October 31, 2024 • 19 mins
In this enlightening episode of the How I Got Hired podcast, I explore the valuable career lessons inspired by the vibrant festival of Diwali. Listeners will discover how the themes of light, renewal, and community during Diwali can inform and transform their professional journeys. Join me as I share my meditations on what Diwali can teach us for our professional success!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there, welcome to the how I Got Hired podcast.
I'm your host, sonal Behl,former HR director and founder
of Supercharge, and I have hadan insane corporate career that
started out in India and movedto South America and then to
Europe, often working only inSpanish and French, which I had
(00:21):
to learn there from scratch.
Why do I call my career insane?
Hey there, welcome to the how IGot Hired podcast.
I'm your host, sonal Behl,former HR director and founder
of Supercharge, and I have hadan insane corporate career that
started out in India, then movedto South America and then to
Europe, often working only inSpanish or French, which I had
(00:46):
to learn there from scratch.
Now, why do I call my careerinsane?
Because while I've experiencedcomplete highs, like working
across geographies andindustries, while navigating
challenges like needing visasponsorships, zero network
locally during recessions, andoften while being a new mom to
(01:07):
one of my two kids, I have seencareer heartbreak and multiple
layoffs, as well.
As a career strategist, Istrongly believe that a
fulfilling career is abirthright and not a privilege
for the lucky few who haveaccess to prestigious education,
capital and networks.
(01:28):
And now I am on a mission todemocratize access to high value
career advice by designingaffordable digital courses, with
my YouTube channel and thispodcast right here, where we
learn together from ordinarypeople like you and me and how
they created extraordinarycareer success.
(01:48):
I hope this episode reminds youthat if they could do it, you
can do it too.
Now get ready to getsupercharged, let's go.
Hey, welcome back.
(02:11):
So it's been a couple of years.
I don't know if you've noticed,uh, one of these episodes where
it's just me, it's solo episode.
I used to call these sonologuesanybody here who remember my
sonal monologues?
Hence the word sonologues and,as you can see from the title,
today, and given that we arepublishing this during the week
of Diwali, which is the Indianfestival of lights, I wanted to
(02:34):
talk about career lessons thatwe can apply directly from
Diwali and break these lessonsdown, and no matter what stage
you're in in your career and inyour life.
So, without further ado, let'sgo.
(02:54):
This is a little bit special,but it's a little bit different,
because what I wanted to do waslook at Diwali and, obviously,
firstly, I wanted to wish happyDiwali to all my Indian friends.
Whether're from India, livingin India, doesn't really matter.
Hope you had a lovely Diwali,wish you lots of health, wealth
and happiness.
That's what I was saying whenyou said I couldn't be heard.
(03:15):
Hope lots of great things comeyour way, and what I wanted to
do today was irrespective of thefaith that you follow,
irrespective of what you do inyour career because we all have
a career we all have a purpose,right?
The idea today was to see someof the universal concepts that
(03:36):
come from the festival of Diwaliand how we can apply them to
our own career.
I wanted to do a little take onit and I found a fantastic
article.
If you want to get more intomore detail, I will link that
article as well for you in theshow notes.
Thank you so much for tuning inLove that you guys are here.
Very happy Diwali, good.
So let's get cracking.
(03:59):
I've got about half an hour andthen we have to go out with the
family.
All right, the first lesson thatI think is very universal, that
comes from Diwali, that I thinkyou can apply to your own
career, is that the concept ofwealth creation, the concept of
acquiring wealth, is a goodthing.
(04:19):
That is something that ishighly encouraged, especially
during the you know, all myIndian friends will know around
October, november, right?
However, we also get to hearabout the corrupting nature of
wealth.
You know what I mean and howyou need to be a good person
(04:40):
person and I get that but at thesame time, I've been harping on
you know, for example, salarynegotiation, which is your own
way of wealth creation when youare in employment.
I've been harping on that foryears here, and the reason is
when you do good work, I thinkwealth comes towards you.
So today will be a little bitlike a soapbox, it will be a
(05:11):
little bit like a TED Talk, butI wanted to stress this because
I don't think wealth creation isthe aim.
I think wealth creation is thereward.
So when you do good work andyou work hard and you do it with
a pure heart, wealth comes yourway.
