It was 5 p.m., and Akanksha and Akash were done with their counselling session. Akanksha was in the fifth week of counselling and the effects were evident to her and, more importantly, to her family. Akash had accompanied her in many of the sessions and one of the breakthroughs they had achieved was a date night. ‘Commit yourselves to being with each other at least one night a week; no compromises. Go back to the old days and live the good times again,’ Akanksha’s counsellor told her. No matter how busy their schedules were, both Akash and Akanksha would take Wednesday nights off to go to Café Noorani in Tardeo, their favourite haunt when they were dating. The counsellor was still working on their myriad issues, but date night was a personal win for Akash and Akanksha.
Akanksha’s day had changed radically after the counselling sessions. After getting out of bed, her first activity now wasn’t an hour on the laptop but an hour spread across the gym and the swimming pool. Their home in the luxury tower had superb sports facilities which came at a hefty cost and were typically left unused by the power couple. Akanksha now ensured that she hit the gym and the pool at least six days a week, including one fun workout on Sunday in the pool with the family. She hired trainers for both the routines—for functional training at the gym and for learning to swim at the pool. Some things never changed, of course; Akanksha was still an early riser, but now she used the time to literally open the gym at 6 a.m.
The results began showing on Akanksha in the first few weeks. She didn’t feel tired, the dark circles under her eyes were gone and—thanks to deliberate practice—she was getting better at both the gym and the swimming pool. She enjoyed both routines, especially swimming because it gave her a stretch of solitude; she could carry her phone on the treadmill but not in the pool. Even on the treadmill, Akanksha listened to music on her iPhone and stopped watching financial news channels. She began meditating at home, using a popular app on her phone. She started with the beginner packs and was soon on guided meditations. Before long, meditation became a routine for her, like gymming and swimming.
And then there was CerysIn. ‘Ajay, here is my mobile phone; keep it with you for the next two hours and let me know only in case of urgent calls. Route everything else via Ria,’ Akansha told Ajay Mittal, her executive assistant who handled all incoming calls and emails. Ria Malhotra, who reported directly to Akanksha, was young, ambitious, and just five years into CerysIn. Ria reminded Akanksha of herself—she had a large capacity to take on work and find her way around challenges without asking for too much help; and she loved to travel and learn the tricks of the trade on the ground instead of sitting in an air-conditioned office. ‘Ria, you are taking over strategy for dealers and distributors. Divide your work in your team and give me all the numbers on Deknext. I want to know where they are hurting us and how. I also need you to prepare a travel schedule for the next quarter,’ Akanksha told Ria. One of the reasons Akanksha had more time for her personal life was because Ria’s travel schedule had freed up Akanksha’s time.
Inside her cabin, Akanksha did twenty-five-minute spurts of focused work without any interruptions for emails or phone calls. She took five-minute breaks only to get up and walk around her cabin, so as not to stay seated for too long. No calls, no emails. And she was surprised at how much she could focus on work without these interruptions. Her first phone call was to her batchmate and good friend Amrita, who was also the senior vice president at FDGH Bank. ‘Amrita, I need a channel financing arrangement with you. Let us figure out a way wherein FDGH will provide lines of credit to CerysIn dealers at zero cost,’ Akanksha told Amrita. ‘Sure, buddy, this can be done. It shouldn’t cost much since CerysIn are old customers for us and your balance sheet is rock solid. I can push this internally. Let me get back to you by end of day,’ Amrita replied.
When Akanksha opened Ria’s analysis on Deknext, she realized that it was more than six months since she had spoken personally to CerysIn dealers and distributors. Over the next few days, Akanksha worked the phones and called the large dealers and distributors, reminding them of their long-term relations with CerysIn. ‘Kalpenbhai, I remember your daughter’s tenth birthday, how you were struggling to find the exact doll your daughter wanted and we flew it in from one of our branches,’ she told Kalpen Shah, a dealer for CerysIn products in the suburb of Borivali. As she spoke to the dealers, she reminded them of how CerysIn had been with them during their ups and downs and how, as CerysIn grew, the dealers grew as well. As she put the emotional connect in place, she knew it was time to use some money to give the last push.
‘Mukul, I need an increase in the commission for the dealers and distributors. They are with us but they also need a reason to push back Deknext. This increase will narrow the gap,’ Akanksha told Mukul. ‘But Akanksha, we don’t have the budget and you know times are tough. It’ll be tough for me to get this approved,’ Mukul replied. ‘We’re losing market share to Deknext and we need to fight back. Get this done for me and I know I can regain lost share,’ Akanksha told Mukul. Eventually, Mukul came through and got the increase in commission. After the raise, while CerysIn commissions were still lower than Deknext, Akanksha’s conversations and meetings with the dealers and distributors served as a major morale booster. Akanksha used an aggressive advertising campaign, supported by Ria’s suggestion of including digital channels as well. The following week Amrita called Akanksha to inform her that FDGH would enhance the credit lines available to CerysIn dealers. Slowly and surely CerysIn recovered the market share that it had lost to Deknext.
‘Well done Akanksha, this was one of the toughest battles we have fought and I’m glad you won!’ Mukul congratulated her. But the best was yet to come. ‘You have really proved yourself here, Akanksha, and the time has come. I’m recommending you as my successor to the board,’ Mukul told her.
