Overcoming Blindness and Starting With $20: Ravi Prakash on Leading Global Teams

I literally slept in the fetal position the whole 2 and 1/2 weeks conserving my energy, covering myself up just so that I don't freeze to death. Sometimes you need that discomfort to come in to rattle things up so you can actually learn. I went to every single counsel at embassy I could find in town. I was 17 years of age. I didn't know any better. I didn't even speak English well. I didn't even know what to ask really. It just got under my skin that I will show you. I am already who I am. I wasn't like a depressed fullest person. I lived

on $5 a day and I was pretty happy. Had friends around me. I was doing things that I like doing. I'm happy. I'm I'm content. I'm abundant. Everything else that happens is icing on the cake. Hey everybody, I'm Devin Kums. I'm a CPA MBA and I work at Google Cloud where I lead multi-billion dollar deal negotiations as the financial expert. But for fun, I also do this podcast, Ambition Aligned, where I try to find purpose-driven professionals making real impact with what they're doing in their lives. Please watch, please subscribe, and I

think we're going to get a ton out of today's episode. You have such a fascinating story about coming and working from the ground up in leadership. I'd love it if you just could share a little bit of your story with everyone. Yeah, Devon, thanks for inviting first of all and and I think this is part of my story is how we both got connected, right? It's I was in California 3 weeks ago, met a few people, spoke at the investor event and made a lot of friends and somebody said,

"Hey, can you help with connecting some people?" I connected that person to a few people and she connected me to you. And so this is something so fundamental to life and career and leadership and and just the goodness of the world is how do we connect with each other? And I was in a event this week in Atlanta, Women in Tech, and one of my

friend wrote a book called Nobody is Self-Made. And and it it it goes back to the idea of the village. Seen, unseen, known, unknown, people, events make us who we are. And so this is a great starting point for me to say all of those things that has happened in my life probably your life and everybody's else's life is how you know nature or coincidence we

are together talking today as for my story you know it's a story that I think a lot of immigrants around the world not just in the United States I think around the world can relate to and anybody who is resilient who is perceive was who was persevered in their life will relate to and and so my story began very briefly. I was very happy growing up in India. Never had any intention of leaving India

ever. And just so happened that I lost my eyesight in 11th grade thinking about playing. I was playing practicing cricket at one of the top clubs in India. One of my clubmate played for India. So the greats of India played in that field and I had those dreams as well. So going from a guy who was thinking of playing cricket at the highest level at one time to completely going down totally losing my confidence

to say okay now my life is gone. You know I'm not going anywhere else now. I can't see. And then my sister became my eyes. One of my sister would start to read books for me while getting ready for our 12th grade board exam. And I had a pro uh teacher. Many teachers helped. One particular teacher, chemistry teacher was absolutely phenomenal. He not only taught us in the classroom in the middle of the night, he

would come and knock at the door. You're and I'm not kidding. Midnight, 1:00, 3:00 in the morning. I don't know when he slept and he did that for all his students. We had 72 in my class. He did that for everybody to get us ready for the final exams. And and the result was that out of 72, 70 of us got honors in chemistry. Whereas in biology and physics and math, it wasn't the same thing. I mean very few physics was the worst. I think three or four guys got

honors in physics out of 72. So there was a direct correlation and imagine you're always learning those early days of what he did for us how he showed confidence in us before we knew how to have confidence in ourselves. I never forgot those lessons his dedication to his students. His absolute dedication there was nothing. We were not paying him extra. No government was not paying him. We went to a school where the fee was 10 cents a

month. Okay, it wasn't a fancy school. It was a government school. We had nothing fancy in our school. All of us came from very ordinary families. And so why I'm sharing this is because all of us had a foundation that we are built on. From the time you are born, even before you are born, your genes have something in you. So you're not your glass is not half full. You come with something. It's not just about money and material. And so those are the

kind of people and then that led to when I was finishing finished my 12th grade. We were sitting in our house one day in New Delhi. House was packed with relatives, friends, just everybody hanging out. And one of my relative out of the blue looks at me and my sister and said, "You two, we can't do anything without my help. You won't be able to go anywhere in the world without my help." out of the blue. He had never said anything like it. His tone wasn't

good. And there was a pin drop silence. I didn't argue. I didn't defend. Everybody was quiet. It just that moment just passed. But mentally, I made a decision. And from the next day on, I was in New Delhi. I went to every single consulate embassy I could find in town. I was 17 years of age. I didn't know any better. I didn't even speak English. Well, I didn't even know what to ask really. It just got under my skin that I

