Inspire Someone Today
Inspire Someone Today
E175| Reinventing without Noise | Portfolio Life Series - M D Ramaswami
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
He started as a software engineer, tried building systems on the side as a fresher, and once quoted a potential client four motorbikes as payment. That mix of boldness and curiosity becomes the throughline of our conversation with M D Ramaswami, an engineer turned entrepreneur, investor, mentor, and ecosystem builder who keeps evolving long after most people settle into one lane.
We talk about what really connects a portfolio life: risk taking without recklessness, staying alert to opportunities, and learning fast when the environment changes. MD shares how he moved from software and product building into early outsourced tech support in India, and then into a defining leadership moment: pitching Dell for business only to be approached at dinner with a personal offer. The decision wasn’t just about career growth; it was also about responsibility, timing, and ensuring the business and team had a successor before he stepped away.
From there, we step into the AI wave and the future of work. MD explains why AI adoption feels faster than past technology waves and why it triggers more anxiety across white-collar jobs. We get concrete about AI productivity and human creativity: AI works best when it’s a tool you direct, not a system that directs you. He also tells the story of how a small experiment turned into “AI Pod,” a thriving AI community with clear rules, subgroups, and a focus on practical learning.
We close with what compounds most over decades: relationships built on fairness and generosity, plus health and routines that create the energy to keep going. If you’re thinking about career reinvention, entrepreneurship at any age, or building your own portfolio career, this conversation offers calm, usable guidance. Subscribe, share this with someone who’s navigating a transition, and leave a review with the one idea you’re going to apply this week.
Have you purchased the copy of Inspire Someone Today, yet - Give it a go geni.us/istbook
Available on all podcast platforms, including, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify
Luck, Opportunity, And AI Framing
SPEAKER_01I think I was lucky in picking the right opportunity and moving forward. It just so happened. That's all I can say. I mean, to give you an example, I started off as a software engineer. There was an opportunity to build a product. I kind of put up my hand. Well, maybe others did not. So I was taken in, I was leading teams, I knew, and this was very, very early again. So one got to know how to build product, how to take it to market very early in life. So you just take the opportunities which come along. If you see AI as a tool which makes you better, makes you more efficient. And as long as you still retain the thinking capability, which means you're directing AI to do what you want, rather than it directing you to do whatever you should be doing, I think you're in good space. People can become entrepreneurs at any stage in life. It doesn't have to be 20s, doesn't have to be 30s, it doesn't have to be 40s, doesn't have to be 50s. I think understanding entrepreneurship is more understanding themselves in terms of what they are really good at.
SPEAKER_00Not everything that matters needs to be loud. Some conversations help you pause, some help you see differently, and some stay with you long after they end.
Welcome And The Portfolio Life Theme
SPEAKER_00Welcome to Inspire Someone Today, my dear listeners. A space for honest conversations about life, work, and the choices that shape who we become. No quick fixes, no borrowed certainty, just real stories, thoughtful reflection, and the quiet courage to live with intention. This is Inspire Someone Today, where conversations are human, reflective, and meant to stay with you. Welcome back. Over the course of the portfolio life series, one idea became increasingly clear. A meaningful life is rarely built to one role, one decision, or one straight path. It is shaped through seasons of curiosity, reinvention, pressure, doubt, learning, and starting again. And perhaps, no guest embodies that spirit more naturally than MD Ramaswamy, our dear guest for today. Engineer, entrepreneur, investor, mentor, and a lifelong learner. MD's journey has been one of constant evolution. From navigating a modest upbringing to exploring multiple careers, ventures, failures, and now building AI-led communities through AI podcast. His story is a reminder that life expands when curiosity refuses to settle. This conversation is about ambition, identity, reinvention, experimentation, and the courage to keep becoming long after most people stop evolving. It's an absolute joy to have MD Ramaswamy joining us on this episode of Inspire Summon Today. MD,
Risk Taking And Early Bold Bets
SPEAKER_00what a joy to have you here.
SPEAKER_01My pleasure, Srikant. Thank you so much. It's it's it's my real pleasure.
SPEAKER_00MD sitting now, when you look back across your journey, entrepreneur, investor, ecosystem builder, what thread connects all of these phases?