But please don't be fooled bypeople who say that wealth is
not important.
The goddess of wealth andabundance is Lakshmi, in my
faith, and everyone welcomesLakshmi, and we talk about
(05:31):
lights, and I'm going to talkabout lights in my next few
points.
But it's not the goal, it's theoutcome, if you know what I
mean.
It's the result from the goodthat you do so and that's a good
thing.
That's a good thing, and anyonewho tells you that wealth can
corrupt you.
They're coming from their ownplace of scarcity.
(05:53):
They are people who've neverreally had wealth right.
You look around you.
You see people who have fine,and I'm here I'm talking about
specifically financial wealth.
When you look around and yousee people who have financial
wealth, they never take it forgranted, they know it's
something that can come and goand they respect it right.
So don't forget every now andthen, to get in touch with the
(06:16):
psychology of money, because youhave certain, we all have
certain beliefs around moneyfrom childhood, and they come
from our parents, they come fromfriends, they come from
everything that we've learnedover the years, and the
psychology of money is very realand it has a huge impact on our
earning power today.
(06:36):
Let me know if you agree, letme know what you think about
this in the comments, and if youhave anything further to add,
I'd love to read all about it.
So, all right, lots of Diwaliwishes.
You're very kind.
Appreciate you guys hanging out.
Yeah, gee, it's a lot to dowith karma, and I don't think
(06:59):
karma is something that is, youknow, only exclusive to Hinduism
or anything like that, becausea lot of people think karma is
religion.
At the end of the day, there'sso many other religions that
talk about the same thing.
You know, absolutely understandthat.
So let me know what you thinkabout this.
That wealth creation andacquiring wealth and being
financially comfortable.
I know that this is somethingin the West we're like duh,
(07:23):
you're like, of course it is,but for a lot of us coming from
other cultures, it's somethingthat needs a bit of a mindset
shift.
So riches can be good, healthcreation can be good.
Lesson number two you can havethe most beautiful house on the
valley, lit up with the bestpossible lights, but your heart
(07:45):
is dark and your heart is in asad place or a bad place.
It won't really matter and itwon't really impact your inner
light Because, at the end of theday, what are we all right?
We're a little ball of energy.
We come here out of the blue.
It's totally random, one in atrillion chances of just being
(08:05):
alive.
We spend what is it?
70, 80, 80, 90 years in themillennium, in the millions of
years that the earth has beenhere, and then we go.
That's it.
It's so random.
So that little ball of light,that little ball of energy, is
all there is, and that's light,and that's our inner light Right
(08:27):
, so we can have all thoselights lights outside on diwali,
and you have those on christmas, you have those on so many
other you know occasions, um, onin different faiths, in
different religions.
It's great to have them andthey need to point at the inner
light and that needs to continueto burn, because when the inner
(08:49):
light stops burning, that iswhen we have those extremely
strong feelings of depression,loneliness and, particularly for
all of you who are in thenorthern hemisphere, our days
are getting shorter, our nightsare getting longer.
There is a very serious impactfor some of us who are more
sensitive to it, and it's likeyou know, um, in worst case
(09:11):
scenarios, suicide rates go upas well.
Right?
So the best possible way tohave that inner light continue
to shine bright is to helpothers.
That's it.
No matter what you're doing.
You're showing up, I'm showingup, I'm on holiday, I want to do
other things, but this gives mejoy.
I'm not just doing this for you, I'm doing this for me, because
it gives me this adrenalinehigh.
(09:32):
So the the outer light islovely, especially on Diwali,
the dark days of Diwali thatfollow, but the inner light is
the one that continues to, needsto continue to burn.
I know I sound a bit preachytoday, but when we have that
inner light, how we show up atour work and how we show up at
interviews, you can I mean g isan hr person, she knows when
(09:54):
someone shows up and you're likenot only are they prepared, not
only did they do their homework, but they have something extra
and that is energy.
We know this, guys, you seethis with friends.
They're like something is wrong, there's something about her.
Yeah, yeah, it's the energy,it's that light, and when that
light is missing, that needs aspark, and that is something we
(10:17):
need to do to help each other on.
That's lesson number two.
