stage of his life, which is I he was a fairly senior professional, right?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: Uh because his purpose was clear that he wanted to change the way India IT had to, you know, be built, right?
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_03: The public goods that we talk about today, right?
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_03: The purpose actually made it important for him to shift and jump from a private enterprise to a public enterprise, right?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_03: So he moved from being head of a public uh private uh company to becoming uh a part of the government, right?
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_03: And uh once the purpose was clear, right, that he would build the best uh public goods infrastructure for the world, and it has to be led from India, right?
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_03: Once that purpose was clear, then the mindset was now I'll work through the government, I know it may not be efficient, I know I may face a lot of resistance, right?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_03: So the mindset was about saying now how do I ensure that my purpose gets fulfilled, right?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_03: And the practice of then doing it every day, right?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: Saying that okay, how do I run my teams, how should I tell them the story, how should I give them the big picture, how do I get them aligned, how do I make them deliver to a timeline like a private limited company that I have worked for, and he doesn't have a command and control structure like he had in a private limited company, he had to work through collaboration, he had to go through a democratic process of you know uh aligning people, and the mindset was ready for it because the purpose was clear, right?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_03: So, therefore, when you actually have the purpose, mindset, and the practice aligned, I think you have an opportunity to become extraordinary.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: But how do you how does purpose, mindset, and practice align?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: How do you how does that happen?
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: How does it align?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: How do you how do you know when your purpose and your practice and your mindset have aligned?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_03: See, I I personally think uh Ashwin that it's a process of discovery.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_03: And uh most importantly, don't follow the herd uh mentality, right?
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_03: You know, don't follow the herd mentality, right?
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_03: Because which is to say, you know what, oh I did my graduation, I go to this college, I want to work for this large company.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_03: Uh but if you don't enjoy doing that, but you keep coming back every day being dissatisfied, then it doesn't, you know, what you do every day is not linked to what your purpose is, right?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_03: So therefore spend spend some spend some time uh reflecting on what what is it that energizes you, right?
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_03: And what is your priority, right?
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_03: And that is something that I We have been able to do with uh after having spoken to so many uh leaders, so many uh guests in contraminds, you have recently come out with what is called as a my true compass.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_03: It's all almost like a professional compass where you can discover for yourself right what are your priorities as far as your purpose is concerned.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_03: If career is a purpose, right, then you have to actually look back and say, I always say that you know there could be a purpose which is family could be a purpose, money could be your purpose, uh you know, your well-being could be a purpose, okay.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_03: Spirituality and community could be a purpose.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, you go and build an NGO community NGO company for all you might know.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_03: You can do you can still do that, right?
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_03: So, therefore, if your purpose becomes clear, right, then what happens is that what you do with that purpose in terms of your mindset becomes clear, and therefore your uh practices, right?
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_03: So, therefore, what we have done in this my true countermines my true compass really is uh it's it's an exploration where uh you know you can actually discover for yourself what are your purpose, then you actually have a battery of questions, okay, around uh you know what is how do you really handle the emotions, how do you are you self-aware of what you're what you're doing every day?
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: Are you are you actually having the discipline of getting it done every day, right?
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: And how do you practice it every day, right?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_03: So therefore, if you have a mindset and purpose, but you don't practice it every day, it's almost like saying that you know I want to I want to uh you know uh lose weight, but that's just the intent, right?
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_03: My purpose and uh you know mindset is to lose weight, but the fact is that do you practice it every day?
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_03: So just like how you actually do it for fitness, I think there's also a need to do it in your profession, right?
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_03: Right, and that's really what Mitro Compass does.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_03: So you take this battery of uh you know tests, you then you know uh instantly it gives you a a kind of a uh you know report, okay, uh, which tells you you know what are your uh priorities, which from a purpose point of view, how do you see your purpose and is there some alignment okay between your purpose and the mindset in terms of what it takes to do?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_03: So therefore, you may actually see that you know I I career uh you know, career is my purpose, right?
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_03: Being top of my career is my purpose, but I may not have enough you know tenacity to motivate myself, okay.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_03: I may not be self-aware that these are my weaknesses, right?
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_03: And therefore, do I work on them every day?
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_03: So, therefore, when you take this uh my true compass test, uh, or the exploration as we call it, right?
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, what it does is that it just gives you a snapshot, okay, of who you are, okay, uh, what are my strengths and how can I leverage them, okay, and how can you work on them, and that's really a starting point, right?
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_03: Just give you a perspective, and that's when you actually say, you know what, if for example, money is my purpose, okay, then the most important thing is then don't you know, then look for a company where you know that purpose is uh you know uh achievable, but then it's almost like a graphic uh you know audio equalizer that you look at because you know in some parts of your life you may want your career to be uh have a lot of focus, right?
