@KaranBajajOfficial on Exploring Life, Building Startups, Spirituality and more! | Ankur Warikoo

[ad_1] Who is I failed to even know how to describe him so we will get to know him in the multiple personalities thank you so much Karan for joining us today my pleasure thank you wonderful Karen I want to start my first question guess hello what do you think has been the biggest Change that has come in you as a person um so exactly 10 years ago 2012 may I was working with craft in the U.S in a pretty typical corporate job uh uh so so small thing like a large thing had happened my mother had died from cancer just before just around that Time she was very young she was in her early 50s and at that point when he decided I'll go very deep into yoga and meditation at that point for us it was a much more spiritual kind of quest because you know my mother I've seen her Kind of body disintegrate in front of my eyes so at that time it was more about key why do these things happen what is the meaning of life you know what is if the end is like that then what is the what is the Journey about so it was a Much more spiritual point of question um I traveled from Europe to India by Road and then uh I'd spent I became a yoga teacher at the sivananda ashram in madurai over about six weeks and then lived in the ashram for a while then went up to the Himalayas in uttar Kashi And learned meditation deeply and spent another few months in both yoga and meditation going very deep and uh took another three months to write a book around these experiences in Portugal in a small artist retreat uh so that happened exactly 10 years ago so it's surprising when you asked that question I came back from that and then I would say key like like I would say truly the most transmitted thing that happened is that uh this uh the uh all of the kind of spiritual questions that I had at that point I got some kind of an answer to That and uh a very like a little bit of a deeper Journey started in terms of uh meditation became very deep part of my life and then also I just started to understand how temporary and uh you know how temporary most things are so a lot Of attachment that I had at that point of time to a certain career path or a certain financial status kind of left me and I started to take very big chances right so so I would say the I would say a lot of like mental stability from the Yoga and meditation practice the entire year of being going very deep in it and I would say the risk taking ability because uh just to give you a sense in the yoga ashram they're like in sivananda there are 60 people living in a kind of a dorm room and there is one Bathroom that everybody is sharing kind of a thing so when you live like that for a few months of time then you start to realize that you need very little to survive so I think that obviously everybody knows that but uh personalization I just kept taking risks based on Whatever I thought was important so I decided to become a full-time writer after coming back to New York left my job to do that then you know left a discovery to become to start a tech company so I think the Liberation that I experienced on that I need very little To live on and I can keep taking chances as a result of that journey and then personally meditation has been a very big component of my life for the last 10 years so lots has changed in the last 10 years wow wow wow that is that is a lot To start with itself a wonderful congratulations on that journey and uh if it's it's so crazy your hit hard to only realize how you have to start looking at life all over again and and I'm in some way I don't even know whether it's the right Thing to say or not but that event of your mom passing away got you to perhaps get your own life back in some way uh did you have a family at that point were you married no I wasn't married I was almost uh 33 34 years old and then there Was a lot of obviously family pressure at that point of time I've taken some time to backpack and write my first novel keep off the grass so so I wasn't at that point of time but my my girlfriend was there and we went together for a part of the journey and Eventually we got married yeah and I I'm curious to know you have clearly evolved and gone up the hierarchy of spiritual evolution is there something which you feel or you wish most people knew about life you know it always feels like two steps forward four steps not because uh the Theory of what you learn about uh you know controlling your desires and instincts versus the actual actuality of living that in daily life is always a contrast uh or is always a journey of like getting better and better but never quite feeling that you are arriving Anywhere so I I don't quite feel that way but having having said that I think one big thing which is not fully linked to the spiritual part but um I realize now I think the First Act of Creation that somebody does is the transformation point in their life and That could be in as in your case like uh you started creating content on social media and that really was the first Act of Creation that really started to transform you and uh in my case it was writing the first novel in 2008 which I I wrote it But what I started to learn was whatever you've learned you put all of yourself into that creative project and then you realize key uh whenever you do try to do a second Trader project you realize that you have nothing more to give and you fill your well if you will With lots of more experiences and then you do the second project and I saw kick cycle I would take all of the experiences put it into a creative project then realize that I was kind of empty again and fill a life with a lot of diverse experiences Again then I kept doing that again and again so that I think is a very powerful realization which I wish everybody knew creative project I did mine first at the age 28. I wish at age 19 I decided to do egg novel YouTube channel some powerful creative project because It completely takes all of what you have to give and then you become empty again to fill it up again and I realized that with pattern Discovery also kicked shut up with that whole similar creative trust key I have to kind of build something again so each Time I keep giving everything I have to that particular creative project and then uh you know fill uh feel the need to fill my life with experiences once again so whoa I think that was a very powerful realization which I think happened quite late for me I was doing It unconsciously but I think I realized it only a few years ago Keith this was the pattern I was forming yeah and and it's very interesting you say this though creative project