When it comes to career lessonsfrom Diwali, what do you think?
Number three let's talk aboutthe third one, and that is
you've got to believe and herethe the operative word is
believe.
You've got to believe that goodtriumphs over evil, because
(10:38):
that is the whole premise ofdiwali.
You have lord ram, who's a king.
I'm simplifying it.
My indian friends are going tobe like oh, what is she saying?
I'm simplifying, I'msimplifying it, oversimplifying
it.
You have a good king.
You have another king who wassupposedly very good and
extremely intelligent.
He had the intelligence of 10people in one head.
(11:01):
That's why you see Ravan.
You see Ravan with 10 heads.
But stuff happened and hewasn't that good anymore, right?
So then he became the bad guy.
So you have good triumph overevil.
It took years to do that.
The king lost 14 years of hislife, but he made it work.
Point is, the hope was neverlost, right?
And the king returned back homeand that's why we have Diwali
(11:23):
and we have candles and we havelights, and that happened to be
a night without moon, buteverything was lit up because of
all the candles and all thelights, which is why Diwali is
always 19 days after this era,and that is the day when you
have no moon.
(11:44):
The thing is, the evil doesn'talways have to be evil outside.
It can be.
A lot of people will say socialmedia is evil.
Social media is corrupting.
Just like we said in pointnumber one, wealth is corrupting
.
Um, you have trolls.
You have people who areconstantly bringing others down,
um, so you're like I'm notgonna do it.
You have that.
That's evil.
Yes, different versions of evil, right, I think it's a sliding
scale.
But you also have evil withinanger, envy, um, jealousy,
(12:09):
mistrust, cynicism.
There's no point trying.
The hiring manager is useless.
They don't know what they want.
I'm rejected because thosepeople don't understand my value
.
So that cynicism, firstly, it'sso difficult to live with.
It's so difficult to live with.
(12:30):
But point is, you can triumphover that if you choose to do so
.
And people who do that tend tohave a much more successful
career.
You know what I mean.
They are the ones who tend toget promoted, they are the ones
who are recognized a lot moreand are sent to different
(12:50):
assignments abroad, etc.
That hope and that faith that ifthings are not looking up,
things are not looking great,that's okay.
That hope that the good insideother people, the good inside
you, will triumph over it.
I know it's over, like I said,oversimplifying, but at the end
of the day, that hope iseverything in humanity.
But at the end of the day, thathope is everything in humanity
(13:13):
and we don't have that hopeanymore, life just becomes a
little bit sad and long to livein.
You know what I mean.
So fantastic, all right.
Number four this is also truein so many other religions.
Gifts are a big thing on Diwaliright, and I'm talking material
gifts.
Yes, they're a big deal.
(13:34):
There'll be sweets, there'll besalty gifts, there'll be I
don't know a car.
Somebody gets a house.
There's all types of gifts.
But I want you to think aboutsomething small you've done
lately for someone and orsomething small that someone did
for you, but you still rememberthat.
Think what that was and how canyou do that?
(13:57):
If you appreciate someone andsomeone's been showing up for
you, particularly when timeshave been hard, you don't
necessarily have to go and spenda lot of money.
A simple thing on LinkedIn isand I talked about it last week
is surprise someone, surprisesomeone recommend them on
LinkedIn, endorse them, endorsetheir skills.
(14:17):
Those little things mean a lotand they get a notification that
someone did that and they'llsay, hey, that's so sweet, I
didn't expect it.
Those are great surprises.
I know that Christmas and Diwaliare all about gifts.
They've become such acommercial thing now but they
don't always have to be aboutthe same material gifts and
comparing and what size thatperson.
(14:39):
You know what gift they got and, let's face it, a lot of gifts
aren't that great.
A lot of gifts we end uprecycling.
Am I I right?
Am I right?
Am I right, you'll get like dryfruit and you'll be like, okay,
this is the 16th box of dryfruit, I'm going to pass it to
that.
Oh, come on, that's not thepoint.
(15:00):
The gift is supposed to bringjoy.
It's not necessarily all abouta circular economy when it comes
to Diwali gifts, you know.
So think about those littlegifts, and Diwali is a lot about
those gifts, and it don't haveto be about big gifts either.