Not too far away from Akanksha’s office, as the sun was setting in Bandra, Suraj Trivedi was finishing his five-kilometre jog on Carter Road. ‘Hey Suraj, the usual? SlimJhim?’ Rohit, the juice truck guy, asked Suraj. ‘Yes, Rohit, the same,’ Suraj replied. Rohit quickly crushed together a concoction of apples, spinach, bitter gourd, lemon, and much more to make a SlimJhim. It was Suraj’s favourite drink after his run. Flushed with the drink, he walked to his new home, which was less than 500 metres from Carter Road. It was still a long walk, and Suraj used to smoked on long walks but not any more. Suraj had quit smoking as part of the overhaul of his health. Bandra was expensive and the extra rent ate into Suraj’s salary, but that sea-facing view was to die for. And Suraj’s commute from office to home was now down to just half an hour. Tired of the long commutes, Suraj had bit the bullet and shifted out of Kandivali. It took him a while to accept the higher rent, but the extra time he got for himself made him feel much better.
‘Kya baat hai, boss, you’ve lost a lot of weight!’ Gaurav told Suraj. A strict diet and workout routine had helped Suraj shed ten kilograms in the past eight weeks. The evening run alternated with a morning gym routine. It helped that the gym was in the same building as Suraj’s office and he had got a good deal thanks to a promotional scheme. Suraj would leave his Bandra home at 7.30 a.m. and hit the gym at 8.15 a.m. Forty-five minutes of varied workout routines followed by ten minutes of meditation had done wonders to his body. More importantly, he felt refreshed when he began work every day. He had deleted all his social media apps on his smartphone and mandated that his friends would have to call him and talk to him. ‘I’ve had enough of the constant pings on WhatsApp and notifications of new photos on Facebook and Instagram. If you want to talk, call me from now on,’ Suraj had told his friends. It took time but his friends did go old-school.
Free from the clutter of social media and with more time on his hands, Suraj went after his favourite activity at IIT—coding and programming. He had decided to keep his start-up plans on hold. Instead, he focused on developing ways to streamline the preparation of a pitch deck. This became his pet project on which he would spend focused time every day. Suraj even worked through many weekends and holidays to develop this idea. First, he automated the procedure of downloading and analysing a firm’s financials into a specially designed spreadsheet template. Next, he ran algorithms that simulated the firm’s financial performance under various market scenarios, such as a change in regulation, the entry of a new competitor, price wars, etc. And finally, he integrated all of his programming within his spreadsheets, documents and presentations. As a result, all he had to do was put the name of a company and his programme would pull data across multiple sources and throw up a simple five-slide presentation deck. He refined his programme even further, making a mobile app with real-time live updates for breaking news related to the company or the sector.
‘This is fantastic, Suraj; super-useful stuff. Heck, this is way cheaper than the imported financial data terminals that we buy! And it looks like you are adding more and more features to this. I think it is time for you to move on to pitching for deals on your own to smaller clients. No need for us to hand-hold you any more. Time to make you a senior associate!’ Gaurav told him a few weeks after everyone at Vedanga Capital had used his algorithm and programme. ‘Mom, you won’t believe it; I’ve got a promotion!’ Suraj told his mother when he reached home that night after his jog. ‘That is great to know, beta; I hope you are doing yoga like I told you?’ his Mom replied. ‘Yes, yes, Ma, don’t worry. Yoga and meditation—I’m doing all of that every day. Now stop worrying about me,’ Suraj calmed his mother.
Suraj began his yoga sessions on Saturday evenings after discovering a yoga class near his house. This wasn’t heavy-duty stuff but basic yoga, which aimed at getting his breathing and blood circulation in order. He hadn’t taken pranayama seriously until he was trained at the yoga class. A few sessions in and he could feel the difference. He could handle his anxiety much better now by centring all his attention on his breathing. ‘Suraj, I have no idea how you handle those pitches, but I wish I was as calm as you,’ Anil Dua, the new recruit and Suraj’s junior, told him. Mentally, Suraj felt a lot tougher than before. It helped that he was finally rid of all the envy and anxiety regarding his friends doing much better than him. ‘I’ve come to terms with my choice, yaar, and I’ve made peace with myself. I chose this job because I wanted to be close to my mother, and because I want to be a big fish in a small pond. It is all coming together now,’ Suraj told Karan. ‘Yeah, dude, whatever rocks your boat. I just heard about that new kick-ass algo you developed at Vedanga. They’ve recognized and rewarded your efforts, so hey, it is all good,’ Karan told him.
Suraj began travelling around the country, making deal pitches to Vedanga’s smaller clients. With his new programme, he was able to create pitch decks much quicker than before. Wherever there were gaps to be filled in and client queries to be handled, Suraj would give that work to Anil, who would resolve them at the office. ‘Anil, you need to develop a way to tackle queries quickly. I need you to start accompanying me on deal pitches so that you learn this much faster than I did,’ Suraj told Anil. Suraj knew the drudgery of being chained to the desk doing mind-numbingly dull tasks only too well. But he had learnt to focus on work and find ways to upgrade his skills. Decluttering and detaching from distractions had only helped his mind to focus better. And finally, exercising and meditating had helped strengthen his mind even more. He could feel that this was the beginning of a new chapter in his career.
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We hope that the end of this book becomes a starting point for you, the reader. Writing this book has been a labour of love for us. Cynics will say that it is easy to write books with high-flown ideas and ideals but it is harder to implement the same in our daily lives. We disagree. We firmly believe that, despite all the doom and gloom that social media injects into our lives, there is a good life waiting for us. From simple goals (such as losing weight and becoming fitter) to fulfilling our professional ambitions (such as launching a start-up or becoming the CEO), our lives are filled with challenges. These challenges can be surmounted successfully before they become a source of heartburn and frustration. As evidenced by our personal experiences recounted in this book, as well as by the wise words from the masters quoted here, we believe that a simple life with minimal distractions and deep focus is one way of achieving these goals.