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