will show you. And I guess as a 17year-old, it it touched my ego. Well, can we pause there for a second cuz I think this there's so much to unpers do you think that's what was that relative coming from a good place? Like they're challenging you. Do you think that it sounds like that was such a catalyst moment or do you think you just took that in stride and made something good out of it yourself? I don't know you know where he came from cuz knowing him prior to that nothing

like that had happened everybody loved him but he used to work for the Russian embassy in in New Delhi and in those days three to 400 Indian students would go abroad every year to study different things all expense paid so I think there was this thing in his head that he's very important me. He could help people or not help people. And I had no interest in going. I could care

less. My sister wanted to be a doctor, so she had some interest. But I don't think so we had ever we had ever really talked about it. So I still don't know why he said what he said in the tone he said, but that changed my life. Stuff with you? Yeah. Sounds like your skin. It just stuck with me. Just changed my life. Wow. until what happened next? I'm so curious. Okay. So, obviously for the next one month, I'm visiting every embassy counseling. In those days,

security was not the way it is today. So, it was fairly easy for somebody to see a young person asking they would let you in. It wasn't too much of a bureaucracy. And in that process, somebody asked me to go meet the head of US education foundation in uh in in New Delhi. So I went to see her and she was a fantastic lady. We talked for three hours in a swing in this beautiful Victorian style house. And she listened,

she guided and she told me that uh do well in India since your family doesn't have money to send you abroad and then apply for graduate school. Hopefully you'll get assistantship or things like that, teaching, research and that will open the door. I took that message to heart. Never told anybody. Just locked it inside my heart. And next four years I was in college. I worked hard. I wrote to hundreds of schools around the world. Um my room became a

library on campus. Anybody wanted to go anywhere in the world. Literally would come and say, "Rabbi, I want to go here. Can you tell me something?" And I would say, "Yes, this school, that school, this program, that program." And 20, 30 days after I graduated, I was in Wisconsin. Oh wow. And and all of this I say to say that I didn't change my life just hoping for something. I changed my life

by really um making decisions having some developing some sense of faith that this is going to work. Like when I went to the US embassy for the uh visa, the guy looked at me and said, "Mr. Pash, you are 22 years of age, if I give you a visa and what if you don't come back to India?" And I looked at him right in his eyes. And I paused for a minute. I looked down, looked up and I said, "When you were 22, did you know what you're

going to do?" And he said, "No." I said, "Then isn't that an unfair question to ask me?" And at that point, he we had no other questions. He simply said, "Come back at 3:00, pick your visa." Yes. So to me, people had coached me to say this or that to different answer like just like you go to an interview, people had coached me to say certain things and I've always been the person who say no, I'm going to be very

much what is in my heart and soul. And that's what I spoke about. And as life is, you will see when you put in the effort, things just fall in place. I didn't have money to buy the plane ticket. I stayed with my best friend from 12th grade. I had not seen him in 4 years. We talked all night. His brother overheard our conversation. Next morning, we are having breakfast. His brother, who I knew, but I didn't really know. I never talked to him. He was much older. He comes and writes a blank check

to me saying Ravi you've done everything in your power. You are going to go if you get the visa. Here's the check for your plane ticket. I was just dumbfounded like you don't know how to return the money. So I didn't ask you to return the money and that's how we bought the plane ticket. So all this to say village network putting your foot forward next step next step don't worry about the 100 step the very next step keep doing what

you got to do and be humble about it and recognize people who have done things in your life it's not just what we do okay let me let me stop you there I want I want to tell you the story but I you're peing some really interest for me because it's something I've been battling with for a while and I'm curious on your perspective on it and so you know like Maslo's hierarchy this the standard it's like it kind of everyone's based off of this visual representation of you need to survive you need to get resources and

housing and then eventually you start working towards self-actualization or like building meaningful relationships and all these other aspects in your life that's kind of beyond the survival and what I'm hearing when I've talked to people like yourself do you like those meaningful relationships comes before all of that a lot of the time and it's going to I'm going to get your sense of that of you didn't have the money to go on the plane like on the on the trip you didn't have the money to go consider going to college to learn all of these things you but you had the

people around you to support you and fill that need and even deeper than that is like your authenticity your character is what I like to think of it is you you had your values your guiding values and your personality you stuck true to that and like that example of someone getting under your skin, right? They got under your skin because you knew yourself well and you knew like that that that was a challenge to you rather than someone else might have taken that as an admit an admission of defeat, but you took that as a challenge because you knew you

wanted something greater. And so I'm just wonder I'm curious on your thoughts on that or maybe how people can apply it in this like technological world on the importance of connections and character. I think as I have said and I think my story stresses that is from the time you're born you have been helped by all kinds of people and all kinds of

