Finding Your IKIGAI Connecting The Dots

[Applause]

one

fine january morning what happened

is something special and magical which i

would like to share with you

i at 4 30 a.m aprox i got up

and i my eyes were closed i was in a

alpha state or it was

as we say it in the indian tradition

that’s when your mind is at the sharpest

and your thoughts are at the purest form

so suddenly this model came together in

my head it was almost like an algorithm

which came together in my mind

and i

was forced to get up i had to get up and

actually pin it down before it

evaporated in my head so what i am going

to share with you for the first time i

am you know revealing this to anyone

who am i

why do i think the way i do

why do i act the way i do what is the

legacy i want to leave

what is the roadmap

to defining my guy friends these are the

very important questions we need to

answer for ourselves so what i want all

of us to do and this is what i did for

myself

in a mind mapping format mind mapping

means that whatever comes to your mind

just keeps jotting it down on a piece of

paper

so

what are the things you love

and what are the skills you have

and also write down what are your

thoughts and beliefs

what are your what is your belief system

around the world around the society

around business industry or life your

family whatever comes to your mind just

keeps crippling it down

so that is what we call the outer circle

the middle circle

of this uh of this worksheet which i’ll

just show you is what the world needs

what according to you in in a very

personal sense to you what does the

world need

and what are the actions you would like

to take or you are already taking in

that direction

third friends the innermost circle is

what is

and very importantly what is the value

to the society

you would want to leave

you would want to carve for yourselves

because as a scripture say it is 70 your

actions your karma and 30

predestined so what is the destiny you

would want to

create for yourself what is the legacy

you want to eat

so i started writing down

uh in the outer circle

uh i i love exploration and travel i

just simply love to travel

and there is a difference in the travel

i do i don’t like to visit places i like

to visit people i like to go and see how

people live what is their life

and then what is what action it

translates to it leads to discovery of

new ideas and concepts

and whenever i come back and i on a

similar mission

i went to two of the blue zones in the

world the longevity centers okinawa in

japan and loma linda in california and i

learned how people live long and healthy

lives

i also like to

how how to uh put this how do i want

this to be

uh my destiny

is so hence there was always this little

connection

geography history culture legacy these

always have been subjects of study for

me so they have been my

uh something i uh in my subconscious i

always wanted to do something about it

but i could initially not relate it in

this mind map format but when i started

writing down it came to me

as a as a student i must confess i was

only an above average student

but in these subjects i used to be a

topper

geography history

and now i realized why i was so

i love perfection in any form i love

perfection of relationships you know

having solved relationships not having

complicated relationships i love

perfection of cervix i love perfection

of

products i buy

hence

there is a very direct correlation that

i love

people leading quality life and i myself

want to lead a quality life

so what action it

leads to

is that i it made me realize that i want

my life to be life cannot be perfect but

i want to strive to improve every day so

how do i

uh

realize my life potential also comes

from this

thought process and belief system i have

so this is the action that i want to

realize my life potential and i started

taking actions towards this like taking

care of my own health or doing things

which i love in my work which i’ll just

share with you

and this led me to a thought process

that i want

my destiny and my legacy to be it that i

need to be somewhere in healthcare

business

and healthcare not not purely making

medicines but something helping people

improve their lives so what you could

call a healthcare lifestyle business

this is all a mind map a thought pattern

which happened in me friends i have

always been a very responsible and

obedient son and i can say that

i value my mother and my father the most

in this world

and and hence i’ve always seen myself as

a custodian in putting this into thought

into action

i’ve always seen myself as a custodian

of my father’s dreams so bajaj capital

is a company he founded mr k.k bajaj in

1965

and i walked into his company and asked

for a job and hence i see it as a

responsibility on myself that his legacy

should grow

10x 100 x 1000 x multiple times some

other thoughts and a very unique one

that connecting with people is something

i love when i go to a party i do not

talk to 100 people i just speak to two

or three people and have deep

conversations with them so when i did my

own kind of a lifeline right from my

childhood growing up

i used to at the age of eight

you know asked the driver to take me to

paharganj and place in old delhi and

meet my great grandmother my my father’s

nani ji so pabo as we used to call her i

used to visit her and i and since

beginning i had a bond with these elders

and i used to learn take life lessons

from them so somewhere the action there

was that this my thought and belief led

me to an action that i wanted to grasp

their wisdom

so wisdom passed through generations is

something which became an action for me

and uh i i wanted to do something about

capturing ancient wisdom

and friends another one i love

positivity in any form i i

just

any uh

environment where there is negativity

negative people i i simply walk away i

love good attitude service

and would like to deliver the best

service for our own company so that’s

the action i take so what i do is in an

airline in a restaurant in a cafe

whenever somebody serves me well rather

than thinking of tipping them 20 50

rupees what i would do is i will ask for

a recommendation card

and write a recommendation because my

recommendation may help them get a

promotion so you know these are some of

the things so this my thought process

leads to this action

and hence

you know i kept

thinking that about our business and

kept discussing with my colleagues and

other wise people that what is the

purest form of financial planning we are

in the business of wealth advisory

financial planning so what is the purest

form of financial planning and we

realized that helping retired people

take care of their money who are not in

their position to earn again in life and

in fact this is a quote from my father

kk bajaj

that help those people who are going to

live 200 and they are right now 60 years

of age to help them to create a

retirement plan which will they will not

be able to earn this money again and

hence we have to do their planning most

responsibly so while planning has to be

done most responsibly for everybody at

all ages but at that stage and stage it

is most important so this become a

thought sequence i i realized that i

want this to be our legacy as a company

friends i love big thinking i love

visioning scaling global impact so any

business i want to do i wanted to have a

global impact and that’s what led to

omni life 100 year

planning is something i became

passionate about i started seeing a

connection between

not uh my original business was wealth

