Opportunities

[00:00:03] Hey everyone, this is Voice with Warikoo, my, or Ankur Warikoo. In this English podcast series, I cover a lot of things in this English podcast series. Career, relationships, personal finance, success, failure, and frankly, something else that comes to the time. Every week on Thursday, a new episode on your favorite podcast platform. Voice with Warikoo.

[00:00:29] Exactly 20 years back, I received an email announcing the start of an important year. A year that changed my life. I had recently dropped out of my PhD program, which was a year back in 2004. I'd come back to India from the US, giving up on what was a dream life. I had 100% scholarship, I had a generous stipend, I was top of my class, I was on a fast track to complete my PhD.

[00:00:57] And frankly, when I took that decision to come back to India, everyone was devastated, disappointed in me. I was disappointed in me. And everyone around me, well-intentioned, who cared about me, kept saying only one thing. To win at life, you have got to have a plan. To win at life, you have got to have a plan. And I agreed with that, except that there was one big problem. I had a plan for my life, a really solid plan.

[00:01:26] A plan that had plans of going to the US to do my PhD, join NASA, go on Mars. And I was doing well on that plan, really well. But I crushed that same plan with my own hands. I killed my own plan. So on what basis was I to come up with another plan? And I didn't know. And because I didn't know, I was forced to ask a very different question, which I'm glad I got to ask.

[00:01:57] Is it possible to live life without a plan? And if yes, how does that life look like? And I found that answer while at ISB, my business school. 20 years back, I received the email from ISB telling me that I had got through. And I went to ISB. Of course, looking for a job and a career and a brand and a pay package and all of the nice things that we look for.

[00:02:23] But more importantly, I went to ISB looking for myself. Who am I? What am I good at? What am I not good at? And I needed answers to those questions. And I found them that one year at ISB. It was a huge gamble, by the way. A loan of 14 lakh rupees back in 2004. The equivalent of some 50 lakh rupees today. There's no collateral backing it up except a degree that I hadn't yet earned. But it worked out.

[00:02:51] I found my answers on how to live life without a plan. And I stand here today as a living example of someone who has had no plans, no goals, no targets for himself for the past 20 years. So when people ask me what's new, what's next, I don't have an answer. I'm an animal of process, of repetition. I'm doing the same thing every day. And that has taken me to places I could not have imagined for myself.

[00:03:16] And that's the hope I wish to share with everyone who feels lost. Who feels that they will not win because they do not have a plan. You're going to be okay. It's going to be okay. Life has wonderful, unbelievable opportunities lined up for you. But they don't come with the subject line, unbelievable opportunity. They will just come. And in that moment, should you have the courage to chase them,

[00:03:44] you will set yourself up for an outcome different from before. An outcome that may work for you. That may change you forever. But there will be no way to tell unless you chase that outcome. Unless you dare. Unless you desire. Not to be someplace. Instead, just to be. You've got this. All the best.

[00:04:12] If you like this week's episode, please don't forget to review your platform. And do subscribe to Voice with Variku. Every Thursday, a new episode on your favorite podcast platform.