SPEAKER_01The notion of taking risk, I think that's an important part for everybody. I mean, risk of force, the the amount of risk one takes differs. But you cannot progress without taking risk. So if there's one thing which connects all the stuff which I've done, I think I need to be grateful to that one element, uh, which has kind of inherently come with me.
SPEAKER_00Inherently come with you of taking risk. Where did that ability to take risk start off from?
SPEAKER_01I didn't even know this thing called risk, by the way. Of course, now people talk about risk in a it's like a subject in itself. But I think it came very, very uh young age. I mean, when I say young, I uh it's more the time of uh, I suppose, you know, I got into a professional job. Then I was not happy with uh just doing one thing. I always thought that uh, you know, one needs to maximize utilization of time. So therefore, whenever I had time, I wanted to try something. So just to give you a uh a kind of an anecdote, this is my very, very, very first job. So I was straight out of college. I had been hired by uh Narayan Murti and Dinesh of Infosys founders from IIT Madras. Uh, and of course, I was a I was a rank fresher, as you call it, at that time. Uh, I, of course, I was going through training, I was doing work and all that, but that kind of wasn't enough. And a few of us got together and said that we could go build systems for others. When mind you, all four of us were freshers. So you can imagine the amount of maturity we had at that time, which was kind of zero. So I remember this that uh we actually went to um a person who was running a kind of a trucking company, a transport logistics company. He was running this out of uh Chingpalapur actually, but he was living in Bangalore. Uh so we went to him and actually pitched, and we got to know that he needed help. He wanted to automate things. And this is way back in the 80s, by the way. So he wanted to automate things. So four of us actually went there and actually made a pitch. I mean, we had printed out stuff, our ideas went there, we pitched it to him. And of course, it turned out very different because uh he was immediately impressed with what we presented. And his question was, how much would you charge me? That is one question we were unprepared for, which kind of tells you the maturity level we had. And we asked him to pay us by buying us four motorbikes, by the way. I mean, none of us had any form of transportation at the time. That was our quotation to him. Of course, he he duly kicked us out, saying that we don't know what we want. But I'm saying that that's an example of, you know, one taking, I mean, I won't call it risk at the time, but he wanted to be adventurous. He wanted to go go do stuff outside the norm. So that's when it started to answer your questions.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's a fantastic story to kind of say how some of these things kick start without you realizing what it meant, right? And on that uh context, was there a moment that you realized that your your career would not be a straight lane but a series of reinventions, given what you have done?
SPEAKER_01No. No? No, I and I I don't even think I would consciously say I need to reinvent or anything like that. Uh, I think opportunities came. And I think I was lucky in picking the right opportunity and moving forward. It just so happened. That's all I can say. I mean, to give you an example, I started off as a software engineer. There was an opportunity to build a product. I kind of put up my hand. Well, maybe others did not. So I was taken in, I was leading teams, I knew, and this was very, very early again. So one got to know how to build product, how to take it to market very early in life. Uh, so you just take the opportunities which come along. Then from software, I actually moved to what today people call BPO was, you know, we provided uh Microsoft's very first uh technical support uh from India. And how did that happen? You know, we were in the same place. Uh Pradeep Singh of Aditi came in here and said he's uh he's got this deal with Microsoft to provide tech support from India. And it just so happened that I met him. I just got introduced to him through somebody I knew, and uh that's it. I got in and his vision was great. So I just stepped out of software development and building, as I said, building products to you know what would somebody would call as an outsourced tech support service. And I didn't think twice. And who knew at the time that that as a business would take off? And that took off, and that led me to Dell, and and so you just take opportunities as they come. It just uh worked out and uh, you know, luck was on my side, I would say.
Growing Up Between Two Worlds
SPEAKER_00Well, you're a modest man. While you did take us to the 80s, I would want to take you back a little more decades prior to that, and that's about your growing up time. You have spoken about growing up in a modest Tamil speaking home and a very different world of St. Joseph.
SPEAKER_01Oh gosh, okay. You're taking me really long back.
SPEAKER_00What did that duality do to you as a young man?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think I think it lit some kind of a fire in me. Fire to kind of stand out in a crowd. Uh that's all I could I can say at this point. I mean, of course, when you are in that situation, you're not thinking about all these things. But uh, I I think that fire got ignited at the time saying that, hey, you know, I need to stand out because it was uh you know, I I was living two different lives, one at home and one in school. At school, I was in the midst of reasonably affluent kids. And uh at home, I was uh, you know, in a very modest place, and um language is very different. School was only English, and at home my parents didn't did not know English. Uh so I I was growing up in this kind of two two parallel worlds, actually. But one thing which uh which I think ignited in me is that you know, do something which kind of makes you different, makes you stand apart, and it lit that fire, I think. And that fire has been there all along, by the way. Even today, I think that fire is there. It's in a very positive way that fire.