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_03: But maybe in the you know, maybe in some some other time in your phase of life, you would want health and uh you know health and family to be more important, okay.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_03: So it's about how you balance this across your career span.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I think people with uh extraordinary uh success have achieved.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_03: So the example what you said, and in fact you articulated it very well, which is to say, let's look at a Rahul Dravid.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so his graphic equalizer was Am I good in T20 or am I good in test cricket?
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, uh, then the next question is okay, we you know we we have to win the World Cup after 1983.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_03: We have not won the World Cup.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_03: So, how do we build a balanced team?
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, there is no job description.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_03: Let me become a wicket keeper, okay.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_03: So therefore he was the wicket keeper for that World Cup, right?
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_03: In one of the World Cups where I think uh we lost in the final, right?
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_03: So therefore, there's no job description.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_03: He said, No, I have to do what my team does, so therefore that's what he did, right?
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_03: And then he said, Okay, now this audio equalizer then went back and said, you know what?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_03: If my purpose is to create an institution of world-class cricketers, right, then you know he basically then moved and then became a coach, right?
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_03: Therefore, the way he extended it based on the purpose, okay, and that aligned with you know the way he earned, the way he earned his reputation, the way he spent time, the way he uh you know prepared his uh mindset to succeed, you know what he did every day in terms of uh the work workouts that he had to do.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_03: He had to really realign it every five years.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_03: So if you are somebody okay who are who wants to be extraordinary, you know, I would say start looking at it in this manner, okay.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_03: Actually take the mitro compass test now, look at what you know where the strengths are, then start looking at it and saying, Okay, these are the you know areas that I think I have to provide uh you know some uh I would call it a stimulus to uh my purpose, right?
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_03: So this is really I have to do it, therefore, you could actually learn it and say these are some of the things that I would focus, then maybe you know, maybe two years, three years later, take the micro compass test again.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_03: Then you get a sense of am I moving in the right direction, right?
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_03: So that is something that you do, and that's really your path to being extraordinary.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: And the Mitro Compass exploration is available on ContraMinds on the Contramines website.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's pretty much uh, you know, we have built it as a platform, right?
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_03: So you can go and go there, uh, you you log in, and I'm sure uh you you know you can pay online, right?
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and uh and what you do is that uh you can register yourself, pay online, uh take this test, and the uh report is actually uh emailed to you, and then you can actually look at it and then say, you know, uh, is this what I am?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_03: Uh is you know, do I have the mindset to uh what my purpose is, and therefore am I having the right uh regimen, right, to actually help me achieve my purpose.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_03: So I think it just gives you a snapshot and it's a beautiful snapshot.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_03: And I have taken it myself, okay, and I think uh it just gives me a nice snapshot of who I am.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: So therefore it works for people across the spectrum of being a professional.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_03: You know, for uh entry-level people, it you know, if you I think uh for entry-level people just uh lets you set up the early phase of your career, okay, uh, so that you are preparing yourself for it, okay.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_03: Uh which is really what I said, right?
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_03: So if for example uh you are uh you're somebody in a procurement in a company, you know, it could be any uh any company that you're working for, then uh you know you you actually say this is really uh if career is my purpose, then Tim Cook is your hero, right?
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_03: Therefore, learn what are the things that are needed, and then you then start to do it.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_03: Or if you're an uh you know, if you are uh if you're saying an enterprise architect, or if you are a uh if you're a cloud uh you know architect, okay, then you go back and then say who's the best in that business, right?
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and that's what I want to be.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_03: Then you go back and look at what it takes to achieve that, right?
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_03: And then uh practice it every day, it's not going to happen overnight, right?
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_03: So, therefore, I would say that's really how you can get extraordinary.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_03: That's really what the Contramines My True Compass is all about.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_02: There are a lot of so I have uh over the course of our conversation there are questions that I've written that I would want to ask you, but uh I think each of those questions deserves their own time and space.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_02: So I think we should uh we'll end the the episode here today.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: This has been a fantastic start to the series called Be Extraordinary, I think so.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I'll meet you next week.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: I have a whole lot of questions for you.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_02: So I'll pick your brain next week.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_02: You have a great day.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for your time, Son.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks, Ashwin.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_03: Lovely and uh very insightful questions, and it was great uh you know having a conversation with you.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you, Sonic.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_03: Same year.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for listening to this episode.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_03: For selected links and detailed show notes, visit www.contramines.com.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_03: Follow Contraminds on social media and let us know who you would like to see next on the podcast.
• 31:39
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• 31:45
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• 31:47
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• 31:50
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• 31:57
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for listening and stay safe.