Life Advice I Wish I Knew 20 Years Ago | Karan Bajaj
The advice I received then–”focus on your core competence”, “your network is your net worth” etc. — all made sense. But none of it spoke to me. I was a wanderer at heart, most engaged when I was learning new things, and didn’t feel pulled to settle anywhere. Fortunately, I’ve learnt since there’s space for both kinds in the world. The specialists and the wanderers. The vertical experts and the horizontal dot-connectors. So if you’re pulled to change constantly and always be uncomfortable for reasons unknown, I hope this advice can be of some use to confidently carve your own unique place in the world. Without feeling like a misfit, as I did for much of my career! 1. Become 75% good at a bunch of things¹ if your heart doesn’t want to be 100% good at one thing… I’m fortunate to be surrounded by extraordinary role models who have a singular sense of their destiny. From my very first boss at P&G who went on to become the P&G worldwide COO to Byju Raveendran most recently, who won’t rest un
I didn’t think I’d amount to much after Business School. The advice I received then–”focus on your core competence”, “your network is your net worth” etc. — all made sense. But none of it spoke to me. I was a wanderer at heart, most engaged when I was learning new things, and didn’t feel pulled to settle anywhere. Fortunately, I’ve learnt since there’s space for both kinds in the world. The specialists and the wanderers. The vertical experts and the horizontal dot-connectors. So if you’re pulled to change constantly and always be uncomfortable for reasons unknown, I hope this advice can…
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