SPEAKER_00Do you think experience like this quietly shaped the ambition or the fire that you see?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. If I think back, that is, I think that's where that got created. And uh the good thing about it is that it I don't think it went away. It's not that I realized that fire is there. I mean, only when you think about it and like people like you ask that question, I I bring it out. But it's kind of inherent in me. Uh, and also inherent, the other thing about the fire being in you is that it also makes you look for opportunities and identify opportunities, I think. I mean, I'm just putting the two together. So when opportunities come my way, I think I have a kind of knack of seeing, hey, this one is a good one. Let me kind of consider it or let me take it up. Uh, I think that that helps, the fire helps that.
SPEAKER_00And there's another thread, if you can uh look at it. One thread was going up. At IIT, you moved from engineering to physics to nuclear science. And even in your work world, you have moved various roles. Is it a question of you're always comfortable following
Curiosity, Satisfaction, And Career Shifts
SPEAKER_00curiosity over fraternity?
SPEAKER_01I would say curiosity, absolutely, but also I think there was there was something which I was always looking for in terms of giving me deep satisfaction, I think. And if something doesn't give it to me, then I tend to move on and look for something else. I think that's what has shaped things. I mean, in those days, college. College, of course, I was fortunate to be in 9, which gave these opportunities. Uh, you know, I could I could go try out courses in physics. My professor in the physics department uh, you know, sent me over to Kalpakam because I was interested in nuclear physics. I spent one full summer in burning heat in in Canton, okay, in the nuclear reactors. In fact, I think recently it was in the news as well. Fast bleed reactor was just coming up at the time. So I was involved with this. I, of course, most of the people working with me over there were probably twice my age. And uh they they took care of me like a like a kid, actually. So I have very fond memories of that, that time over there. But I'm saying that these are all, you know, you you see these opportunities, you take it up, see if it gives you uh, you know, sufficient satisfaction. If not, you go try something else. That's what happened.
SPEAKER_00Did it also give you time to kind of pause, reflect, saying that, okay, these dots are happening or these changes are happening, and I'm enjoying this, not enjoying this. So how did you shift from one to another?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the thing is that I don't think thought about it that way, at least in those days, you know. As people say, you know, look at the forest rather than the trees, kind of a thing. I don't think. I mean, I went there that summer was a brutal summer in terms of heat. I also realized that, you know, I I felt very lonely over there. All said and done, you know, those people were taking good care of me. But I was a what 18-year-old, uh 19-year-old. And amongst people who were perhaps 30, 40 plus, so I felt a little lost, lonely, you know, purely for somebody to talk over there. And that's what probably made me look at a different opportunity, I think. So that's how that's how it moved on. It's not like I was trying to join the dots.
SPEAKER_00And now when you look at all of these things, uh MD, people become less curious as they become more successful. I don't think one can generalize uh that way, Sri Kant.
SPEAKER_01I would think that curiosity gives you a higher probability of becoming successful. I would put it that way. For you to be successful and remain successful, curiosity, I think, is an important attribute to have. I would put it that way.
SPEAKER_00So the most you are the most successful you can.
SPEAKER_01The chances of success. I wouldn't say it'll automatically make you successful, but the chances of successful is higher because you're always exploring. Once again, like I said, you're looking for opportunities, you're able to grab those opportunities when they come their way.
SPEAKER_00And in all of the things that you have done, when do you know that it's time to evolve versus staying committed to something longer?
SPEAKER_01Oh. Look, uh I was the first person to join Pradeep in Aditi, you know, and I was running, I mean, I'm I'm I'm fast-forwarding, six years in Aditi, and I was running a business uh which was very which is growing very well, by the way. You know, it was called the support services business. We were, I mean, while product, Talisma product was being built, this was very, very successful. And uh, you know, I was running this very independently. And uh think about how Dell happened. You know, I was selling to Dell. I was, uh I made three trips to Austin, and we were pitching, I mean, we were pitching hard to say, Dell, come over and do your stuff out of India. We have done it for such big companies.
