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Given how rapidly everything changes now, I often wonder what is the most important skill of the 21st century?

Is it to code? To become an AI expert? To be a storyteller?

I believe the most important skill of the 21st century is the ability to learn something new, whenever required.

If we have the ability to become a student whenever we have to and not think of our school or college as the only occasion to do so, we will have the superpower to face the world.

The future belongs to those who stay students forever.

When we only do what we were told to do, we own the output.

If anyone else gets that work done better, cheaper, faster than us - they would replace us.

Owning the output makes us dispensable

However, if we stopped and asked ourselves, “Why am I being told to do what I have been told to do?” we will own not just the output, but the outcome as well.

Owning the outcome will surprise people each time we deliver stunningly more than what we were supposed to do.

Owning the outcome, instead of the output makes us indispensable.

You’re starting something you’ve never done. It’s making you anxious. You find yourself lacking confidence.

What if I fail? What if I’m laughed at? What if my critics say: “I told you!”

It’s impossible to have 100% confidence when you’re starting something new.

It's 100% possible to know that you will figure it out.
That you care about your progress more than what people think of you.
That even if you fail, you will own it and make it better.

Confidence that you don’t have confidence as of now but will figure things out is the only confidence you ought to have.

Your biggest enemy is not your competitor.
Or a newbie changing the world.
Or a viral trend you missed.

These are parts of life.

Your biggest enemy is someone who tells you that it is impossible for you to think beyond what lies in front of you. They make you think small because they want you to be one, even if unintentionally. It could even be your closest friends or family.

“You cannot move further.”

Anyone who tells this to you, is the one who is your responsibility to move further away from your life.

What is the role that we define ourselves by?

Am I a Product Manager?
A painter?
An engineer?
A leader?

Society has trained us to believe that we should be just one thing in our life.

However, none of the successful people in history - from Michelangelo or Albert Einstein to Bill Gates did just one thing.

They did multiple things, and that helped them excel in the one thing we know them for.

What if our role was not limited to just one title?
What if we could do everything that nudged our emotions?
What if we made this possible?

We have just one life.
Why live it with just one identity?

In the world of Shark Tank, massive funding and billion dollar outcomes, it is easy for people to think that the only definition of success for someone young is to start up.

Why would you want to work 9-5 at a desk job, for a salary, when you can be free building things, is what they ask.

And I say to them - a job early on in your career offers something immensely valuable.

1/ Financial stability
2/ An appreciation for planning, for process, for system
3/ Experience of working with teams, to make something happen

This is what a lot of people want, desire and deserve.

I know of FAR MORE PEOPLE who have been immensely successful professionally and financially, than I know those who started up.

You decide what you want.
And you go chase that.
Cherish that.
Grow that.

You do you.
And that is your success.

I stayed at a wonderful place for a week where I paid more than what I earned in a year at my first job.

Am I surprised everyday at how far I have come?
Yes!

Do I believe it’s all my doing?
Not at all. It’s insane luck at play.

Does that stop me from showing up everyday?
Thankfully not.

Grateful for everything.
Entitled to nothing.

Children should cry from only happiness and pain.

Not resentment and suffering.

Each time we say no to someone, we think we are saying no to our capability of helping.
We think we are saying no to our ability to solve problems.

The reality, however, is that we are saying no to someone else because we want to be respectful of what’s important for us.

This is one of the fondest memories of my childhood.

My Sanskrit exam was in a week.
And I was certain I would fail the exam.
Our teacher was so boring. Uninspiring.

Ma saw that I was scared.
She wrote a letter requesting the daughter of our temple priest to tutor me.
She had a Masters in Sanskrit.

I topped the exam!

It turns out that a good teacher can change your life.
And that good teacher needn’t be found in school or college.