The Pathways & Padlocks Conversation
00:48:26 · Sid Dissanayake
[00:48:26] S1: Yeah, I think that's really valuable, particularly for university students who you can get so caught up, as you mentioned in this idea of constantly growing and developing and you know, you need to spend 100% of your time on your on yourself and developing yourself. But I think developing tools like self awareness, as you've done through meditation is is really important as well. Another sort of topic I wanted to touch on, and I suppose, like a philosophy or tenet which you live by, was that idea of the data points and the fact that the more data points you have, the better prediction you can make. And I think, particularly for young people who might be in the later years of high school or early years of university, it's about collecting information, collecting those data points as you put it in your analogy. So what exactly does that analogy mean? And how can students out there, whether they be university or high school, how can they leverage that idea?
00:49:26 · Sachin
[00:49:26] S0: Yeah. So this isn't that similar thematic to what we were talking about before, about having as many experiences as possible and following your curiosity, right? And I don't want to get too econometric right here, but if you're a business student, one of the first things you learn is that to have better predictions, you need more data points, right? And I think that's an idea that can make intuitive sense to most people. And for me, that analogy was one, a way of kind of getting my message across to the more quanti people that may not, you know, understand how I was saying it before. But it's true. Like, as I said before, all those coffees, all those kind of internships, all that research on the internet, that all gives you a more firmer idea of where you want to go. And sometimes it may not feel like that. Sometimes the more information you get, the more confused you can get, right? Which is I think something we need to acknowledge. But I think generally, as you kind of talk to more people, you have a more clear understanding of where you want to go towards and what kind of an ideal career or an ideal whatever looks like for you. So it's a simple idea. And the way it's actually come into my life recently is through the podcast where we've been talking to a lot of venture capitalists. And through that, I've really decided that's a place I want go in the future. Me and Adam have this ambition of starting a social impact VC in the next five to ten years. So that's something we're kind of working towards now. And that's an insight or career insight that's come from all these data points of talking to these people and hearing about their experiences.
00:51:02 · Sid Dissanayake, Sachin
[00:51:02] S1: So, I mean, those that don't know, like who aren't business savvy or tech savvy, what is a VC? Can you explain that for people who don't know? [00:51:10] S0: Yeah, so a VC is short for venture capitalist. And what a venture capital firm does is it invests in early stage companies at different times in their journey and gives them funding to scale up their growth. So if you think about the biggest businesses of our time, your Airbnb's, your Facebook's, your Ubers, they were all funded by VCs, right? And VCs have actually had a pretty profound impact on their trajectory of growth, right? So I'm really interested in that space in using capital to facilitate new social innovations, because I just think that'd be the coolest job. And that's an insight that's only come to me in the last few months.
00:51:48 · Sid Dissanayake
[00:51:48] S1: Yeah, and I think that point you made earlier about the spectrum the spectrum of businesses that students have about on one hand, solely private companies, and then on the other hand, your charitable organizations, the archetypal charities. I think understanding that spectrum is an important point you raised. And again, it's grounded in a sense of realism and sharing information, which is something that has come across a lot in our conversation so far. Sachin, we're pretty much nearing the end of our time together. Honestly, that flew by, I'm not gonna lie. I keep grunting at the wash down there. So I just wanted to end on quite a general open ended question. I came across a podcast episode, I must have referred to your podcast like 10,000,000,000 times by now. If you haven't checked it out, I'll leave it in the description, that jazz. Super interesting, interesting podcasts. I'm not gonna lie. So on one of those podcast episodes, you talked about two things which set people up for success, which you learn through your own experiences. So firstly, you talked about number one, finding what you're generally curious about, and number two, having a growth mindset. So I suppose in closing, was there any final piece of advice that you'd give to a student out there, whether they be in high school or university, you know, who might not have, you know, confidence in a vision or a particular purpose or their why as some people put it. What advice would you give to that person to gain a bit more clarity and to, I suppose, ease their reservations or concerns that they may have?
00:53:37 · Sachin
[00:53:37] S0: Yeah, cool. So the first thing I'd say to that is it's okay to not have that vision or why or whatever. I know there's all this societal pressure to always have everything figured out. And I think that throughout this conversation we've spoken, most people don't. So don't worry too much if you don't have it yet. But the way I'd approach going about to finding it is, first of all, follow your curiosities, right? If there's something that you're always driven towards, whether it's something you're always reading about, whether it's something that you come across on YouTube or the internet or whatever, follow those curiosities, right? See where they lead you. See if this is a space you can see yourself in. And I think the second thing that I haven't mentioned yet is reflection. I think reflection is so important and your podcast is a testament to this, but sit down with yourself and think about who you are as a person, think about what you value, thinking about what kind of legacy you want to leave your life with. That's an awesome way to find out what you actually care about. And so for me, did this in the first year and I sat down and I thought about my death a lot, which is counterintuitive and something a lot of the Stoics used to do back in ancient Greece. But I thought about my death and I thought about my funeral in particular. And I thought about what I wanted to leave my brother, my best friends and my parents with at my funeral. And from that, when you write that down, what you want them to say about you, you get a big sense of your values and what you want them to be, right? And the other point of reflection on death sorry, the other point of reflection that I would kind of say has been useful to me is think about what the ideal life you want to live is. Does your perfect day look like, right? I'll give you an example. For me, my perfect day revolves around waking up, going for a morning surf, meditating on the beach, having a job or like I had this vision in my head of being a team, whether that's a VC or whether that's something else towards social impact, like a goal towards that. And then in the afternoon, it was about a workout and spending time with my friends and family. I think that that's really achievable in my life. That's kind of what I'm working towards now. Think that both mine and your podcasts are very future based.
00:55:48 · Sachin, Sid Dissanayake
They're always about what are we gonna do in the future or whatever. 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, really just enjoy it. [00:56:23] S1: I think yeah, that's a profound message to leave our viewers with. I think, I mean, based on our conversation so far, like, I appreciate your honesty and vulnerability in sharing your experiences. And I think that's something that's a central theme that's run throughout this conversation is being honest and vulnerable with yourself to figure out, you know, what makes you tick? You know, what are the things you like to do? You know, where do you see yourself in five, ten years or whatever the case may be? So I just want to firstly thank you for being transparent and open Sachin. And thank you, secondly, for your time this morning, 09:00 on a Thursday morning. I appreciate your time greatly. I'm fully aware that people who I have these conversations with, I have no obligation or no commitment to me to share their time and experiences. So I just want to say I'm super grateful for that. [00:57:19] S0: Thanks, Sid. And I really enjoyed it.