The Dell Dinner Offer Dilemma
SPEAKER_01And uh they did decide to come to India. They came to, I think two or two of them came as kind of scouts. Uh, they came and heard half a day long presentations from us in Bangalore facility, by the way. But that very evening, you know, the strange thing was I got a call from a headhunter saying that somebody from a big PC company wants to have dinner with you. Who's this from a big PC company? No, we can't disclose. And it just so happens that these two gentlemen who had come to uh as scouts and come and listen to our presentation to pitch to them, were meeting me for dinner and telling me, hey, you guys are not gonna get this business, but we are interested in you. Now, if somebody they were very direct, by the way. Dell, by the way, is a very direct company. So they were very direct. So that was an opportunity. I mean, you can look at it in both ways, saying that how could you do this? I mean, how could you come and spend so much time and then you know, not listen to my pitch for uh selling our company's business, but you've come for me. But it it happened, and I did move to Dell as their first managing director. So how do you how do you you don't plan these things, they just happen.
SPEAKER_00So it's a very interesting story out there. Yes. I'm sure over the decades of work that you've done, uh MD, you had to unlearn multiple times. How do you kind of go about this business of learning, unlearning, relearning?
SPEAKER_01I don't look at anything as unlearning. I look at it as only learning. You're just learning new things. And some of the new things you learn replace some of the old things that you have. And that's all it is, it's always a path forward. And constantly one is learning. I have to emphasize that. That learning happens every day. So you just keep learning.
SPEAKER_00And your life lessons, career lessons to that process?
SPEAKER_01One is, of course, learning. Learning, of course, uh technology and all that is pretty straightforward. But I think the biggest learning I have actually gone through is how you deal with people, how to handle people, because people are people. I mean, they are different. And you work with them, they work with you perhaps as your employees, they work with you as your boss, they could be working with you as your customer. So they are people, but uh, you know, handling people is uh is such an important learning and it's a continuous learning.
SPEAKER_00I just will go back to the anecdote that you mentioned about the Dell story, right? It's it's a very interesting anecdote and it's a very interesting leadership lesson as well. I'm sure a lot of our listeners would appreciate that. Is it's also a leadership dilemma, right? You're here pitching for a potential client, and end of the client, the client is making a counter offer to you, saying that, hey, why don't you kind of come join us on board? Right. Help us understand how you go about making that decision. And yet people are stuck in these kind of dilemmas. What can one do to make good decisions?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so let's let's talk about the dilemma. Hey, there's a deal being offered which personally benefits you. At the same time, you're playing the role as the head of a business where it can potentially hurt. Now, I looked at it this way. Number one, if you look at the business side, the business side is not gonna get this deal. That was very clear in the first five minutes of the conversation. It's not good. So that's gone. That's gone. Whatever effort I put in, the three trips to Austin and all that, it's gone. That's not gonna come back. Now, there's a personal side of it. And obviously, you know, this is a big step up for you as well from a career perspective. But that doesn't mean you abandon the business that you have brought up and the people who are kind of dependent on you as well, who look forward to your leadership. So after all this, I mean, uh, you know, cutting through the long story, I did negotiate a fairly long period of time for me to, you know, make sure that the business which I was uh was running kind of had a successor to take over from me before I stepped out and joined L. So that's how I could sort that out. So the business could continue as well.
SPEAKER_00Thanks. Thanks for sharing that, MD. And you're somebody who has seen numerous technology waves, and the latest being what we are all kind of going through.
Learning Through People And Tech Waves
SPEAKER_00Having seen those waves, how does the current AI wave compare with any of the earlier ones?
SPEAKER_01I think the impact on it is much, much faster. I mean, I I've actually seen pretty much the PC revolution itself. So I'm that dated, if you can say. Uh in fact, uh, we built the uh my first product I built was on Windows 1.0. So in fact, we had one desktop uh running Windows, and five of us had to share it actually to even write code on it. So those were the days. So I've seen the PC revolution, of course, I've seen the internet, uh, mobile, and all of that. Uh, this only looks uh appears faster. But otherwise, it's just like any other change which is happening. Faster means the impact is more noticeable and the impact is more widespread widespread. And um, but it's it's just another big change which is happening. And one needs to adapt. One needs to adapt. Like like people have adapted in uh through every change which has happened.