but i started seeing a connection

between health wealth and longevity and

and started working towards it how to

help people live 200 and how to have

their money outlast them which is the

core principle of wealth management so

this all came out of my mind mapping

process friends i love in

professionalism

i love this good governance standards

and and i work with a very powerful

board in our company

setting very high standards institution

building because again the thought

process is

if if if a bus hits me tomorrow the

company should continue the company

should continue to grow and there should

be people very wise people

guiding us and and working

working towards taking the company

forward

independence is very important to me and

independence i divide it into three

parts mental independence

so i tap into i do not want to be tied

to while i’m a born hindu but i do not

be tired to want to be tied to one

religious thought process for me

i study all religions whether it is

hinduism islam christianity judaism and

learn from all different belief systems

and all all different spiritual schools

and that is what has guided my action

coming out of my thinking of mental

independence and doing research for omni

life is something which helps us create

our future path

mental independence followed by physical

independence so this thought process is

very important to me that one should be

and this is something i’ve heard from my

you know elders

that they say we don’t care about how

long we live but we want to be on our

own two feet till we die so in fact this

went on to become

the

foundation of our health and wellness

platform omni life

and

that people want to live healthy each

day of their life till they live and

they want to be on their own two feet

independent till they die and that is

how i would want to be now financial

independence we are in the business of

helping people uh become empowered so

you know reduce the disparity between

rich and the very rich and and help the

poor come out of that trap

and friends i also believe that uh

my financial independence also makes me

think that besides bajaj capital i

should have other sources of income of

my own and hence that was another reason

we wanted to have omni life platform

which we created

so all this then came together in this

mind map all my thoughts and beliefs

in the outer circle which i just shared

with you and in the

uh the white circle in the red circle uh

you you see

all my

how i’m putting them into action

and then in the middle is what i would

want my destiny to be for my legacy to

be

so friends this is uh something

which

has led me to define my life purpose

statement which has come out of this

mind mapping process and all of you can

attempt to do this in 50 words

first do this mind mapping on a piece of

plain piece of paper

and then define

your write down your life purpose

statement and underline the important

things which are important to you which

are coming again and again as a pattern

so just underline keep underlining those

so i’ll read out my life purpose

statement to you to transform bajaj

capital into a professional

institutional company which serves as a

legacy for generations to come so you’ve

been hearing this in the previous slides

for me i’m just now putting it into 50

words

from a financial well being changing our

mission from a financial well-being to a

total well-being company friends i have

to admit to you

that

till five years ago

a mission statement like most corporate

ceos it was just a nice words written by

an advertising executive on a website it

did not mean anything to me now my

mission statement is the purpose of my

life and hence it gives me goosebumps

whenever i read it it gives me

goosebumps and it is a reminder to me on

the path and the journey i am

so to help people live healthy 200 and

ensure their money outlast them to help

people at crucial stages of their life

particularly retirement which i shared

with you to build nurture and deepen

heart to heart relationships i believe

in very few relationships but very deep

relationships and i want to continue to

nurture them so hence if a friend is

upset with me i will not put ego in the

middle i will reach out to the friend

ask the person what is bothering you why

why haven’t you called me in a week and

i would meet that person for a coffee

and try and resolve these differences

to truly add value to the life of my

loved ones is a quest for me and finally

to build a business drawing upon ancient

wisdom

to help people restore to a natural way

of living birth our family life

and a health care lifestyle business

drawing upon ancient wisdom for total

wealthy so this is what friends the all

the key words of my life

perfection

realizing life potential legacy

positivity good attitude big thinking

independence

they all came together to create my life

purpose statement ikigai is about

something you feel deeply about it is

like nirja you know who feels deeply

about dancing

it is about baba ramdev who has made his

passion his mission into his business

and he’s taken it to the world as

patanjali

so it has taken me years and years to

get here friends it’s a lifelong pursuit

it’s not an easy journey

but

it is i must tell you you may ask

yourself this question or ask me this

question that why is it i mean why is it

even important it is important if you

want to have a purposeful life

if you want to feel that inner

wholesomeness

inner satisfaction clarity of thought

these are all the things i have

experienced

really sad you know when you all of us

go through ups and downs in life so this

helps you come out of down moments much

faster so i want to tell you finally one

thing

which is that each one of us has a

unique gift

and which only we possess amongst seven

billion people on this planet

and i would like to share

that i have realized that my unique gift

is to is connecting the dots

my closest of friends and mentors have

told me that rajiv there is something

about you that you are sitting in a

meeting in office and one hour of you

know roundabout discussion is going on

and 100 things are written on the

whiteboard

and suddenly you are able to see

patterns in them

so

what i realized and more than first i

didn’t take it seriously i thought they

are complimenting me but when two or

three or four people said the same thing

i started taking it seriously and i

started researching it analyzing it so

this is what you should also do what are

the compliments you get think about them

seriously it will help you discover your

unique gift

now what i did

i

put that to work

and how i took it forward is that as an

action

this is a skill i have as an action i

want to help people

join the dots of their life

and hence

so that i am able to put this unique

gift i have to work

hence it came out my

my guy statement which is my ikigai is

to help

everyone i meet

find their ikigai so friends i wish all

of you the students particularly

students you find your ikigai very early

in life and it took me half my life you

know 50 years of age to get there if you

can find it

you know when you are 18 20 25 just

imagine what a powerful life

you can lead it will give you it will

blossom you like a flower we are in

springtime so i can talk about flowers

it will blossom you into a full bloom

flower you will feel innate happiness in

the work you are doing

it will show in your eyes it will show

in the products and services you design

and also it may show in your bank

balance so with that thank you very much

and thanks for this opportunity namaste