There's so many ways to showyour love and gratitude towards
(15:21):
someone.
Number five we are more alikethan we realize.
People talk about diversity,higher diversity, inclusion.
Yeah, of course that'simportant, but we need to tap
into how alike we are.
For example, as a job seeker,we approach the company as this
thing it's actually a personwho's going to interview us.
(15:43):
They're not that different fromus.
They have day-to-day problems.
They have a particular reason.
They are looking for someone tofill that role.
You have a problem, you needsomething done.
You want your insurance done,you need your car fixed.
It's not that different.
You're looking for someone whocan solve your problem.
They are looking for someonewho can solve their problem.
(16:04):
So that's one silly little wayyou can talk about how alike we
are.
The other thing is, when westart working in a company, we
have so much unconscious bias,right, we don't even realize it.
We're like we don't know we'redoing this, but we're putting
people in boxes.
Oh, this is the cool gang here.
Okay, they sit at that lunchtable.
(16:26):
This is the gang that lookslike a bunch of nerds, you know,
just like we did in high school, right?
Uh, this is a gang I think Ican hang out with.
We don't know we're doing it,but we're doing it.
There's a lot more in commonthan we realize.
So go out there.
What does this mean?
Go out there and talk to peoplewho are different, who you
think are different from you.
They're not that different.
(16:47):
They're struggling through somethings that you're probably
struggling through as well.
It's just our assumptions that,yeah, they look different, they
talk different, they dresscompletely different, they smell
different.
I don't know what they'reeating.
Actually, the humanity side ofthings just mushes it all
(17:07):
together and it just blendstogether very beautifully.
So, whether you're following,you know, whether you, you, you
celebrate diwali or hanukkah orchristmas or I don't know, eid,
anything.
Um, it's, you know, the theparsi new year.
Um, people are people and um,um, I get a lot of questions on
(17:32):
oh you know, different culturesand what was it like working in
Latin America?
And how different is it fromIndia?
Or how is France different fromUruguay or Belgium?
My first thing when I, everysingle time, I answer is like,
actually, there's more things incommon than there are
differences the universality.
I think that's a strength, ifyou can see it that way.
(17:53):
I think that's a strength.
I I seriously believe that.
What do you think career lessonsfrom diwali?
I said I would say three and Istarted off with three, but I
ended up doing five.
We are just going to do a quickrecap.
Riches and wealth creation isgood.
However, keep in mind they arethe outcome or the byproduct,
not the aim of your career oryour business.
(18:17):
Outer lights that we have ondiwali, they need to point to
the inner lights and help themburn.
Continue to burn as long as weare alive.
Right, and obviously I talked alot more in how it impacts your
career the good that triumphsover evil.
You've got to believe,sincerely believe that it's
possible.
(18:39):
Small gifts, particularly smallgifts and unexpected gifts, I
think, are a great way to showyour love and gratitude towards
someone, and and festivals arean excuse to do that, but I'm
also going to go out on a limband say you don't have to wait
for Diwali or Christmas to showyour love and gratitude, right,
and you don't have to wait fortheir birthday.
It could be any occasion.
(19:00):
You've always got a choice andthere's so much universality and
faiths around the world inpeople at your workplace, the
boss, all those boxes, all thosesort of cliches, and we
typecast them.
There's a lot more in common.
All right, this was the littlediwali special.
(19:21):
Thank you so much for tuning in.
Um, lovely to have you hereagain.
Uh, very happy diwali to all mypeeps in india and from india
and wherever you are in theworld.
You have indian friends.
I'm sure we're lovely people,so I'm sure you you know to some
extent or the other know alittle bit about diwali.
These were three to five careerlessons from the festival of
(19:43):
diwali that I shared and um,thank you.
Uh, happy diwali everyone.
Take care of yourselves, takecare of your family, watch out
for that.
That was my favorite lesson ofall the ones.
Keep your inner light burningand see you Bye.
Hey, thanks so much forlistening to this Diwali episode
(20:06):
and how it connects to yourcareers.
I hope you've enjoyed it and,if you did, make sure you follow
this podcast, make sure youclick on the follow button on
the podcast app that you listenthis on and share this with a
friend who you think wouldbenefit.