accomplished in your admission Your Vessel gets empty and you have to fill it back with experiences with learnings with post reflection Does that means so that you choose these experiences and these learnings or is it that the experiences and learnings Define what the second data project will be no it's a very good question uh what I've seen is that uh there's almost like a period of like a very like once You've completed this act right so for example Junior's case after finishing by exiting Whitehead Junior I really didn't know what the next chapter would look like actually there was a part of me which was feeling that obviously I won't do a tech startup again I would go into some public sector Work a government politics kind of work so then for the year I that I took off after recently you know I was in Costa Rica I was reading very widely about public administration government Etc and so I had a vague sense okay look uh I would I want to be in much more like public structure stuff if you will but at the end of that period and then coming back and doing a little bit of work with the government I somehow started to draw more parallels between how Tech can influence large-scale public infrastructure stuff and that Gave me the idea for the a startup that I'm gonna that I'm just kind of in the planning stage of building next but at that point I'll do another startup after that whole up and down experience but uh I think what happens is that you enter this Follow period where you are learning a lot of things and then what I've seen with people you know very similar to you who have multiple different experiences dots start to connect in very different spaces right yeah although you don't know how the dots will connect but um but that's what I've noticed typically Is awesome and then that's such a wonderful realization that that is actually so so true and uh over time this is an interesting one no you went on the spiritual journey you wanted to ask some really tough questions maybe you got the answers of you maybe you Were still hungry yeah and then you went into this let's call it a wild game of startups which is raising money growing at Breakneck speed perhaps at times even unprofitably maybe not even sustainably than having This brilliant exit which a lot of people would give their entire lifetime to get So you suddenly now plush with attention money expectations pressure do you do you feel you were better equipped to handle everything because you'd gone through that Journey or was it almost like it's almost like a fresh start all over again and you have to learn and make those mistakes uh very good question Some parts I would say um a few parts uh in the in the startup Journey were made easier by a lot of Prior experimentation so for example when you're writing a novel and uh in 2015 after coming back from the sabbatical and spending two three years working again I decided to become a Full-time writer I spent about till then I'd spent about 15 years in the corporate world Procter Gamble Boston Consulting Group I was doing reasonably well in the or doing quite well in the corporate life but I'd always felt key I didn't go deep enough as a creative uh Professional right I had written two novels which had done reasonably well in India but I thought you know world class I haven't done a creative exercise and I want to write a novel that really uh it gets published outside India the world like you know it's it's got like enough Depth that it can stand its ground in the world so in 2016 I had left my job and I thought I'll become a full-time writer now that was the first time I was doing full-time writing and the act of taking a blank page and turning it into A 300 page novel has very similar leaps of it so surprisingly first you have to believe without anybody knowing that will lead into something meaningful then around you you know and then you face a lot of rejections especially when I was publishing internationally uh my third novel The Seeker was rejected 61 Times By agents all so over 18 months I was rejected almost every month uh two or three times and I would keep Rising keep revising keep revising and by the and by and in the end you are a kind of I was published right and uh Overall I think that kind of shaped me a lot in the sense when I came to the startup I didn't expect you know obviously things moved a little bit faster thankfully for me but I uh I didn't have those similar um like I would say like fears right I knew There'll be nothing and I remember I was discovering India's head just before that Discovery India's CEO and I just got in prime minister movie on Bear Grylls versus uh uh Man vs Wild with bear kills and and so I was speaking to like you know that like you know uh and because We got behind a job there was nothing great I was doing but you were behind a big title right so you're speaking to people in the industry here like and and politics and then suddenly in your own startups following up seven eight times so I think I was much more I guess prepared For the humility of starting up because I'd gone through these journeys of uh failures and rejections and like I have to come today and give 100 of my energy to the input the output is not in my control and let me keep doing that for a period of time and automatically Something will emerge from it that made it easier but again startups as you rightly said is a you know no amount of novel writing and all can just prepare you for you know about the startup in that sense what was what was that one thing that you were completely not Prepared for thank you what what the hell is happening well I would say two things in the early phases when I started writer Junior I was the solo founder with no but I slowly built my team right uh I didn't know the difference between Tech and product for Example right like for me or like for somebody who comes from a MBA background who eventually does a startup there every day they are like surprised right Tech and products for example so like it's just becomes so much second language okay tech product in ux design Work that's a third new factor and then you also don't realize that uh like uh the technical team Etc is looking for your direction uh to uh you know you as a business person you think you take a you know like but you don't realize that business and Tech are so deeply Connected so I think that whole journey was uh new uh to walk through uh that was uh somewhat surprising and then some things we were prepared for I type is the first call center operator for a long period of time I was very well prepared second I would say the entire Whitehead Junior ups and downs after the