circumstances and in the world we live in today where we are asked to be on the go go go every second. Prove yourself every second. Show it to the world every second. Where are you in that noise? I think this is something we have to learn very early in our life. And it's not something I can teach anybody. It's not something anybody probably can teach anybody. All it is is how your family, your environment, your community

was at today's India is not the India I grew up in. I am not so sure today's India even values some of the things I have to say. Um so I think more than trying to you know the idea of self-actualization things like that part of it is I think we put too much value on individual how important I am in this universe we are really a very small

spec ask an ant does not care whether you survive or An ant will survive this planet more than a human being would. And this planet will survive whether I survive or not. So I think we have to keep a perspective very early whether you have young kids whether you are growing up is to understand the perspective that we are a very small spec in this global world. We have a very limited finite

time to learn, grow, contribute in a very finite time. We don't know the end date, but we have a very finite time. Within that finite time, what can I learn, grow fast enough that I can also have joy in doing that? Part of it is not the money, it's the joy. The example I'll give you is very, very simple that I've been going through recently. I lost my job in April last year. I was writing my book. I focused on my book next. My

question was what's the most powerful thing I can do for me today and what gives me joy? I said book is something that'll give me joy because it I loved it. So I finished the book. The next thing was okay people asked me Ravi can you do coaching and mentoring and you know I love I love all of that but more than that I love public speaking. So when I was debating and I in fact made a class I dropped all of that and said what is the one def it wasn't the

which will make me most money my definition was which will give me the most joy and public speaking gives me the most joy because I can impact I can connect with more people than just coaching one-on-one and that's where I came to that conclusion that I'm going to drop all that I'm going to focus on public speaking because that gives me joy and if I am joyful I am hoping that it brings joy to other people cuz you cannot a dead person

cannot make another person alive. Yeah. Okay. So this is so fascinating because what I love what about what you're talking is money has not really been a part of any of that equation. Like you lost your job and unfortunately I'm sorry to hear that but you sound like you made something better out of it but you didn't go into survival mode and say oh I need to get more income. I need to get something a steady paycheck. He said, "No, I'm going to go write this story." And then after you wrote that, you realized I I really want actually to public speak instead of doing all this coaching. I want to have more of an impact. And none of that I heard I need

money. And I just want to stress for people or something I've realized like I was homeless 15 years ago. And I I I try to stress this to everyone. I wasn't like a depressed homeless person. I was I lived on like $5 a day and I was pretty apt. Had friends around me. I was doing things that I like doing. Um I went to the gym. I was healthy and the money didn't need to exist for me to pursue joy. And while I was pursuing the joy and financial freedom, I'd say honestly, the money made it worse. It's

easier to get trapped by the money and distracted by it, but you really don't need it. And I see that as a bigger problem in life now. So, I just want to stress that and want to get kind of your thoughts on how does money play into all of this. And were you ever kind of lured by money away from you joy? Well, so money gives you options. Okay, money won't make you happy. If you're not a happy person, nothing will make you happy. It just it just accentuates that. You know, I remember when I was driving from Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin

to Idaho. I was driving in this 1977 old rundown, rusty Malibu Classic. No AC, nothing. I slept in the car the whole time. I took seven days to drive. I talked to all kinds of people on my trip. The reason I'm saying that is I had absolutely zero dollars in my pocket at the time. There's some good people that I met in Wisconsin. They became like my extended family and they gave me like this camera you see behind my back and a ice box and a little bit of money.

The local community gave me that and and I kept that money and the food that was in that ice box. I had to kind of ration it to last the seven days that I arrived in Idaho. But I had the best time of my life. I slept in the car. I talked to all kinds of people. I took the back roads. I had never driven in the country. I was looking for what's next. What's next? This excitement about life. And so this is a difference of how

you look at life too. For me it was discovery, adventure. What's next in my life? I'm 22, 23 years of age and I'm in a totally new place. But today I was able to write the book last not 6 months. I don't want people to they have to relate. I've been working for I've been here 36 years. I've worked very hard. So I had saved some money and I still have a family and mortgage to pay. because of that it

allowed me to write the book in the last 6 months when if I earlier back in 2007208 I lost my job for a year we didn't have a penny I had to work find a job I couldn't be writing a book at that time so your your circumstance change in life but I've never put money as the criteria for success it's never an if then else statement if I make X I will be this if I do why I will be this. No,

I am already who I am. I'm happy. I'm content. I'm abundant. Everything else that happens is icing on the cake. More effort you put in, more people you help, more places you go, more experiences you have, you are simply accentuating who you already are. I love this. And so this is where I feel like people get too trapped nowadays is so many people are focused on the money like these fire movements. You hear a lot of like how do I So I will tell you