Doesn't have to be an Indianfriend, right?
The principles behind Diwaliare universal.
(20:29):
All right, take care ofyourselves and I'll be with you
next time.
Bye for now.
Hey there, welcome to the how I Got Hired podcast.
I'm your host, sonal Behl,former HR director and founder
of Supercharge, and I have hadan insane corporate career that
started out in India and movedto South America and then to
Europe, often working only inSpanish and French, which I had
(00:21):
to learn there from scratch.
Why do I call my career insane?
Hey there, welcome to the how IGot Hired podcast.
I'm your host, sonal Behl,former HR director and founder
of Supercharge, and I have hadan insane corporate career that
started out in India, then movedto South America and then to
Europe, often working only inSpanish or French, which I had
(00:46):
to learn there from scratch.
Now, why do I call my careerinsane?
Because while I've experiencedcomplete highs, like working
across geographies andindustries, while navigating
challenges like needing visasponsorships, zero network
locally during recessions, andoften while being a new mom to
(01:07):
one of my two kids, I have seencareer heartbreak and multiple
layoffs, as well.
As a career strategist, Istrongly believe that a
fulfilling career is abirthright and not a privilege
for the lucky few who haveaccess to prestigious education,
capital and networks.
(01:28):
And now I am on a mission todemocratize access to high value
career advice by designingaffordable digital courses, with
my YouTube channel and thispodcast right here, where we
learn together from ordinarypeople like you and me and how
they created extraordinarycareer success.
(01:48):
I hope this episode reminds youthat if they could do it, you
can do it too.
Now get ready to getsupercharged, let's go.
Hey, welcome back.
(02:11):
So it's been a couple of years.
I don't know if you've noticed,uh, one of these episodes where
it's just me, it's solo episode.
I used to call these sonologuesanybody here who remember my
sonal monologues?
Hence the word sonologues and,as you can see from the title,
today, and given that we arepublishing this during the week
of Diwali, which is the Indianfestival of lights, I wanted to
(02:34):
talk about career lessons thatwe can apply directly from
Diwali and break these lessonsdown, and no matter what stage
you're in in your career and inyour life.
So, without further ado, let'sgo.
(02:54):
This is a little bit special,but it's a little bit different,
because what I wanted to do waslook at Diwali and, obviously,
firstly, I wanted to wish happyDiwali to all my Indian friends.
Whether're from India, livingin India, doesn't really matter.
Hope you had a lovely Diwali,wish you lots of health, wealth
and happiness.
That's what I was saying whenyou said I couldn't be heard.
(03:15):
Hope lots of great things comeyour way, and what I wanted to
do today was irrespective of thefaith that you follow,
irrespective of what you do inyour career because we all have
a career we all have a purpose,right?
The idea today was to see someof the universal concepts that
(03:36):
come from the festival of Diwaliand how we can apply them to
our own career.
I wanted to do a little take onit and I found a fantastic
article.
If you want to get more intomore detail, I will link that
article as well for you in theshow notes.
Thank you so much for tuning inLove that you guys are here.
Very happy Diwali, good.
So let's get cracking.
(03:59):
I've got about half an hour andthen we have to go out with the
family.
All right, the first lesson thatI think is very universal, that
comes from Diwali, that I thinkyou can apply to your own
career, is that the concept ofwealth creation, the concept of
acquiring wealth, is a goodthing.
(04:19):
That is something that ishighly encouraged, especially
during the you know, all myIndian friends will know around
October, november, right?
However, we also get to hearabout the corrupting nature of
wealth.
You know what I mean and howyou need to be a good person
(04:40):
person and I get that but at thesame time, I've been harping on
you know, for example, salarynegotiation, which is your own
way of wealth creation when youare in employment.
I've been harping on that foryears here, and the reason is
when you do good work, I thinkwealth comes towards you.
So today will be a little bitlike a soapbox, it will be a
(05:11):
little bit like a TED Talk, butI wanted to stress this because
I don't think wealth creation isthe aim.
I think wealth creation is thereward.
So when you do good work andyou work hard and you do it with
a pure heart, wealth comes yourway.
But please don't be fooled bypeople who say that wealth is
not important.