bedrooms acquisition was uh completely Unthinkable For Me overall because like I think uh you know I'd obviously received attention before for my books or this but this large scale of attention the backlash is this that and I think we screwed up obviously how we Handled it was not great at all but uh overall I would say that whole journey was very I was very unprepared for uh but that happened startups you know both the scale of successes and the scale of polling is so live in real time and you do you always put in the Same best effort and uh you just don't know which way it will turn it's such a roll of the dice in a setup you know exactly exactly and and then once that happened you know you moved to Costa Rica now now you're back in India yeah what prompted you to write another book And and I and I love the I love the title of the the book the freedom Manifesto is such a intriguing enticing it almost feels like a handbook for life and I love it seven rules to live the life of your calling like it's really really straightforward and speaks to me Uh what what was the motivation to write this book I followed your work a little bit and I feel very similar to yours I think in in a way I also somewhere along this kind of up and down journey of like leaving jobs writing like leaving writing corporate leaving that to Startup you know somewhere in that journey I figured out the somewhat uh the true uh like you know your true uh ability to really go beyond your abilities almost or uh like you know reach your full potential is actually an integrated system of like Diet routine your mindset how you think About investing all of these are very intricately connected dots that start to transform you right very similar to I think what you learned with meditation suddenly being a huge part of your life and your own mindset about how to maximize your output and productivity and you realize that uh that input those Uh surprising factors like Diet mindset routine actually have the highest correlation in output versus almost uh the technical expertise or your pedigree of IM or your technical expertise of uh like you know how you know how to code or Builders it actually doesn't really matter as much as the input of Lifestyle Almost so in a way I think this is my codification of what I've learned in those uh 20 years of like lots of ups and downs failures and successes on um you know what are the inputs in life that can actually transform your output no matter which field you are in I Really wanted to share see that like I when I started reading it it was it was so interestingly that if you start approaching life with this mindset it just opens up levels of consistency that you perhaps were lacking all this while so thank you for writing this I I really enjoyed reading The book it's it's such a simple and Powerful read that I would love for people to to pick up as well I I have one question when you were talking about this is is there something that Karan has been doing almost all his life without fail a routine or a habit that Has stayed with you all your life a one routine and one habit the routine I would say is not all my life but uh quite recent or in order like I was exactly linked to the one year that I had taken off to do yoga and meditation After that I had this one one routine which has remained actually a part of my life for almost every single day for the last decade with very little variations uh which is that look no matter how busy I get or how free I am I always have to Consistently do one hour of exercise one hour of meditation and one hour of hardcore reading and reflection so even if I'm in the middle of this busy startup right what I call the 10th and six days right 10 to 10 six days a week which has got a startup takes to really Get off the ground so even if you're working to 70 80 hours at that point of time I would always find a way key look I should be able to spend one hour as soon as I get up to exercise then one hour to like I I would do meditate on The way to office in the Uber or something and on the way back and then uh half half an hour each and then I would make it a point to keep reading and reflecting so that uh the energy of new ideas keeps coming so I think that combination of like reflection on the Area that you are working on so that you don't just become a execution machine the meditation that gives you a lot of stability of thoughts especially for very driven people who are you know whose minds are going faster than they're like you know then their abilities if you will and then the one Hour of exercise which keeps your body a well-functioning machine almost like what I think of like the body is almost an efficient vehicle of the Divine you know like the energy is flowing through you to get something done in the world that's what you are meant for and you Know you're just gonna make that body that efficient vehicle that allows that energy to flow through you and then you'll make the right decisions for the most part you know so I think that routine has been very consistent for the last a decade and when you asked me About my life I would say I was a bit fortunate at that point I didn't realize that but going up in an army background uh I kind of my father went to very random places like uh Sri Lanka nagaland so I kept changing schools so I changed About nine schools in the first 12 years which I didn't like at that point of time because you were always uncomfortable but I would say in a way it became a greatest gift of life where I never uh sought Comfort at all it was very like I was always constantly Looking for for Change and growth and and thankfully it went from kind of unfocused change at that point of time to a little bit more Focus change around uh constantly being very ruthless with myself thinking am I really growing and what I'm doing now or is it that classic Rule is it one year of work done seven times or is it truly seven years of work kind of a thing right I'm really growing in what I'm doing right now and if I'm not growing then look I have to make a radical transmission and it's going to Hurt growth will always hurt massively in the short term but it'll pay back in the long term and I just have to hold that principle look it's gonna hurt and I should not a fuss about it when it hurts I you know I have to believe that In the long term it always pays back yeah that's beautiful that's very very powerful I love that it it seems that you have a fairly intense control over your day and and certainly over how you conduct yourself and react to the day so my question isirable something that you wish you Could get away no I think I was more I wish I was