SPEAKER_00I you're right. Probably this is taking so much of headline because of the pace at which the change has happened.
SPEAKER_01Srikant, it's not just that, not just the pace of change, but the change is impacting people who normally talk about impact on others.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01So if you really see it, the impact is so much across white-collar jobs that normally the people who write about these changes are normally from the white-collar group. Whereas the changes have most of the time have been in kind of lower-level jobs, now it is impacting their jobs as well. That is why there's a higher sense of, I would say, panic. But it's the impact is bigger, it's impacting across the board.
SPEAKER_00It is. So, where do you see the most exciting intersection of AI and human creativity if all of these things are happening?
SPEAKER_01I think it's a tool. I'll give you an example. If if you see AI as a tool which makes you better, makes you more efficient, and as long as you still retain the thinking capability, which means you're directing AI to do what you want, rather than it directing you to do whatever you should be doing, uh, I think you're in good space. I'll give you an example. Yesterday I sat in a presentation being done by a intern, actually. She's a fairly junior person. She gave a fantastic presentation. I mean, the the PowerPoint slides and all that on on the dot, beautifully done. And she told me she took only 10 minutes to do it because she'd used tools for it. I was just amazed. Okay, but it was her idea. I mean, she said, this is what I want to present, and it had put this together. So as
Why The AI Wave Feels Different
SPEAKER_01long as you are driving the tools you're using to get what you want to do, you're cutting something which would take you days into minutes.
SPEAKER_00It's true, the pace at which one can get to their job is just insanely, insanely fast.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely true. And even on jobs, if you see, and I've heard this, I'm you've also probably heard this, and it's so true actually. AI is not going to replace jobs, but AI is going to replace those jobs which don't use AI. In other words, uh replacing people who don't use AI is what's going to happen rather than replacing people who use AI.
SPEAKER_00On those lens, if you were to kind of talk about what you have been doing, what pulled you towards AI and the community-building efforts that you are doing currently.
SPEAKER_01Again, as I said, you know, one doesn't go looking for these things. They just kind of happen. So you're you're from Bangalore. Uh, do you know Airlines Hotel? Yep. It's a landmark hotel. I mean, it's just from all corner. Bangalore. Iconic, iconic. It's uh as as important as Vidan Saga, you can say, as an iconic place to visit in Bangalore. So Airlines Hotel's uh owner is my classmate from school. I mean, we grew up together from I don't know, from nursery uh kindergarten till 10th standard, so know each Other fairly well. And he runs it. So at that time, Notebook LM had come out. And I put together an AI-generated podcast, two people podcast for I think three or four minutes long, and put this together using ChatGPT to do the research. So ChatGPT actually put together a thousand-word document on Airlines Hotel, including what customers say, including who founded it, when it was founded, why the name Airlines, ChatGPT did it. I didn't know, by the way, that Airlines Hotel was named because of a certain uh incident. So I got this together, did the podcast, beautifully done, notebook, shared with my classmates' group. They were amazed by it. They said, wow, this is this is incredible. And two, of course, American voices these were, but um they were they were fantastic. Then a couple of others asked me to put together podcasts for their own businesses. And then they started asking me questions as to how does this work and why does it work? And this is all mind to you two years ago. So I said, you know what, guys, I'm gonna create a WhatsApp group. You're free to join it. Over there, I will start putting similar AI-generated three, four-minute podcasts on AI itself. So I will take up a question and then make it explain it to you, and you can listen to it. And I'm gonna put one, publish one every day, AI generated. That's how AI pod, and I called it AI Pod. And I think some of my classmates joined. I just circulated that to my uh community here and a few others joined. So initially, I think 30 people joined the group. And I had fairly strict rules about it saying that uh, you know, you are free to invite others to join it as long as they follow the do's and don'ts of the group. And it was do's and do's are very kind of strict, saying that even if you err once, you'll be thrown out, you know, and it the topic should be only AI. Uh and uh that's how it got created
Building An AI Community From Scratch
SPEAKER_01and it grew by itself. And now it has hit that uh 2000 limit as well. So if somebody needs to join, some uh somebody else needs to leave. So and there are subgroups in it. There's groups for startups, there's groups for jobs, there are all kinds of uh subgroups in it. So that's how it's happened. I I don't post every day anymore. I just post a weekly news summary on AI because people are already contributing. I don't want to spam the place anymore.