The goddess of wealth andabundance is Lakshmi, in my
faith, and everyone welcomesLakshmi, and we talk about
(05:31):
lights, and I'm going to talkabout lights in my next few
points.
But it's not the goal, it's theoutcome, if you know what I
mean.
It's the result from the goodthat you do so and that's a good
thing.
That's a good thing, and anyonewho tells you that wealth can
corrupt you.
They're coming from their ownplace of scarcity.
(05:53):
They are people who've neverreally had wealth right.
You look around you.
You see people who have fine,and I'm here I'm talking about
specifically financial wealth.
When you look around and yousee people who have financial
wealth, they never take it forgranted, they know it's
something that can come and goand they respect it right.
So don't forget every now andthen, to get in touch with the
(06:16):
psychology of money, because youhave certain, we all have
certain beliefs around moneyfrom childhood, and they come
from our parents, they come fromfriends, they come from
everything that we've learnedover the years, and the
psychology of money is very realand it has a huge impact on our
earning power today.
(06:36):
Let me know if you agree, letme know what you think about
this in the comments, and if youhave anything further to add,
I'd love to read all about it.
So, all right, lots of Diwaliwishes.
You're very kind.
Appreciate you guys hanging out.
Yeah, gee, it's a lot to dowith karma, and I don't think
(06:59):
karma is something that is, youknow, only exclusive to Hinduism
or anything like that, becausea lot of people think karma is
religion.
At the end of the day, there'sso many other religions that
talk about the same thing.
You know, absolutely understandthat.
So let me know what you thinkabout this.
That wealth creation andacquiring wealth and being
financially comfortable.
I know that this is somethingin the West we're like duh,
(07:23):
you're like, of course it is,but for a lot of us coming from
other cultures, it's somethingthat needs a bit of a mindset
shift.
So riches can be good, healthcreation can be good.
Lesson number two you can havethe most beautiful house on the
valley, lit up with the bestpossible lights, but your heart
(07:45):
is dark and your heart is in asad place or a bad place.
It won't really matter and itwon't really impact your inner
light Because, at the end of theday, what are we all right?
We're a little ball of energy.
We come here out of the blue.
It's totally random, one in atrillion chances of just being
(08:05):
alive.
We spend what is it?
70, 80, 80, 90 years in themillennium, in the millions of
years that the earth has beenhere, and then we go.
That's it.
It's so random.
So that little ball of light,that little ball of energy, is
all there is, and that's light,and that's our inner light Right
(08:27):
, so we can have all thoselights lights outside on diwali,
and you have those on christmas, you have those on so many
other you know occasions, um, onin different faiths, in
different religions.
It's great to have them andthey need to point at the inner
light and that needs to continueto burn, because when the inner
(08:49):
light stops burning, that iswhen we have those extremely
strong feelings of depression,loneliness and, particularly for
all of you who are in thenorthern hemisphere, our days
are getting shorter, our nightsare getting longer.
There is a very serious impactfor some of us who are more
sensitive to it, and it's likeyou know, um, in worst case
(09:11):
scenarios, suicide rates go upas well.
Right?
So the best possible way tohave that inner light continue
to shine bright is to helpothers.
That's it.
No matter what you're doing.
You're showing up, I'm showingup, I'm on holiday, I want to do
other things, but this gives mejoy.
I'm not just doing this for you, I'm doing this for me, because
it gives me this adrenalinehigh.
(09:32):
So the the outer light islovely, especially on Diwali,
the dark days of Diwali thatfollow, but the inner light is
the one that continues to, needsto continue to burn.
I know I sound a bit preachytoday, but when we have that
inner light, how we show up atour work and how we show up at
interviews, you can I mean g isan hr person, she knows when
(09:54):
someone shows up and you're likenot only are they prepared, not
only did they do their homework, but they have something extra
and that is energy.
We know this, guys, you seethis with friends.
They're like something is wrong, there's something about her.
Yeah, yeah, it's the energy,it's that light, and when that
light is missing, that needs aspark, and that is something we
(10:17):
need to do to help each other on.
That's lesson number two.
When it comes to career lessonsfrom Diwali, what do you think?
Number three let's talk aboutthe third one, and that is
you've got to believe and herethe the operative word is
believe.