I'm part of a fire movement. I actually run a fire class in Atlanta. Okay, tell me more. So but here's the thing about that. In the fire moment when I am talking to the people I'm like look yes you need the money but don't lose your life. Never lose the perspective of the life. Look, we cannot be we have to be smart you know we have to be smart and practical as well in life. So while you are on your fire

journey it fire journey to me is very simple right in in America we have been sold this good of I think a false narrative so to speak that everybody has to have a house everybody has to have a nice car and everybody has to be able to spend whatever they feel like at whatever time whether they can afford it or not all the Amazon boxes at any time has made it easy we just have to click once and it shows up at our door like in few hours sometime. That's a

really false narrative that has put majority of Americans who can't even afford $1,000 in emergency today. And this is not just today's news, right? For years and years we are listening to this stat statistics. Most people in America 70 60% cannot afford a $1,000 emergency. I think that's pathetic in a country with the resources we have with the you know the biggest resource I tell people who come here new and who have lived here all their life there's hardly a

country in the world where there is a public library in every corner of this country and you know how powerful that is that is one of the most powerful thing that people ignore in this it's free first of all it's free you go get a card and in today's world if you want to study anything, anything, you can go to a public library and become somebody from there. We ignore it. We think it's only for people, you know, some people. I

think there's a there's a guy Ron who said one time, most people who make 250 or above tend to have a library at home. That should tell you something. Okay? There is a lot of wisdom. No one person knows everything. Everything that has to be said about being successful, about life, about leadership, health, love has been said and written by somebody. All we are doing even today is you and I are

speaking or talking about something in our own perspective in our we are giving a spin to it in our own ways but we are not talking about anything that the humanity doesn't know. The quote I really like, there's no original thought, there's only original action. Yes. So this is so I think it's money is important because right now if I have to help somebody in some place or I'm passionate about conservation or I want to help somebody with education or

nutrition if I have the money and I have the connections and I have the desire and the energy to do it I am able to execute that easily. Even if you don't have money you can do it because that's where the resourcefulness comes in. I can talk to 10 people and say look here's the idea here's the game plan here's this and find some people who believe in those things and then you can execute it so money is important but it's not the thing that lets you it's your idea it's

your energy it's your desire it's your commitment it's your really um you want to pour something in life for other people your life is for you but you really live the life for others and that's the mindset you have to have whether you live for your family or community or you're leading a team. You have to go with that mindset in in my point of view. Yeah. So, let me recap all that. We've covered so much ground and I want to get back to your story because time's going by way too fast. They talk to you for a couple hours. I need to buy you dinner. Um, so we

covered some ground there of, you know, money is a tool and there are times in seasons in life where you need it like me when I had my daughter was born. Um, and you know, if you have no money in the banks and you need to provide for your family, that is a worthy goal, but it's not the end goal, right? At the end of the day, it's just a tool and you can do things like you or I did where you could live on like less than $5 a day, less than a dollar a day and have the generosity of others and have your life. The money isn't going to bring the joy. You have to find the joy within yourself. And we talk a bit about but

it's not about yourself. It's about others. And there's a bit of aspect of that of like losing the ego to attach your joy by helping and serving others. And so I'm curious to learn more about how how that interplays into what your next step was as you're driving to Idaho. What what happened next? Well, so um you know, I ended up going to three graduate school in the US. I went to Wisconsin, Idaho, and then to North Carolina. And bottom line was that all these 9 years that took me from 88

through 97. Um, it was a long 9 years. I didn't have a job. I didn't have money. I racked up 100,000 in debt. I didn't have money to eat food many times. I would go hungry. I would just drink water. And when no one was looking around on campus, I would um take the food and eat that food. And that's how I survived 9 years. Many many times I the worst was the first Christmas in

Wisconsin when everybody went home. I was living in this big old 200-year-old home with several students. Everybody was local. They all went home and nobody really invited me to go with them. And um I had no money, $0. First winter, -60 -70° chill. I didn't have a bed. I had a mattress on the floor. And it was freezing cold. And

so ne next 2 and 1/2 weeks, whatever the time was for winter vacation, I think I had a couple of pennies. I showed up somehow, I don't know how, to a local grocery store. and I was freezing to death. I told the guy, "Look, if you have bread or food that you're throwing, can you give it to me?" And he gave it to me. And uh so there was once uh one loaf of bread, one or

two apple, and I literally slept in the fetal position the whole 2 and 1/2 weeks, conserving my energy, covering myself up just so that I don't freeze to death. And all I did was I drank water, had that one loaf of bread and two or three apples. That was a defining moment as I look back to it. You know, coming to America helped me discover me more than anything else is can I

