Nothing great ever came from comfort zones, says Ravi Venkatesan

From achievers to leaders to the glamorous, in this web series, Outlook Money brings you the views on money matters from some of India’s most influential. Several of the New Year’s resolutions made this year may have been already broken. But who says you need to wait for planetary revolution to make new decisions that can make tomorrow slightly better than today? Inspiration can come from anyone at anytime. These individuals, each a leader in their respective field, talks about their life, both financial and personal, and lets us know what it takes to make it big in this beautifully scary world. We hope their wisdom empowers you to know how to better secure your financial future. 

Change is the only constant

Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman of Bank of Baroda says that he learnt one thing early in life – successful people are not just good at what they do, they love what they do. So he decided to do what he was good at and not do what he was not good at. Taking a closer look at his life, it is evident that this epiphany has made him who he is today.

When he was in IIT, he realized that he was a mediocre engineer but an excellent organiser. So, after graduation he went on to Harvard to pursue a degree in Management. After completing his studies there, unlike most of the students went to Wall Street or McKinsey, he decided to not follow the herd. For 15 years he worked with Cummins Engine since he had a love for manufacturing.

Talking of how he reinvented himself, he says “When I was young I saw a lot of older people had regrets and the biggest regret is often that they didn’t take more risks or tried to do something that they really wanted to. I decided I didn’t want to grow old and have this regret.” Every few years he walks away from his comfort zones to do something different.”I encourage everyone to take on challenges every few years, to step outside their comfort zone, to learn new things,” he says. He understands that this may seem scary and risky. But to him, the bigger risk is to not take any risk at all.

His advice to young people is to stop thinking about finding a job. He encourages the youth to learn to become self reliant and self-employed or, better yet, try and become entrepreneurs.

olmdesk@outlookindia.com