You've got to believe that goodtriumphs over evil, because
(10:38):
that is the whole premise ofdiwali.
You have lord ram, who's a king.
I'm simplifying it.
My indian friends are going tobe like oh, what is she saying?
I'm simplifying, I'msimplifying it, oversimplifying
it.
You have a good king.
You have another king who wassupposedly very good and
extremely intelligent.
He had the intelligence of 10people in one head.
(11:01):
That's why you see Ravan.
You see Ravan with 10 heads.
But stuff happened and hewasn't that good anymore, right?
So then he became the bad guy.
So you have good triumph overevil.
It took years to do that.
The king lost 14 years of hislife, but he made it work.
Point is, the hope was neverlost, right?
And the king returned back homeand that's why we have Diwali
(11:23):
and we have candles and we havelights, and that happened to be
a night without moon, buteverything was lit up because of
all the candles and all thelights, which is why Diwali is
always 19 days after this era,and that is the day when you
have no moon.
(11:44):
The thing is, the evil doesn'talways have to be evil outside.
It can be.
A lot of people will say socialmedia is evil.
Social media is corrupting.
Just like we said in pointnumber one, wealth is corrupting
.
Um, you have trolls.
You have people who areconstantly bringing others down,
um, so you're like I'm notgonna do it.
You have that.
That's evil.
Yes, different versions of evil, right, I think it's a sliding
scale.
But you also have evil withinanger, envy, um, jealousy,
(12:09):
mistrust, cynicism.
There's no point trying.
The hiring manager is useless.
They don't know what they want.
I'm rejected because thosepeople don't understand my value
.
So that cynicism, firstly, it'sso difficult to live with.
It's so difficult to live with.
(12:30):
But point is, you can triumphover that if you choose to do so
.
And people who do that tend tohave a much more successful
career.
You know what I mean.
They are the ones who tend toget promoted, they are the ones
who are recognized a lot moreand are sent to different
(12:50):
assignments abroad, etc.
That hope and that faith that ifthings are not looking up,
things are not looking great,that's okay.
That hope that the good insideother people, the good inside
you, will triumph over it.
I know it's over, like I said,oversimplifying, but at the end
of the day, that hope iseverything in humanity.
But at the end of the day, thathope is everything in humanity
(13:13):
and we don't have that hopeanymore, life just becomes a
little bit sad and long to livein.
You know what I mean.
So fantastic, all right.
Number four this is also truein so many other religions.
Gifts are a big thing on Diwaliright, and I'm talking material
gifts.
Yes, they're a big deal.
(13:34):
There'll be sweets, there'll besalty gifts, there'll be I
don't know a car.
Somebody gets a house.
There's all types of gifts.
But I want you to think aboutsomething small you've done
lately for someone and orsomething small that someone did
for you, but you still rememberthat.
Think what that was and how canyou do that?
(13:57):
If you appreciate someone andsomeone's been showing up for
you, particularly when timeshave been hard, you don't
necessarily have to go and spenda lot of money.
A simple thing on LinkedIn isand I talked about it last week
is surprise someone, surprisesomeone recommend them on
LinkedIn, endorse them, endorsetheir skills.
(14:17):
Those little things mean a lotand they get a notification that
someone did that and they'llsay, hey, that's so sweet, I
didn't expect it.
Those are great surprises.
I know that Christmas and Diwaliare all about gifts.
They've become such acommercial thing now but they
don't always have to be aboutthe same material gifts and
comparing and what size thatperson.
(14:39):
You know what gift they got and, let's face it, a lot of gifts
aren't that great.
A lot of gifts we end uprecycling.
Am I I right?
Am I right?
Am I right, you'll get like dryfruit and you'll be like, okay,
this is the 16th box of dryfruit, I'm going to pass it to
that.
Oh, come on, that's not thepoint.
(15:00):
The gift is supposed to bringjoy.
It's not necessarily all abouta circular economy when it comes
to Diwali gifts, you know.
So think about those littlegifts, and Diwali is a lot about
those gifts, and it don't haveto be about big gifts either.
There's so many ways to showyour love and gratitude towards
(15:21):
someone.
Number five we are more alikethan we realize.
People talk about diversity,higher diversity, inclusion.
