In this episode Ankur delves into the concept of luck and its significant, often underrated, influence on our lives. He reflects on how six specific aspects of his life, which were determined before his birth, have profoundly shaped his trajectory. These include his gender, skin color, family background, access to education, and upbringing in a large city. He emphasizes that recognizing the privileges that come without effort is crucial, and discusses his approach as a parent to teaching his children to acknowledge and be humble about their own privileges. The key takeaway is the importance of understanding the role of luck in our lives and being grateful and humble about the privileges we are born into.
00:00 Welcome to Woice with Warikoo: A Journey into Entrepreneurship and Life Lessons
00:18 The Intriguing Concept of Luck and Its Impact on Our Lives
01:39 Acknowledging Privilege: A Personal Reflection
02:15 Parenting in Privilege: Nurturing Gratitude and Humility
03:40 Closing Thoughts and Invitation to Engage
[00:00:01] Hey everyone, you're listening to Ankur Warikoo on voice with Warikoo.
[00:00:07] On this podcast I talk to you about entrepreneurship, how to grow in life, manage personal finances,
[00:00:12] handle failures and a lot more things that just come to my mind.
[00:00:16] The episode begins.
[00:00:18] Luck is a fascinating thing because we can't measure it, certainly not measure it easily.
[00:00:23] We tend to dismiss it or at least not give it as much importance as I think it
[00:00:28] deserves.
[00:00:30] When I sat down to think about luck and what role has it played in my life, I asked myself
[00:00:37] the truest form of luck is what happens to you before you're even born or before you
[00:00:41] can take decisions for yourself.
[00:00:44] And what are those decisions that I believe have gone on to shape up my life in meaningful
[00:00:50] ways?
[00:00:51] And here are six things that I believe have defined 99% of where I am in life
[00:00:57] today.
[00:00:58] Number one, I was born male.
[00:01:02] Number two, I was born fair skinned.
[00:01:05] Number three, I was born to a Hindu Brahmin family.
[00:01:09] Number four, I was born to parents who went to college.
[00:01:13] Number five, I was sent to an English medium school.
[00:01:16] And number six, I was raised in a big city, which is Delhi.
[00:01:20] Think about it.
[00:01:21] I had nothing to do with any of these six things.
[00:01:24] And yet, in the time and era that I was born in, these six things have set me up in massive
[00:01:29] ways.
[00:01:30] It would frankly be pompous of me to think that my hard work, my grit, my discipline
[00:01:34] or anything like that has played a major role in getting me to where I am today.
[00:01:39] The truth is, I am privileged.
[00:01:42] I was born in this very small, tight funnel that set me up for a lot of things in
[00:01:48] life that millions of people will never get to see.
[00:01:52] They work far harder than I ever will, and a lot of them are far smarter than I ever
[00:01:56] will be.
[00:01:58] I just got lucky.
[00:02:00] And that's why it's such a fascinating concept.
[00:02:02] We can't measure luck.
[00:02:03] We tend to undervalue it or worse, we try to think that we can make our own luck.
[00:02:09] Well, sure, we can.
[00:02:10] I'm not denying that.
[00:02:11] But that is just a fine tune on the actual luck that you didn't have any agency
[00:02:17] or control over.
[00:02:19] My wife, Ruchi and I, we think about this quite often as parents particularly because
[00:02:23] our kids are frankly privileged.
[00:02:26] They have been born into massive privilege that they didn't have to work for at all.
[00:02:30] There is abundance of money.
[00:02:31] There's global exposure, educated parents, world-class education at their end.
[00:02:36] The list frankly doesn't end.
[00:02:38] So what is our role as parents then?
[00:02:40] Is it to snatch away this privilege, make them experience the real world, make
[00:02:43] them sweat?
[00:02:45] Yes, to some extent.
[00:02:47] But you know what?
[00:02:48] They will still experience the privilege.
[00:02:50] It can't be wished away.
[00:02:51] They live in that every day.
[00:02:54] So our main role then we figure is to make them recognize this privilege every day.
[00:03:00] When they sit in an air-conditioned car licking their fancy premium ice cream
[00:03:05] and someone knocks on the door trying to sell them a tissue box that costs them
[00:03:09] less than what the ice cream costs, the one thing that should never cross their mind
[00:03:15] is that I am above them and they are lesser than me.
[00:03:21] Instead, the only thought that should be is that I am grateful for what I have today
[00:03:26] for which I've done nothing.
[00:03:29] I just got lucky.
[00:03:31] Recognize your luck and then embrace it humbly.
[00:03:38] All the best.
[00:03:40] Thank you for listening to this episode of Voice with Varikku.
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[00:03:50] Also don't forget to rate and review the show because that just feels nice.
[00:03:55] Thank you.