A train conversation
What to do in life?
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Personal Development
Trains are one of the fun things to do when you need to travel over long distances and have got time at hand. Apart from being fast, convenient, and affordable, you make acquaintance with new people sharing the same coach or having seats next to you. And, if you’re any bit of a social person, the conversations you can have with your co-passengers could stick with you for life and significantly impact it. In one such commute last week, I had the chance to meet two friends, probably in their 40s, who had completely different perspectives on entrepreneurship and life in general. One friend is a jeweler, and the other friend is a builder. The jeweler operates his business through an old mindset, and the builder runs his through a new-age mindset.
I’ve been going through a phase in my life where I’m figuring out what to do next. Should I go for a business of my own or do an MBA to climb the corporate ladder? And I bet many of you guys are in the same ‘what to do next’ dilemma. After making acquaintance with the two friends, I find it fitting for them to shed light on some of my doubts, and they were gracious enough to discuss them. Before we delve into the discussion I had, let me give you their background and perspectives to understand their way of thinking:
Coming from a business family myself, I was well acquainted with the jeweler’s perspective and wanted answers to my questions through the builder’s perspective. So, without any further ado, the two questions I asked and his response:
Q1️⃣: How to figure out what to do in life?
Ans: Meditate. And by meditation, he meant to sit with eyes closed without any distractions and analyze one thought at a time and let them go. With practice, there will come a time when no more noise will be inside our heads, and then we can focus our minds on our career paths. Doing this, he said, one will picture themselves working on something they are most comfortable with whether it is setting up a jewelry store, constructing buildings, travel blogging, or doing a nine-to-five.
Q2️⃣: How to do a business or side hustle?
Ans: Innovation is the key. One should be innovative in anything they’ve decided to do. He advised not to operate a business like our father’s generation would. Whatever the path is, there’s always some innovation one can bring to the table. Figure that out, and that will be the business’s Unique Selling Point (USP). He explained it through an example:
A person buys watermelons and sells them to his customers for a profit. His daughter wants to innovate the business and decides to purchase watermelons, but instead of selling it, she will add value: make watermelon juice, set up a stall, and start selling. Voila! Through a small innovation, the daughter has created a business with higher profit margins than his father’s. She thinks of setting up juice stalls in marathons and other events down the line.
Then I asked him how does he bring innovation to his construction business? He said he attends seminars, exhibitions, and expos. He recently visited an expo where he saw eight types of bricks (one was even made out of human waste!). Though expensive, these bricks were better than the traditional ones. They could disrupt the market as more innovation happens and costs come down!
Though the conversation we had was long, I’ve squeezed the juice (see what I did there?) and have presented it to you in an implementable way. In a nutshell: meditate to figure out the work you are comfortable doing and innovate whatever you do and wherever you are, irrespective of how small the innovation is.
Watch time 🎥
You must have gulped one of the Paper Boat’s tasty drinks or seen their nostalgic posts on social media websites. Here is one such video by Paper Boat on Indian trains we all can relate to:
Quote of the week
Author Linda Lambert on conversations:
One great conversation can shift the direction of change forever.
Get 1% better ❤
Try striking up a conversation with a stranger. I bet you will not regret it!
Until next week, ✌
Jainuine
Very good read !!