Find your purpose and thus your career

Bhavin Turakhia, co-founder of Media.net and one of the most popular serial entrepreneurs of our time once said in his talks that "your work should be about something that you should be willing to do it for free as well".

What it means is that the career we choose should be so aligned with our strengths and passion that we just do it for the passion and satisfaction and the money will follow.

This of course is probably the simplest thing said and hardest thing to achieve. I have seen people in their 40's, 50's and even 60's trying to identify what their passion is and where they are good at.

Nothing wrong in that. Life as it passes doesn’t stop until your figure things out. Your parents cannot wait till you get married and "settle" in life. Your spouse cannot wait to start a family once married. Things must move on.

And to catch up with this series, people park their dreams, go quits on their passions and get into the next "Life set" train. However, this "Life Set" mode starts to get bored soon in few years if you have ended up in a job that you never dreamt of.

Mondays start to become the most dreadful days of your week and you will look forward for next Friday every day. Work will become the last motivating factor to get you out of the bed.

This is not an ideal state to be for anyone and it can be avoided with careful planning and conscious maneuvering of your education and professional career. Let's see how we can do that.

You should start by identifying what is that one thing that interests them the most. That one thing for which you do not mind to staying up till 2AM to continue working on. That one thing that keeps triggering your day dreamer mode.

This could be as simple as you being able to make the best tea around or as complex as digging unsolved mathematical problems and trying to solve them. Either of them, if nurtured and pursued can lead to wonderful success stories.

For people who have never pursued anything in their life, this is hard to identify. It may appear as if you are not good at even one single thing. Don’t be disheartened. You are not alone and you are not in minority. It happens to many of us.

And it happens because you may have never participated in an activity outside of academics where you learnt the basics and tried a mini project of your own. It's never too late.

You can get started by reading. Read anything and everything that appears interesting. You will be amazed what windows and doors of imagination books can open for you and eventually help you find your passion.

Step two is to find a backup option or plan B. Remember, only eleven players are needed for the Indian Cricket team. Many that are equally passionate and talented do not make the cut. Competitiveness, timing and several other factors play a role.

Many wannabe players end up as coaches, commentators or run cricket associations and be very satisfied with their career as they are doing something related, something where their heart lies.

And where this is not possible, people choose to pursue their passions in their own time after a full-time job. This is fine too. But being conscious about what your passion is and being associated with it, either in a full-time mode or at least on a part time mode is how you can avoid the dreadful Mondays in your life.

End goal is to end up doing something that you have chosen to do and not one that someone has asked you to.

Sharat Konatham
(The writer is an entrepreneur and ISB alumni who runs Thoughtwise, a career counselling service. He can be reached at sk@thoughtwise.in)