SPEAKER_00With this backdrop, what excites you about AI and what worries you about AI?
SPEAKER_01Let me see. What excites me is the opportunity it is creating. In terms of, I think uh it has broken a lot of barriers in establishing new businesses, new opportunities, how quickly you can build product, the opportunity for single owners to build product themselves, you don't need large teams anymore. So those are all the opportunities. What worries me, of course, is you know, with any good, should I say, highly effective technology, there could be, you know, wrong users of it as well. I mean, right now you can hear the scams of uh, you know, automated calls coming in, and uh people who are not quite aware can give their personal information to it, can get uh you know cheated of you know their own uh finances. So those are all the concerns, but that is true with any new powerful technology which comes in. I mean, nuclear, I mean, given the fact that I once dabbled with nuclear physics, it can be used to generate power in a very green way. Uh at the same time, it can be used to kill people. So, you know, that's true with any any new technology which comes in.
SPEAKER_00MD, this conversation is about portfolio series. So we would kind of talk to you about a couple of questions around portfolio series. If uh life is a portfolio of assets, knowledge, relationships, curiosity, reputation, which of these has compounded the most for you?
SPEAKER_01Relationships. The thing is that the relationships you build with people over time has an incredible compounding effect. I mean, and it's hard to measure.
AI Opportunity Versus AI Misuse
SPEAKER_01Once again, I'll give you an example. I'm entering a startup. Uh, it just so happened that one of the founders, for his own personal reasons, had to step out because he had to deal with something else. And the startup required another founder. I could very easily reach out to somebody I have worked with 35 years ago and uh bring him into it. And by the way, 35 years ago we worked, but we hadn't met that often. So we've not really been in touch. But that's an example of uh how relationships is number one in the in all the stuff which you mentioned. That doesn't mean others are less important, knowledge is as important. Uh, I would say number two in that is the ability to learn and your interest to learn. I think learning is like a machine, it needs to be running all the time. I'm just putting that as number two and relationships of number one, is because I think the compounding kind of uh impact is much higher through relationships, while of course learning is also and continuing to learn is also as important.
SPEAKER_00On either of this or both of it, relationship and learning. How do you go about investing in this, building that wealth of relationship or learning? You can pick one, you can talk about two, your own approach towards learning or your own approach towards relationship building.
SPEAKER_01I think let's talk about relationships, right? So you come across people throughout your career, just be good to them. That's all
Relationships That Compound Over Decades
SPEAKER_01I would say. Just I think I think there's a there needs to be a sense of goodness, fairness, whatever you may call it. Uh I think that's that's such an important thing. It's it's hard to explain, really. Okay. And that's that's where the compounding really happens. As I said, I've not been in touch with this person for 35 years. Maybe we would have met once or twice in between, but everything, all those memories have stayed intact, and all those memories came flooding back actually when we met a few days ago. So you you just need to be good to people. They will remember you. And also, by the way, don't hesitate in letting them learn from you. I must say, once again, when when you're when you're being generous to them, it's not generous in in a in a material way, but be generous to them in sharing your own experience, knowledge, and whatever else. People really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00So, what parts of life did you underinvest in earlier that you see different today?
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I I I have two distinct parts. I think my twenties and thirties, till probably I hit 40, I underinvested in my health, terribly underinvested in my health. And uh after 40s, I have uh corrected, uh, maybe a little overcorrected at times. I spend uh nearly two hours a day uh on on my health. Um, and uh, but that is that's one thing which stands out actually. I mean, looking back, I should have actually had a more uh, shall I say, balanced uh life, but then you can't change that now.
SPEAKER_00What does success mean to you, MD, today compared to what it was 25 years ago?
SPEAKER_01I think uh success 25 years to to me was I I suppose more material uh oriented. But today's success is that if uh if uh people are, shall I say, if people recognize that I have touched them, helped them in some way or the other, I'm the happiest. I think that to me is the biggest success one can think of. That you are remembered as a person who has helped people. Nice.
SPEAKER_00Somebody very recently whom I was talking to, he shared similar kind of an uh experience. He said in his twenties, success looked more materialistic. In his 50s, success looks more experiential. And every somebody who is looking into stepping into an entrepreneurial world, somebody in say in their twenties, entering this space, what advice would you give to those bunch of individuals?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, firstly, by the way, people can get become entrepreneurs at any stage in life. It doesn't have to be 20s, doesn't have to be 30s, it doesn't have to be 40s, doesn't have to be 50s. Uh I think uh understanding entrepreneurship is more understanding themselves in terms of
Health, Success, And Ignoring Noise
SPEAKER_01what they are really good at. I think that is more important. Once you realize that, then you start making good decisions.