withstand this? Can I withstand that? Can I you know I had two interviews I went to early in my life in those nine years. No. Yes. In those nine years, one interview a guy walked me out within seconds of arriving there saying, "Mr. Pash, you don't have blue eyes, brown hair, you won't fit in." He just walked me out of the interview. And there was another interview which was the most strangest thing that I was referred by a guy who used to live in my neighborhood. His dad was a big shot in investment

banking. So, he got me an interview. I walk in there and the guy goes, "You don't seem to have connections with people that have money, so you won't make it here." And that was the end of our interview. And then I got I write about these things in the book is in Idaho I had a accident where I ended up going to the police station where the local professor is the one who was involved in the

accident and they tried to intimidate me and ask me very absurd questions about religion if I was Palestinian things like that. And I wrote a local I wrote a poem in the local newspaper next day doing all this stuff. All this to say that from the time we are born we slip, we fall, we tumble in our

lives. We just have to learn to get up on our own or with the help of others. Look up. Have the flexibility, adaptability, move, keep your momentum going, keep your energy going. Energy is so important for me. Energy is everything. Without energy, we can't do anything in life. So doing things that gives you energy is absolutely. So people talk about burnout, right? So I kept something on my table to show you because I think it's at least from my

vantage point, I think. Here is a magic circle. Okay. Right. It's a magic circle. Here's a stretch band. And here is a jump rope. Okay. Anywhere I go in the world, they are always with me. I can be at the airport. I can be in the hotel room. I can be in a parking lot. Doesn't matter. Again, everybody has to find their own thing. My point

is this is the the physiology has to work for us. Life is not just a better. It's really is not for the faint of heart. It it demands a lot. In order for us to be able to do things, we have to take care of this this physiology. And how do you take care of that is by putting the right kind of nutrition, fuel, exercise, thinking, relationships, being in the nature. All

of that put together becomes a package that you are. And when you walk that way and you carry yourself that way, I can tell you people who are around you are going to notice that. Not because you're trying to show them, but it is impossible for people not to notice that, wow, look at that person. That person has the energy. That person doesn't have the energy. You know, you go to Costco, you look at the cart. You don't have to know the person. If you

have seen same person multiple times in Costco and you see whatever they buy, one person is buying all healthy food, another person is buying drinks and processed food, you can extrapolate to some extent what their life would be from the energy perspective, from health perspective down the road and how that changes our mindset. If I'm eating well and I'm feeling good, my words, my language, my

action reflects that. I have that level of energy that I can radiate to other people. So those are some things I think has been the things I've learned as I have gotten older and also when I came here that was nobody that we had no I had no family nothing it was just humbling falling getting up learning failing again learning failing again and we are

where we are there's so there's so much attack there man we did we got free for hours so a few things. I'm sorry you went through that. Oh, that's a tough went through the blanket. No, let me stop with that. I am not sorry for that because here is what I think is really important. We are all a rough diamond and it has to be chiseled and

polished to make where you've become. And it is a lifelong process. So I never think I made it and I will never know cuz in this university of life that we live in you get the entrance of at the time of birth but you never graduate. You will never you will never graduate from this school because you'll never pass from this school. You'll never get a passing grade. You will die trying. You really will. Yeah. It's a province. Yeah. It's a fact. So this is why I

don't think all these things may come across. Yes. I still get emotional about these things. But I don't know if without that I will be who I am today and you will be where you are if you were not homeless. Those are the foundational things foundation stone of our lives and I think we have to put it in the pedestal to say that taught me something. Yeah. And that's what I guess I I guess I I'm not sorry that you you went through it from the learning

perspective. It's just being that there's a compassionate side of me that's I've been there. I remember how hard it was. I wasn't luckily I wasn't in Wisconsin. I was in California. So, never get that cold. Like, if you want to be homeless or in a tough spot, California is a better place to be. I got to tell you. Uh, but I I know what it's like to have people like I work at restaurants and I would get ridled afterwards because if someone didn't I worked at Red Lobster and I remember these I'll just say really heavy people would come

in and eat all you could eat lobster and shrimp like fried shrimp and then when they throw they throw away half the lobster and I can hear what I was like just trying to make ends me and so if they threw it away I'd go eat it like if there was like half the lobster left I put it in the back and my manager came to me one It was ridicul. We don't eat the leftover food. I have no I have no family. I have no money. I mean debt, all this struggle. I'm just trying to save a few bucks here. He's like, "You want to lost your vibe?" And I just remember like feeling so shame, like so much shame having to