Yeah, of course that'simportant, but we need to tap
into how alike we are.
For example, as a job seeker,we approach the company as this
thing it's actually a personwho's going to interview us.
(15:43):
They're not that different fromus.
They have day-to-day problems.
They have a particular reason.
They are looking for someone tofill that role.
You have a problem, you needsomething done.
You want your insurance done,you need your car fixed.
It's not that different.
You're looking for someone whocan solve your problem.
They are looking for someonewho can solve their problem.
(16:04):
So that's one silly little wayyou can talk about how alike we
are.
The other thing is, when westart working in a company, we
have so much unconscious bias,right, we don't even realize it.
We're like we don't know we'redoing this, but we're putting
people in boxes.
Oh, this is the cool gang here.
Okay, they sit at that lunchtable.
(16:26):
This is the gang that lookslike a bunch of nerds, you know,
just like we did in high school, right?
Uh, this is a gang I think Ican hang out with.
We don't know we're doing it,but we're doing it.
There's a lot more in commonthan we realize.
So go out there.
What does this mean?
Go out there and talk to peoplewho are different, who you
think are different from you.
They're not that different.
(16:47):
They're struggling through somethings that you're probably
struggling through as well.
It's just our assumptions that,yeah, they look different, they
talk different, they dresscompletely different, they smell
different.
I don't know what they'reeating.
Actually, the humanity side ofthings just mushes it all
(17:07):
together and it just blendstogether very beautifully.
So, whether you're following,you know, whether you, you, you
celebrate diwali or hanukkah orchristmas or I don't know, eid,
anything.
Um, it's, you know, the theparsi new year.
Um, people are people and um,um, I get a lot of questions on
(17:32):
oh you know, different culturesand what was it like working in
Latin America?
And how different is it fromIndia?
Or how is France different fromUruguay or Belgium?
My first thing when I, everysingle time, I answer is like,
actually, there's more things incommon than there are
differences the universality.
I think that's a strength, ifyou can see it that way.
(17:53):
I think that's a strength.
I I seriously believe that.
What do you think career lessonsfrom diwali?
I said I would say three and Istarted off with three, but I
ended up doing five.
We are just going to do a quickrecap.
Riches and wealth creation isgood.
However, keep in mind they arethe outcome or the byproduct,
not the aim of your career oryour business.
(18:17):
Outer lights that we have ondiwali, they need to point to
the inner lights and help themburn.
Continue to burn as long as weare alive.
Right, and obviously I talked alot more in how it impacts your
career the good that triumphsover evil.
You've got to believe,sincerely believe that it's
possible.
(18:39):
Small gifts, particularly smallgifts and unexpected gifts, I
think, are a great way to showyour love and gratitude towards
someone, and and festivals arean excuse to do that, but I'm
also going to go out on a limband say you don't have to wait
for Diwali or Christmas to showyour love and gratitude, right,
and you don't have to wait fortheir birthday.
It could be any occasion.
(19:00):
You've always got a choice andthere's so much universality and
faiths around the world inpeople at your workplace, the
boss, all those boxes, all thosesort of cliches, and we
typecast them.
There's a lot more in common.
All right, this was the littlediwali special.
(19:21):
Thank you so much for tuning in.
Um, lovely to have you hereagain.
Uh, very happy diwali to all mypeeps in india and from india
and wherever you are in theworld.
You have indian friends.
I'm sure we're lovely people,so I'm sure you you know to some
extent or the other know alittle bit about diwali.
These were three to five careerlessons from the festival of
(19:43):
diwali that I shared and um,thank you.
Uh, happy diwali everyone.
Take care of yourselves, takecare of your family, watch out
for that.
That was my favorite lesson ofall the ones.
Keep your inner light burningand see you Bye.
Hey, thanks so much forlistening to this Diwali episode
(20:06):
and how it connects to yourcareers.
I hope you've enjoyed it and,if you did, make sure you follow
this podcast, make sure youclick on the follow button on
the podcast app that you listenthis on and share this with a
friend who you think wouldbenefit.
Doesn't have to be an Indianfriend, right?
The principles behind Diwaliare universal.
(20:29):
All right, take care ofyourselves and I'll be with you
next time.
Bye for now.
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