Intro// Spark Plug You meet people in your life for a reason. At times, you randomly meet people and they become a part of your life. • What if you come across someone who genuinely cares about you and knows your super powers? • What if you have someone in your life who can remember things which are important to you? • What if you come across someone who gets joy seeing you smiling, or seeing who gets joy seeing you do that magic… Welcome ladies and gentleman, welcome to the podcast The xMonks Drive. I am your host Gaurav Arora and my today’s guest is Rajesh Setty popularly known as the Silicon Valley Spark plug Rajesh is definitely one of the finest human beings I know of…someone I have learnt a lot from. I take pride in calling him a friend, mentor and family. He is a serial entrepreneur, a mentor, an author and above all a kind hearted Individual who knows how to laugh at himself and travel light. In this candid conversation, we explored why it’s important to look at possibilities in situations and people you meet in your life…Without wasting any moment, Let’s take a dive…. Outro// Wow! For me it was a sheer blessing engaging Rajesh in this beautiful and profound conversation. As it’s said, “It's easy to get bored. But it's easy to get super fascinated.” I feel so humbled and blessed to have this opportunity to speak with someone like Rajesh. If you were to reach out to that one person in your life who has touched your soul and helped you become a better human being, who would that be…and even if you don’t have one…. For whom could YOU Be that person. I would love to know about her/him. Please do share with me…. And I look forward to meeting you again next week with yet another interesting conversation. Till then stay tuned…  00:04 Gaurav Thank you so much, Rajesh sir. How you doing today? 00:07 Rajesh I'm doing very good. I'm super excited about this. 00:10 Gaurav Such a pleasure having you here. 00:12 Rajesh Happy New Year to you too. 00:14 Rajesh Happy New Year. Rajesh sir. I'm super excited to interview you. Because very rare, you get an opportunity to dig deeper in the mind of a person that you've always respected. But if I may request if you can just introduce yourself. So as a five-year-old Rajesh. 00:39 Rajesh Say when I was five years old, I don't remember everything. But my mom tells me that she had no problem taking care of me because all she would do is, she'd give a cup and a ball. And then for hours together, I'll put the cup in the ball in the cup and put it down and then put it back again, endlessly fascinated by what happens when I think maybe I don't know what I was doing. But for hours together so you can keep me occupied. Because I would never get bored. That's all I know. 01:17 Gaurav And what do you think? What is it about that child's brain that did not allow Rajesh to get bored? 01:27 Rajesh I can only make a guess now, Gaurav. Because I never get bored. I'm not bored alone. I'm not bored together. I'm not bored at all. Because I system fascinated with everything in this planet and everywhere. 01:46 Gaurav So, would it be a fair assumption to make that mindset of being fascinated every moment? Rajesh Correct. Gaurav And, you know, metaphorically, Rajesh Ji, travelling in a time machine where we are. What is that ball? And what is that cup for you today? 02:05 Rajesh For me, it's like possibilities. What all I can do with a cup and a ball, I can throw it to the wall, I can throw it on the ground, I can just leave it slowly. I can do it fast, endless combinations. But if I just look at it's a cup and a ball, I'll get bored and I will get bored. But if I say what all I can do is it's until the cows come home we can keep doing it. I can do it outside, I can do it inside 02:40 I can drop it from far, higher place, lower place unbelievable. Anything you take, Gaurav, is like this, a pen and paper 02:58 two simple things. It's easy to get bored. But it's easy to get super fascinated by it because the same pen and paper somebody wrote the Constitution, same pen and paper somebody wrote how to make a bomb. This pen and paper are the same but the possibilities are endless. Gaurav And what do you think 03:19 What is the difference that makes all the difference? You said somebody can write a constitution, somebody can write how to make up bomb as well. So, what do you think? What is the difference that makes all the difference? 03:32 Rajesh How they look at life is the same like the glass is half full, half empty. It's the same glass. Somebody says it's half full, somebody says half empty. Or sometimes people it's there are so many things in life where given the means the ends are left to people's imagination. They cannot say the means are not enough. Well, somebody else just like pen and paper, somebody could write the constitution nothing more was required, isn't it? 04:13 Gaurav And considering what's happening today, what could be a way of looking at the world? 