My childhood was very different from most
of you. Growing up in a remote place in India, I did
not have access to a TV, Computer or Internet. As a result, I was largely cut off from the
rest of the world. Due to my limited exposure growing up, there
were a lot of things that I did not know about in my 20s. As the Germans would say: “We grow old too
soon and get smart too late”. I eventually learned these things the hard
way, very late in my life. Throughout my 20s, I used to resent my childhood
thinking that if only I had modern technology and better education growing up, I could have
done much better with my life. What I did not realize was that all the time
I spent NOT playing video games and NOT surfing the internet would pay off big time in my
30s. That too in a way I could not have even imagined. Now that I am more than 30 years old, I want
to share everything I have learnt so far about the beautiful jigsaw puzzle that life is. When I was in my 20s, I used to think that
every door that you walk through in your life is a one way door. Once you enter, the door slams shut behind you and there is no way to go back. If you end up in a bad college, you are screwed. Got a bad GPA, nobody would ever hire you
again. In reality, most doors in life are two way
doors. Once you enter, you can choose to go back. And sometimes, there’s even a side door
that can lead you to a better place. But in today's day and age, when everybody
is sharing these carefully fabricated highlights of their lives on Linkedin or Instagram, there’s so much
pressure to be successful in your early 20s. Many people buckle because they think they
have fallen behind others in life. Most give up on their aspirations and stop
working hard in life. I was in the exact same situation when I graduated
from college as a Mechanical Engineer. I applied to hundreds of jobs that I was not
even interested in, got only one company to interview me where I was rejected by the recruiter
over the phone call. I had spent 6 years learning Mechanical Engineering
and felt like there was no way for me to go back. That’s when I found this side door of “Programming”. I spent every waking hour for the next few
months learning programming and got my first job in less than 6 months. That job led me to my first big break in Amazon. And my time at Amazon helped me get my current
job at Google. And just like that, within 3-4 years, I was
able to turn my life around. If you are in a similar situation, I want
you to know that your professional career is going to be 30-35 years long. And 2-3 bad years in your 20s would not have
much effect in the grand scheme of things. As I already mentioned, I spent 6 years doing
Mechanical Engineering. That’s 4 years of Undergrad and 2 years
of Master’s. In my second year of undergrad, I had already realized that Mechanical Engineering was not for me. I was not enjoying the curriculum and the
internship opportunities were also limited. But, I did not take any action on it. At the end of my undergrad, I could not find
any interesting jobs. I told myself, “Maybe it’s just in India,
the US would be different”. I have already spent four years in this, let
me give it another chance and do a Master’s in the US. That my friend is “Sunk cost fallacy”. Just because you have spent your
time and resources into something doesn’t mean that you have to persist with it, even
when you know that it’s clearly irrational to do so. At the end of my Master’s, I was in the
exact same situation that I was in at the end of undergrad. Part of me was telling me to go on and do
a PhD in Mechanical. But, I was a little older and a little wiser this time. I decided to start over from zero and began learning programming. And that’s the second best decision I have
ever made in my life. I will share the best one shortly in this
video. After I switched to programming, I spent hours
honing my skills. I learnt the basics, built projects, and sharpened
my interviewing skills, day in and day out. When I felt confident, I started applying
for jobs. In my head, I was thinking that I am someone
who is completely self taught and most hiring managers would appreciate someone as motivated
and hard working as me. To my surprise, I was rejected more than 500
times. I could not believe that I was getting rejected
even after performing so well in the interviews. That's when one of my friends who had referred
me for a job in his team asked his manager why I was not hired. She simply said that “he doesn’t have
enough experience”. That’s when I first learnt about this hard
truth that “Universe doesn’t care” about your dreams. If you want something in life, go get it. And the best way to get what you want is to
deserve it. You can sit there and complain all you want
about people not giving you a chance because you didn’t go to a great college or because
of your GPA. That’s never going to help your case. Understand the rules of the game, stay within
those rules and keep working hard. As Mahatma Gandhi famously said: “First
they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you and then you win”. But remember, “Fear is your biggest enemy”. When you think about fear, the moments that
come to mind are the ones where your heart is racing fast, you are sweating profusely
and you can’t think straight. In life, it’s rare to have such intense
moments of fear. The fear that you need to be aware of is the
subconscious fear that easily convinces you not to take that big leap and settle for less. When I picked Mechanical Engineering as my major in IIT
Delhi, I also had a choice to pick Computer Science which only the top 100 people in
India get. At the time, I convinced myself by saying
Mechanical Engineering is my “passion”. What I did not realize was that I was making
this decision out of fear. In reality, I made this choice because I had
never owned a computer in my life until then. And somewhere deep inside, I felt that
if I don’t know how to use a computer, how would I do Computer Science? And that’s how I made one of the biggest
mistakes of my life. As they say, the first time it’s a mistake,
the second time it’s a choice. When I was having second thoughts about starting
this youtube channel out of the fear of judgment, I could counter my fear this time by thinking rationally. I prepared myself for the worst case which
in this case was some people laughing at me. It looked like a risk worth taking and now
we are a family of more than 250,000 on Youtube. Starting this channel was the best decision
I’ve ever made. Here’s an exercise for you. Can you tell me one intelligent thing that
you didn’t read or hear from others? One thing that you actually came up with by
yourself after deep thinking. You can pause the video and leave a comment, I would
really like to know. It’s surprising how most people are not
able to name even one thing. That’s because in this information age,
we have outsourced the job of thinking to others. We believe that watching videos, listening
to podcasts or reading books will make us smart and somehow result in a super successful
life. In reality, the information is democratized
now and you have no competitive edge over others if you are consuming the same things. “Following the herd invites regression to
mean'' . To put it simply, if you do what everyone else is doing, you are bound to have mediocre
results. What will actually propel you to success is
to consume less and absorb more by developing your own opinions about things. And for that, you need to give some time to
deep thinking. We live in a hustle culture where guys like
Elon Musk and Gary V have popularized the idea that it’s all about working hard in
life. But, for a moment, imagine this. Let's say, you want to climb a very high wall. You set up your ladder and give everything
you have to get to the top only to find out that the ladder is leaning against the wrong
wall. In other words, you can work as hard as you
want. If you have chosen the wrong path, you will
never reach your destination. That’s why deciding what to work on is equally,
if not more important than working hard. Strategizing and decision making are some
of the most useful skills. I receive so many messages from people who
have worked so hard to learn programming languages that are not in demand in the current
market and now they can’t find a job. I empathize with them but these situations
can be easily avoided if we pay more attention to our decisions. That’s Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba. He does not have particularly good English
or use any fancy words when he speaks. But, he sure knows how to wow the audience. I don’t care which profession you are in,
your success at work will be largely determined by your communication skills. And I don’t mean communication skills in
any particular language. Infact, I myself did not know how to speak
fluently in English until 2014. But what I have always known is how to tell
stories. That’s because when you don’t have a TV
or computer at home, you spend all that time on the streets talking to people. And that’s where you learn real communication
skills. Now, I am not claiming that my communication
skills are out of this world. In fact, many people complain about me being
monotonous and boring in the comments. But I am at least working on my skills
by making these videos for you guys. Anyway, a great way to improve your communication
skills is by writing down your thoughts. So, here comes a challenge for you. Summarize this video in your own words and
share your learnings on Linkedin. If you want to participate in this challenge,
you can comment #ITellStories down below. As I mentioned, good communication skills
are a must to have a successful career. Another thing that can help you have a great
career is studying efficiently in your 20s. If you want to know how to study more in less
time using the Chinese technique of Wu Wei, watch this video. My name is Sahil and I will see you in the
next one.