go through that experience. But I also now know that that made me get so much strong. It's it made me who I am now where I don't need those fancy things. And if I see someone who needs a little extra something, I understand what they're going through at that time. And so I'm thankful for those memories. And I guess what I what I'm trying to get at here, and I'm I'm curious from your perspective, is how do we in this world where we're everyone wants more and wants comfort and stability. It seems like it's those

moments that put us through the fire that get rid of the impurities. Really? I I got to say that when before I went through that, I was just a scummy teenage kid. I was still a young adult kid. Trying to figure out my way and be a musician and with big dreams. And putting me through that made me understand a bit more what it was like to be human. And maybe people try to shy away from that a little too much nowadays. Try to shy away from the pain and the hurt and the perseverance and or comfort. And it it's easier to lose your

way. Um, and so yeah, I want to kind of tie that back into your story about I know we're running out of time. I'm curious on your thoughts on that and then I'd love some time for to talk about how that relates to your book like you going through all those ultimately manifested and and a lot of work went to writing into this book. So I'd love for you to talk a little bit of it. Yeah. So if I got you correct, I mean I think human beings are the same everywhere. We all have desires. We all

have the need. And they are the same. They're not different. They may look different to people, but they're really the same. And I think Tony Robbins talks about it very eloquently. The six needs, right? Certaintity, need for certainty, need for uncertaintity, need for significance, need for significance and love, love and connection, and then the spiritual needs of contribution and growth. So this is universal. And I think how we fulfill those six things is the question and we all need

all six of them. But it changes with our life and which phase of life we are in and we you may value XYZ more today than sometime else and wherever you are in your life's journey and I think there is always amazing people around the world in every part of the world. Look this idea of generosity, leadership, smartness, genius, it's a bell curve. It's all over the world. I think the difference is

sometime the environment you know you have amazing people everywhere but the environment may not be conducive to what they are trying to do or what they need to do. So I cannot ask a kid in Afghanistan to dream of. I can always ask him to dream but the challenge is in the environment he or she is in is so different from the time they are born to a kid who grew up in Atlanta. There's just no comparison, you know. Now, this is where I I think you

and I would tell if you're talking to a school or university is we all complain at times, but really if you live in Atlanta, today's Atlanta and you are poor even, you still have so many things available to you that most people in the world cannot even imagine. You actively Oh my lord. Yes. I mean it it is just there is parks I can walk in the park a clean

park nobody's shooting at me I'm safe things like that so I think it's always about the context it's always about the perspective you know somebody is richer than who somebody is better than who it's a contextual issue but at the end of the day who really cares like who cares that person who you're judging yourself against where you're saying, "Oh, I wish I had more of that stuff." That same person isn't looking at you. They're looking at the person that has

more stuff than they and they're saying, "I wish I had." No, no, everyone's looking at the next person who doesn't care about the others, right? It's ridiculous. And that's where the narrative is that we have to get away from this um narrative of just stuff. The the narrative is that you have to master you. That is where I think the whole book I wrote this is where I continue to focus more on is at the end of the day

we'll never master ourselves also 100% in our lifetime but we really have to master ourselves what drives us what is my blind spot as people what are some of my weaknesses how should I avoid those things or handle them better if you don't master yourself well enough Then you will go wherever the wind blows. And when you're like that kind of a person, nobody respects you. They might be nice to you in your face. But you'll never be

respected. And you will never be able to lead teams when you don't have a foundation. You know, when you're leading teams, I've led very large teams. You don't have to know everything. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be right all the time. None of that. You just have to show up as you who is confident in you and you have to be confident to say I don't know these things but I know this thing. I can help

you here but I can help you here. You ever heard Greg Rochelle? There's a and he's a pastor but he's also a leadership person. He does leadership personality. I love his saying. He says it's better to be a leader that's always real than a leader that's always right. And I like Yeah. just sit right. You want to be authentically you and be honest and transparent. I mean again part of being leadership leadership is a Did I lose you? Uh leadership is a thankless job. Yeah. Okay. And it's also a job where you have

to want it. It's not the comfort zone. If you want to be a leader who wants comfort, then just sit at home. Okay. leadership starts where comfort really ends and then you do things because part you know fortunately you know in the world there's no one definition of leadership that is a wonderful thing because if that was the case a lot of

people will get rejected like for example this is a very pet peeve of mine executive presence you know how many people probably have been discriminated against because of that pro through words executive presence. I mean millions of people around the world have been probably discriminated against because in somebody's eyes you are not the right color. You don't have the right hair. You don't have the right suit. You don't have the right shirt. You don't have the

