Know your talent and maximize your potential.

When I was young I knew of only two career path s— Becoming an engineer or Doctor. That would ensure a satisfactory middle class life, have a scooter / car and a small house in Dehradun and probably have some savings to lead a happy retired life in Dehradun. Of course to be a good engineer you needed to go to IIT and to be a good Doctor AIIMS or similar. Eventually I chose to be an engineer because I was good at Maths and Physics and probably English, what I thought were my talents.

Two things happened simultaneously I joined Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University now IIT-BHU and my family shifted from Dehradun to Faridabad. This changed my life and its goals dramatically.

When in IT-BHU i came to know that you can go to US and have a nice upgraded life and didn’t have to live in the small town of India and in Faridabad I came to know you can live in a big house, shop to your hearts content and drive a fancy car without ever seeing the inside of a college ever, my perspective on what was possible changed forever.

While studying at IT-BHU I also came to know I had talents other than being good at Maths and Physics, I had leadership qualities (I could assemble and motivate a group of people almost instantly), I was a good problem solver, could build lifelong relationships and I was a good public speaker. Something which my parents never told me and my school never bothered to find in me and college frankly didn’t give a damn about.

After passing out of college, I worked for RMSI, IBM and Microsoft where most of my managers put me in job roles leveraged my soft skills rather than my analytical and strategic thinking, for which I was trained at college. So much so I was the designated shit cleaner and creator of anything new. This was very lucrative for me, much more than what I thought my career would be when I was 18. I would have probably made more money by the age of 32 than I thought I would make in my life while I was 18.

To make it even more lucrative and fulfilling I became an entrepreneur which till date has been a mixed bag with some spectacular successes and some massive failures. Overall I am enjoying my stint as an entrepreneur and have no complaints. I was able to create a trajectory of my career which would maximize my talents and rewards commiserate with my talent. Had I chosen to continue as a developer like half my class I would have never been able to do the things that I was able to do in my life — travel the world, meet the kind of people i did and do the kind of things that I did (some of which are insanely fascinating). None of the insanely fascinating things which I did in my career were related to my education, it was related to my talents.

Most of us have education and talent, unfortunately we focus on our education rather than our talent which leads to a situation where we are unable to achieve our potential and settle for less than what we are capable of. Also some of us are limited by our perspective because of the places where we grew up and families we live in, this should not be a constraint in the times of internet.

While charting your career path be mindful of what you are choosing because that can change your life dramatically -

• Be knowledgeable about your talents
• Be aware your formal education is only one part of your personality
• Choose a career trajectory that can take you places
• Maximize your potential

Be knowledgeable about your talents!

Know what you are good at, for example some of us are better at leadership, problem solving, public speaking and networking than others. These are invaluable skills than can be applied in almost all the jobs and people with these skills do better in these jobs than others. Jobs like sales, leadership, politics, acting, entrepreneurship reward these skills more than others. So even if you are a very good teacher with these skills your potential rewards are limited. Don’t choose career paths which don’t maximize rewards for your skills.

Be aware your formal education is only one part of your personality

In today’s age of exploding information and continuous changes your formal education plays a very small part in today’s world. To be abreast with everything in your field always be educating yourself by reading stuff related to your field. Knowing Thermodynamics is of little use if your job is to hire and retain influencers.

Choose a career trajectory that can take you places

If you are good at something try be great at it and choose a career trajectory that maximizes your rewards (rewards could be recognition, money, fame). If you are a good analyst don’t be in a backend job of making reports for someone sitting in US. Doing this for 10–20 years is only going to make you a senior analyst or a team leader and if you started at 6 lakhs you will end up with 44 lakhs after 20 years at an annual growth rate of 10%. Inflation adjusted that only means about triple your salary now. This would not alter your lifestyle, not help you buy a luxury car and a big house. Choose a career trajectory which can change this to 10x.

Maximize your potential

You owe it to yourself to maximize your potential. Don’t rest on your laurels, keep working hard and be at it for all your working life. There is nothing worst than the waste of your own potential.

If you need more help send me a message at manishsh@gmail.com and I shall try and help you with more answers.