more like you on some things that I read about you on your extreme productivity you're not surfing the internet or you know getting distracted by random things I think within the free I'm actually With this one man well I managed to work a lot on things that I'm working on but I wish I was a little bit more of a productivity geek to have some Shavers and all that stuff to not get distracted by uh you don't think so hold on so what Distracts you the most I know for example I would say like something in the New York Times would catch my attention then you get into a bit of a rabbit full of surfing around that idea so like I wish I was even more extreme of uh like you know because I'm Interested in a lot of things uh very like you know it's uh yeah like whatever I'm working on is something that is deeply interesting to me so by by that logic I should not be distracted by something random but uh it's the world we live in I guess Of the days when you look back and think that there was a like a black hole of a few hours that just like you know you lost because you were doing random things the uh one question I don't know I'm sure you would have gotten asked this quite often he uh At least on on paper at least this is what I've read in the media your white hat Junior exit was was an enviable one and something which is a life-changing amount did you know how to handle that kind of money oh yeah I think that that one was not a very big like Um like I I would say that was not a very big transition because you see I was also uh 41 right I was above 40 when I made the money if I was 21 then I would probably have gone through some cycle of learning but I think at the age I was at uh I knew very well what you need for Financial Freedom which was a small fraction of that right or of of the of the of the money I knew that like any incrementality to that doesn't add to any Soul transforming happiness at all so obviously that principle was Extremely clear I've not never bought anything so I've never bought a house so far or a car I mean I'm a renter by Nature just because of the lifestyle of like moving constantly seeking growth in in many ways so I didn't buy any fixed assets at all so that was never a Distraction I think very similar to you maybe but I haven't really read your financial investing rules that much but I know that 85 percent of fund managers don't beat the index so I'm not going to be in the 15 because I have gotten money certainly so all my Investments are very passive in the index I don't buy real estate because I like you know I'm not a fixed asset person at all I'm uh like a mover by so I think all of the principles were very very uh kind of true and then I also Also always believe that like the best investment I can make it is my own growth and I thought you look the rest of my life has to be devoted to taking my good fortune and spreading the impact right and the easiest ways to take the money and give it right and uh That's one way and that'd be one huge component that's one huge component of what I do but the other bigger question will be how can I take this year to really become even more silent and more like you know learn to uh how can I have an even more Impact once I get back to the work so I don't think anything changed in uh in that like we were living I went with my kids and my wife and my kids were living in this small Forest Village in uh Costa Rica and the kids were going to a school In the mountains so actually cost of living probably crashed by half uh after moving from India so nothing really changed that's beautiful that's beautiful where would you want to stay if outside of India is there a place that you can permanently think of steak I'm not because of the background I've Never been a permanent person I think in like uh chunks of time I think for now India is the most exciting place to be I'm living in Goa that's where I'm based I'm also starting my new company from Goa also my NGO and all from Goa because Uh because of two reasons I think uh like in in Goa you obviously have a lot of access to Nature hiking backpacking has been a very big part of my life and then uh uh and then I think entrepreneurs who are starting new things should kind of bet outside Delhi and Bangalore Otherwise you know I feel like the cities won't be able to sustain our Ambitions and our energy you know so nice operation of things made me believe that look I'm happier in Goa and I think uh it's almost a duty if I'm starting a company to not suggestion Delhi and Bangalore as a right now you know yeah really love that all right on on an ending note current for four rapid fire questions these will be the ones that whatever comes to your mind first uh which startup would you love to be the CEO founder of Airbnb That's a great job is that a such a great choice and I'm a big fan of Brian Jeske so two zero two one two zero to one and like uh truly nobody nobody would have predicted nobody nobody I don't think even they could have yeah that's a great choice uh money or power No power your conversation gave that away yeah speed of affection oh goodness I would say now it's changed earlier I would have always said speed now I would say speed with a stable infrastructure kind of a Mark Zuckerberg that's that's awesome okay And and the last one given that you are a renter I'm curious about this what do you think will be the most expensive thing you'll ever own besides real estate Um maybe like to be honest I think Kindle a Mac I mean that might be like I haven't I went I just don't like I truly have been living out of a almost like a backpack for the last 10 15 years like you know just for the like we just move From place you know to place so like we've been very free liberated in some sense so by its nature our life is very limited with possessions otherwise it doesn't fit into the life that we think is important you know that is that is that is so so awesome thank you so much Congratulations on the freedom Manifesto I'm certain that it will become just as great a guide as your first three novels were and I'm looking forward to more and more success and congratulations on your new startup excited to see where that goes thank you thank you so much and uh Great to follow your work and great to see your journey evolve and uh and and thank you for being a beacon of light for so many thank you so much Karen you make a difference thanks a lot okay bye-bye get epic done a market available [ad_2] #KaranBajajOfficial #Exploring #Life #Building #Startups #Spirituality #Ankur #Warikoo For More Interesting Article Visit : https://mycyberbase.com/ 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