SPEAKER_00That's a good uh fundamental step to start with. And what should they ignore completely? If part of it is know yourself better, what should they not focus too much of their time?
SPEAKER_01On noise, I would think, because you hear a lot of things from everybody in terms of advice. You need to actually pick the right advice in terms of who's there really advising to make you better or make you successful in your own terms. I think there's too much noise around uh when when you get into an entrepreneurial journey. That's what I think you should you should uh try and get over.
SPEAKER_00On this cut down the noise, two is for high performers all entrepreneurs, sometimes the struggle is to slow down. Because I feel movement itself becomes their identity.
SPEAKER_01Uh I I'm not too sure because I think moving fast is a good thing, by the way. It's uh I won't I won't advise anybody to slow down, by the way. My only thing would be run at the pace you can, but run fast, because entrepreneurship is about changing and changing very quickly because something may work, but you need to be in a position to change. And you need to get there quickly. If you want to, if you have to fail, you need to fail fast. So you I think speed is important. I won't encourage anybody to slow down, but I would just encourage people to every once in a while step back and uh, you know, see the forest from the trees. That's all. Which is a such a hard thing to do when they are when you're running fast. So it's kind of contradictory that way. But if they can do it, you know, that'll be the best.
SPEAKER_00So MD, in your illustrious career that you had so far and many, many decades further as well. If you were to kind of have observed people, seen people, what do people hold back?
SPEAKER_01I think uh their their perception of risk.
SPEAKER_00That's probably risk-taking ability.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Absolutely. Keep learning, keep taking risk. That's what I would say. And risk again, as I'm not saying risk in such a way that you don't understand the the quantum of the risk. But uh holding back is all about not taking risk.
SPEAKER_00If there's something that you want to kind of do differently, what would that be?
SPEAKER_01I I would once again go back to the same thing. I should have paid a little more attention in my 20s and 30s to my health. That's all. That is the only thing I would change. Otherwise, I tell you what, no regrets. I think uh opportunities came my way, and uh I was fortunate.
SPEAKER_00What's one book that has fundamentally changed how you think about life or work?
SPEAKER_01I'll tell you, this book had a big impact on me very early, by the way, perhaps in the 90s, which is Stephen Covey's, you know, seven habits. I think that had a very big impact because I started practicing it, by the way. Especially if you see his seventh habit, it's called sharpening the saw. I still remember it well, which is actually improving yourself. Uh that really stuck. And that's one book uh which has stayed with me. Not that I read it after that, but it just stayed with me.
SPEAKER_00But what does MD's sharpening the saw exercise look like?
SPEAKER_01It's actually uh stepping back a little bit and seeing what I have done over the last period. I mean, I'd you know, maybe it's the last quarter, last month, last year, and then seeing what I should do better. That's all. It's uh it's a fairly simple thing to to step back and think about it. And the good thing is nowadays I've I have quite some time to do such things. Pause and reflect. Yeah, you can say that, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00If you were to call out a micro experiment that all the listeners can practice over the say next 90-day period, what's that one small micro experiment that they can pick that can help them to compound their own life or career?
SPEAKER_01It depends a little bit on what stage of life uh a person is. I would only suggest at this time, uh, if they are able to pull out time maybe every week and uh like you pointed out, reflect on you know what they did well and where they need to do, where they can do better. That itself is a small experiment to start with. And within that, if they can think about the opportunities that they that came their way and if they could have handled it differently, or uh, you know, I think some some bit of reflection if they can do even once a week, I think that will really help.
SPEAKER_00MD, if you and I were to do this podcast all over again five years from now, what would your advice to your future self would be like?
SPEAKER_01I don't think anything will change really. I think we'll probably repeat the same thing. I often tell people that I'm in one big continuous loop. I do the same things over and over again about it. Whatever you may call it, I just keep doing the same thing. My routine, by the way, I'm very routine-oriented. That has happened over a period of time. I do the I get up at the same time, I
Reflection Habits, Routines, And Consistency
SPEAKER_01do the same things every day. Uh, and it just goes on and on and on.
