The Pathways & Padlocks Conversation
00:00:00 · Sachin, Sid Dissanayake
[00:00:00] S0: Are very future based. Right? They're always about what are we gonna do in the future or whatever, and and that's awesome. But I think it's also important to remember that life is happening right now. Right? Life isn't happening ten years down the time. Life isn't happy when you have a grad job. If you ask most people older than you, they'll say their best moments were in university. Right? So I don't think students should forget that. It can be so easy to caught up in the after university world, and I'm in it now. And I can tell you that don't... On top of all this stuff, finding your purpose, whatever, just enjoy the time. [00:00:43] S1: Hello and welcome to the Pathways & Padlocks Conversation conversation where we inform, and inspire students by allowing people to share their stories as humans and professionals. In today's episode, we are joined by Sachin Shah. Sachin was a project manager at Young Change Agents until recently, where he was able to combine his passions for social entrepreneurship, social impact and innovation to mentor and develop Australia's next generation of leaders. We're talking just off air and he's currently a graduate at Deloitte now, which is something that we'll get into a lot more in the conversation. Was it 2019 when you co founded the Sachin and Adam show? [00:01:22] S0: Yeah, 2019.
00:01:22 · Sachin, Sid Dissanayake
[00:01:22] S0: Yeah, 2019. [00:01:24] S1: Yeah, perfect. So in that, that's essentially a podcast that you co founded with your best friend or one of your good friends, Adam Miller. Together, they probe the minds of entrepreneurs, philosophers and activists, sharing their experiences and knowledge to help young people to develop and grow personally as well as professionally. Along the way, Sachin has developed his passions and interests in business and social entrepreneurship in different capacities at one hundred and eighty Degrees Consulting, Hamper, Enactus, Deloitte and Hudson Pacific Group. He is currently, well, he was a final year student of a commerce degree at UCI, which is currently graduated, majoring in economics and finance. But for me personally, Sachin's story is so much more than is strictly professional commitments, whether it be competing in a bodybuilding competition, which I'm excited to talk about, delivering a TEDx speech with his brother, Aaryan, or the hundreds of hours of podcast material that he's produced alongside Adam. We'll get into all that and a lot more as well. But for now, thank you for joining the conversation, Sachin. [00:02:31] S0: Thanks, Sid. And I think before we started recording, was just saying how important I think this project is. I'll just say that publicly now. Well done with everything you've done.
00:02:31 · Sachin, Sid Dissanayake
[00:02:31] S0: Thanks, Sid. And I think before we started recording, was just saying how important I think this project is. I'll just say that publicly now. Well done with everything you've done. [00:02:41] S1: No, I appreciate that, man. Likewise. And I mean, I think a common sort of theme between both our podcasts is you know, capturing and reflecting the experiences of young people and, you know, leveraging those experiences. And, you know, as I was mentioning just off air, one of those experiences which I thought was particularly interesting was, you know, the fact that you competed in a bodybuilding competition. That was something that I naturally gravitated, you know, towards when I was hearing your story through a few podcast episodes that you've done. And in those episodes, you've described that period of your life as, you know, being one of the toughest and scariest parts of your life. So, I mean, I initially came across that story on the Driven Young podcast with Byron Dempsey, who I think is a friend of yours. And I don't want to spoil the story too much. But you were essentially challenged by a close friend to compete in that competition. So Sachin, let's start there. Can you tell us a bit about how you came across that competition? And tell us about the why as to why you engaged in that
00:03:49 · Sachin, Sid Dissanayake
[00:03:49] S0: activity. It all started over in The Netherlands when me and Adam were on exchange. So we actually lived together. And as you can imagine, that household was very dysfunctional. And towards the end of our exchange, were setting our goals for the next year. And I take this very seriously. I try and challenge myself with something new every year. And I was talking to Adam, I was like, Adam, what can I do? And he said to me, look, over the last two years, you've been relatively comfortable from his perspective. I didn't feel that way, but he thought I'd been relatively comfortable in all the things I've attempted or tried to do. And he said, why don't get really far out of the comfort zone, out of your comfort zone and do the thing that scares you most? And he knew that that I was doing a bodybuilding comp. And the reason why is that a bodybuilding comp is something that literally takes everything out of you for like every moment of the day, right? When you're combining the dieting with the training, every moment of the day, probably towards the last month, you just feel insanely hungry, like there's no getting away from it. There's nothing you can do without feeling insanely hungry. Even when you go to bed, you can barely sleep because of the hunger pains. And so, he knew that this was going to challenge me immensely. And being the friend he is or what I don't know [00:05:05] S1: what to
00:05:05 · Sid Dissanayake, Sachin
[00:05:05] S1: what to [00:05:05] S0: swear on here, but he made me do it anyway. So that all started in The Netherlands and it involved a period of obviously bulking up for a little bit. I'd been gyming for about three, four years since high school. And I always like arrogantly joke to my friends like, I should do a competition, but completely joking. And then so, yeah, so I actually then committed to that and begun that process. So again, involved that bulking up and then I actually got a coach for when I shredded down. And in that last period of, let's say, let's call it twelve, thirteen weeks before I did this show when I was shredding down, I was also interning at Deloitte and doing uni full time. And that took everything out of me. So I think I was four days a week working and then obviously the full time uni. And in the later stages of a comp, you're basically, you're doing cardio every day. So you're on the treadmill for an hour every day. And then you're also training every day. So that's two hours in the gym, plus you have to cook all your own food. Every little kind of calorie you eat is weighed out. So your whole day, you're revolving around your food and your brain just gets so foggy because it's hard to concentrate. And as I mentioned in Driven Young podcast, in the last few weeks, I was getting black spots in my vision. I was probably sleeping an hour or two a night because my hunger pains were that bad. And your body just goes into full flight or flight, like you feel really anxious all the time. And yeah, man, that like, it was a tough experience.
00:06:37 · Sid Dissanayake
[00:06:37] S1: Yeah, man. I mean, just listening to some of the, I mean, it's pain and suffering at the end of the day, like what you enjoyed. I mean, for you, I mean, from my understanding, there wasn't necessarily like a burning desire, like a childhood desire to be a bodybuilder or whatever the case. It was you had a different purpose and a different why. So, those same lines, you know, when you're training twice a day, doing an insane cut, waking up early, balancing your work commitments, do you think, in your own experience, was it important for you to have a really strong why to fall back on when you're down and out, you're in the trenches and you're on your last legs essentially?