right I understand. To me it's not the executive presence. Presence is important. Can you be present? If I am with you, can I be present with you in all of my senses? With all of my senses, not just my eyes, all of my senses out there connecting with you. To me, that is so much more important than any executive presence somebody can have. Cuz there's a lot of

executive presence is all fake. As the people say, fake it till you make it is one of the worst advice anybody gave anybody. To me, that is like pouring a gasoline on a fire because you're not really giving them a honest advice. You're telling them don't dig hard. Don't dig deep inside of you to figure out how to do something or how who you want to be. You're simply saying fake it. Fake it. And somehow another

that's a wonderful advice by a lot of people. I personally think it's the worst advice you can give somebody to say fake it don't fake it fail learn faith learn whatever whatever it takes again outcome one of the big thing I write in the book and things that I've learned in my life and there's a lot of research behind it as well when we start to make decisions decoupling it from the outcome

without worrying too much about the out. That's when we develop what I call the element of faith in self and it opens up the possibilities of life and experiences of life because then I don't know if I'm taking these five steps. I don't know exactly what the outcome is. Maybe I'll like it, maybe I'll not. Or maybe I'll get an outcome that I never thought about and that opens my eyes to something new, something exciting. So you will see that a lot of people who

are good decision makers it's a muscle you build time and again you keep doing it it opens up so much more opportunity for me it has opened up so many opportunities in life because I made decisions if I had not I think I'll be sitting in the zone of comfort where nothing happens you face but something happens that's a perfect that's a perfect transition because I think there's too much of that too much too many people I want to tie

it into too many people are in that zone of comfort now because because of how comfortable life is and so a good example is people come to me I have a CPA they ask me for financial advice all the time and I some people come to me and say I need a payday loan and I'll ask them why do you need the payday loan and say because my life I just need to be able to afford food I need to be able to afford all this stuff and then if you say okay what's stuff is if you dug under that. Well, my I have a car. I have, you know, I have home I have to pay for like,

well, do you really do you really need any of that? Like, I live without a car. I renting a bus and living in someone's, you know, my small den under like essentially a laundry room. Do you need any of that stuff? The society provides all this stuff for you. And so, people like the payday loan, I see it in people who have the W2 job and they want more and they don't really like their job, but they're comfortable. And so you're not really making a decision at that point. And these these people are making decisions. They're just kind of going with flow of comfort in their life. And

sometimes you need that discomfort to come in to rattle things up so you can actually learn. And I want to also tie in your like executive leadership comment. I completely agree with you. It's completely unacceptable. I see it all the time. I can't tell you as a white male a lot of people when I had gone into corporate area say oh you'd be great at sales or you would be great you have great executive presence like no I don't what are you talk I what are you what are you talking about I'm brand new to this job I'm just white and American and grew up in California so I have the

accent of all the movies that's it that's completely discriminatory and that's not acceptable and I met some of the sharpest people in the world that I met had completely different accents and skins of color to me and then it flips on the other side of the de Like right now in in Google, it's very tough as a white man to move up in leadership because there's this initiative of, oh, if there's a female or any other ethnicity, how can he how can he move up? Uh, but then you get this flip side of all of my bosses are blonde, blue-eyed females. Every my boss, my

boss's boss, my boss's boss's boss, and they'll make jokes in black rooms of like, is this really DEI? out if it's out of this diversification. We're all blonde eyed, blue uh blue-eyed, blonde females. So I I think the importance of words here is so so key. And so I want to I want to all that, but we don't have a lot of time. So I want to talk about transitioning through learning through failure. I want to talk about your book like now you you went through this place where you didn't have the job and now you use that to forward to writing this

book. And I'd love it on your shelf back there. I don't know if you could show it to the camera a little closer and then just kind of talk through what people will learn by reading this book and just a little bit about it a plug for it and anyone who's watching this video please read it um I it's it's in my cart honestly I have it ready but it's one of the top to-dos and I'm really excited to especially after this conversation so I'd love for you to talk about it a little and people can learn where people can learn more about you. So I think the the I think it's important to understand why I wrote the

book because why is always important. So for years people asked me I'll be traveling airport capture shops people said you need to write a book and I just never thought about it because it is a common um theme among all of us that what we know like you're a CPA you know you take it for granted a lot of the stuff you know it's like you know it somebody else may see it as a really powerful thing that they wish they knew