SPEAKER_00They're like people say do the boring stuff consistently, day in, day out.
SPEAKER_01Correct, correct. I mean, as I said, I have overcorrected on the on the health part as well. So I get up every day at 5:30. I and even in this, I learned a little bit. I mean, I used to have problems sleeping, getting good sleep. Good sleep is, by the way, extremely important. I have to throw it in over there because it it makes a huge difference to you. I mean, you know, getting the rest you need. So I used to have uh trouble with sleep, but then I figured out, once again, I tried out some experiments, micro experiments, and then I figured that if I could finish my dinner before 7.30. And uh then, of course, 9.30, I make it every day, 9.30 to 10, I go to bed. That gave me great sleep, but I get up at 5.30. So even little things like that you correct and you learn and then do the same thing over and again. It's so boring, we get in doing those things.
SPEAKER_00But the success is there, where you do the same boring stuff, but in a consistent manner.
SPEAKER_01Correct, correct. Consistency, predictability is important because the other thing about predictability is that I think it takes away some of your thinking time. Look, if you do the same thing over and over again, uh firstly, it becomes predictable for others. My family knows when I get up, my family knows when I do my exercise, my family knows pretty much where I am at what point of time. So that is one thing. And I too, because I'm doing that very mechanically, that same time, the the the that that much of mental space is freed up for me to do think about other things. So repetition helps.
SPEAKER_00Repetition helps, predictability helps. Yes, indeed. So what next for MD? What's laid out for you?
SPEAKER_01I don't know. I think life and business are one right now. I think they have a good good uh equilibrium between each other. And uh right now I'm supporting two startups. Um I think if if some other exciting startups come, you know, come my way, I'll I'll be happy to support them as well. And so that's what I'm fairly involved with these startups. And when I say involved, it's not by time, but in terms of mental space. Like I told you, right? I mean, one of the startups uh did have an issue. The co-founder had an issue, and we had to step out, but I could jump in and and help them find somebody very, very quickly. That whole thing happened in a week's time. So I'm I'm I'm fairly involved, but not time-wise. It's just you know, thought-wise.
SPEAKER_00One last question before we wrap up, uh MD, the question that always uh takes my curiosity is when a lot of successful successful entrepreneurs like yourself have dabbled with multiple roles, right? You moved from one role, one organization to other. In each of these transitions, what's the easiest part? What's the difficult part?
SPEAKER_01When you transition from anything to anything, of course, you're getting into a new, new kind of an uh, shall I say, area where there is obviously change which you need to go through, you know, be it any kind of a role. And so there is a spike in the learning, and you need to look forward to that kind of learning. I think that's important. You need to get in all architry and spend the time to learn that domain or that kind of job or whatever. That is that is uh one thing. I don't think too much preparation is required. It's only in the in the mindset in terms of once you get into the new job, how much energy, how much additional energy you put in over there to learn. So you're learning all the time, but there's a spike in the learning when you get into a certain new new uh environment or responsibility.
SPEAKER_00And are you ready for that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're taking it up because you think you're ready, right? Uh-huh. If you don't know what you're getting into. You'll figure it out. You'll figure it out. You'll figure it out.
Keep Learning, Keep Reinventing, Closing
SPEAKER_01I mean, that's all part of the learning again, right? And for part of adjusting yourself as well.
SPEAKER_00DMD, this has been great. First, connecting back with you, secondly, kinda having this conversation. This podcast is all about creating ripples of inspiration. That's why it's called as Inspire Someone Today. Before you and I sign off, what's your inspire someone today message for all the listeners out there?
SPEAKER_01Oh, just keep learning here and uh keep uh keep, as you called out, reinventing yourself.
SPEAKER_00Okay. In this portfolio live series, one message that is coming out of this particular conversation is keep learning, keep reinventing. On that note, MD, thank you so much for doing this. Really appreciate your time and insights. Thank you for spending this time with us. Conversations like these remind us that good doesn't always come from answers, it often comes from better questions. Inspire Summon Today began with the belief that each of us has the power to make a difference. Not to grand gestures, but to everyday choices. That belief still holds now with a little more depth and a lot more listing. If something from today's episode stayed with you, carry it forward, share it, sit with it, or explore it further through the IST cability of the book inspire someone today. Until we meet again, stay curious, keep inspiring, and inspire someone today.