But you don't look at it David to say oh this is really important and so that's what happened to me. I think a lot of the time people say hey you do this very well you do that well why don't you write a book and I just said thank you very much but never thought about it but um couple of things happened um and this is not about although in the environment we are in the country I think it's very political very divisive um but I grew up I've worked in 15

different countries I've worked with people from 80 different countries I managed teams 2,000 plus people. Um, so I've had this privilege and opportunity in life to really work in a very diverse environments and I've always enjoyed it. Like I excel in that environment and coming to America, one of the biggest challenge I had was that I still have a problem saying white and black because I think that is so narrowminded to think about human being as just black and

white. Um and I recently read a book called um whistling vivaldi and other stereotype and how they impact us by claude steel is one of the book everybody should read because people have gotten it so wrong everybody doesn't matter your color background language skills blah blah blah everybody has some sort of a stereotype given the environment so if I put you in a group. If try put you in a

group of people who don't know how to play guitar or they are absolute experts in guitar and you are you know just starting out you might have a little bit of inferiority complex there to say oh my lord these people are just way above me and I'm not there and in that moment if I accentuate that part of your mindset that you're not that good it'll take you 10 20 years to be where these guys are and if you internalize that you

are not going to make progress. But if you came to that room and I said Dwan you are in the best place that you could be at this moment because you are among best of the best and they are the best in teaching you and this is a place where you can go from zero to 100 in no time. Even if you didn't have the right skill, you will put the effort to get there because this is where you don't not thinking about your lack of something but thinking of the possibilities of what can happen. This

is what we do to each other. Whether it's black, white, brown, we are judging people. Hey, you are an Indian guy, you must be in IT. You are from South Africa, you must be a accountant. You are from XYZ, you must be this. or we don't learn about each other. We are just so in this book I think everybody should read this book. He talks about a lot of studies done to showcase how stereotypes are affecting all of us. So long story short, right? Donald Trump

was um being um you know he announced his presidency and he said that day what he said that didn't sit well with me when he said that immigrants are XYZ then I was very upset knowing well that I know a bunch of people around the country myself and I don't relate to any of those things. Uh but then I went back to

my core to say you should never do anything with anger or hatred. So I let that go. But then when he got elected, somebody put a flag behind the house of a family in my neighborhood from Bulgaria to say go back to where you're paying for. And then my daughter came from school and said, "Dad, do we have to leave?" When those two events coincided at the dining table, I was like, I want to write

something. It may not change the mind of the whole world, but at least whoever reads the book hopefully will think differently because we need context to every there's a lot of noise about everything. So that and then I took a public speaking class from a lady called Lisa Nichols. Absolutely loved it. And she gave us the first assignment. Write every bullet point. And this is a good good um feedback for anybody who's

thinking you're writing a book. Write bullet points, not paragraphs, about every event in your life, good, bad, ugly, that you can speak about or write about. That night I wrote 165 bullet points in one sitting. Absolutely no distraction. I was totally clear. I just wrote it. That became the outline for the book. And 3 years later the book was published. So when you read this book, this book is a I'm not preaching to

anybody what to do. You will decide what you have to do in your life. All I'm sharing here is one person's journey. My story is not important than yours. one person's journey of life and ups and downs of lives, how I handled it. Hopefully through the thread of these stories, you will see your own story within it and pick and choose what works for you. And each chapter ends with what I call the university of life lessons. So whether it's value your

village or make decisions, things like that. And and at the end of the day, I want people to read this book and say, I'm not going to give up on whatever it is that I want to do in life. I don't want people give up too fast. And this is part of my journey. I'm I'm 58 and I still think like a 18 year old. I don't want to stop. I have so many things I want to do in life. Even today, I want that fire in people's

belly. I want to lit this fire in people's belly that I have so many things to do in the world and not just for me not to just accumulate stuff, accumulate experiences, accumulate impact. Those are the things that excite me. And so hopefully when you read the book you are able to find your own things to go after but always thinking from the goodness of the world, goodness of others, not just about you. That's

the whole gist of my and it's life and leadership lessons from experience and not theory. Well then I love it. Thank you for sharing. I can't wait. I'm going to buy a few copies. I always do this, especially Verdon. I'm going to buy a few and I give some to my coaching clients. And so, I'm going to make sure I do that. If anyone watching this is interested in it, I'll make sure I put the links below and maybe the first five people who comment on it, I'll buy a free book from them. I would love to buy and support your cause. Ry, I would love to talk to you more. Hopefully, we can find it. Maybe we get a speak together sometime. I think that'd be really fun.

There's a lot of overlap. And if there's anything else I can do to support your journey, it's inspiring to me and it's pleasure to talk to you. If anybody wants to go, they can go to my website. It's journeywithravi.com. Journey with Ravi very simple to remember.com go there anytime if I can be of any help you can reach out to me and there is an email there raviashyousuffer.com suffer as in this

word suffer safer.com so thank you yeah thank you so much and yeah best of luck keep me posted hopefully back yan and hear how it all goes over the next year we will thank you so much thank you byebye