04:20 Rajesh See, many times... The world is very big place or most of the time if we look at what can I make a change in this whole world? It can get daunting. But if so what can I change in my world? The world of people that I can touch, (n) number of possibilities. So, as you know I don't read news, I don't watch TV. video input from which is not created. So, that you know, enough possibilities from whatever I get. And there's people say her work all caught up with the news, or the good news and what do what? Nothing to do. But if I catch up with people or in my world, I will be able to do something. 05:15 Gaurav And what I know about you is all the people that I've spoken to who happen to know you, you are close to most of them, people have got high respect for you. What are my assumption is that you have pretty large, big world, how do you manage that world? Because you know, as you said that you cannot take care of the world, which could be really down daunting. In your own world itself, how to take care of them? 05:38 Rajesh Because I only remember the things that they think are important. For example, I don't remember anybody's birthday, anybody's wedding anniversary, nothing. Because I really don't care. Not because I don't know them. Because their system event MBR thing that happens every year. I don't know. If LinkedIn, Facebook pops up, I'll just send them a birthday note. Otherwise, they're not expecting anything from me. Because I'm very disorganized. But I remember only two things. What do they care about? And what are their superpowers? 06:21 Gaurav What do they care about? And what are their superpowers? 06:24 Rajesh That's all I remember. And then I always think, how can I show to this person, I care about what they care about? And how can I bring something where they can use their superpowers to make some magic happen? Gaurav In their life? Rajesh Yeah. 06:40 Gaurav What do you get in return? 06:42 Rajesh It's just looking at the possibilities, the joy of something being done, the joy of seeing a smile in somebody's face, the joy of seeing them do magic, and just being more aware of their, that they can do magic is priceless. 07:02 Gaurav And what does that bring to you? You know, I'm a firm believer that anything that we do, we have a selfish interest in that. And I'm no way saying that being selfish is wrong. You know, when you are saying to see somebody happy, it gives you genuine joy. And my interaction with you has definitely validated and re-validated that you see happiness in people's happiness. What's your selfish interest? 07:28 Rajesh My selfish interest is my own superpower, God has given is I can see more potential in the people I meet and then they can see themselves. So, I have to bring it out. Because think about it, while I said we can't make a change in the world. If everybody I touch they discover more of themselves, what will happen? They are already good people. They will do even more good things. The world is a better place anyway. And for me, it's whenever I need there's even a small percentage of people that I helped, if I can tap into their brilliance, whatever projects I'm doing is a breeze. Anything, any little thing that I've achieved in my life, I've done it very effortlessly, Gaurav. Because if I have pushed better access to quality help from people that bring themselves to the party 100% amazing things will happen isn't it? So, look at it, my projects are being done in an effortless way. Day in and day out I see people smile, discover themselves more power than they have. It is a blessed life, isn't it? 09:16 Gaurav How did you pick up these philosophies of life? Where did you pick these philosophies from? 09:22 Rajesh I think it's a collection of conversations from amazingly smart people. I've had mentors throughout my life, more than one, all my life. So, I'm a big student. Every time like this conversation, I'm just looking at how beautifully you weaved those questions. Without blinking you took me to places that I would have never gone because somebody does not sit and start thinking five year old what I did and everything. I became a student while I was answering your question, I became a student, what a fascinating person Gaurav is. There's no time but he took me places in my mind in my own mind. So, again, so much of fascination 10:22 Gaurav Thank you, you've been extremely kind of like always. Rajesh Thank you. Gaurav Rajesh sir, I'm just wondering, let's say if you were to bring people from different dimensions of life could be dead or alive if you will to people from different disciplines who would you ask for? How many people would you call? Why would you call them for a project that you genuinely care for? 10:54 Rajesh There'll be endless number of people because people usually pick one person. 10:59 Gaurav I guess if you were to pick five people, who all would you pick? And what project would you begin to build on? And why would you pick those people? 11:12 Rajesh I would pick, for example, let me think, Buckminster Fuller will be one person, big thinker, innovator, I would love to talk to him because I'm sure he was a really fascinating person. Benjamin Franklin will be another one. Possibility merchants these are all potential possibilities. I would pick Subhash Chandra Bose; he had no fear. He will do whatever he wanted to get to wherever. What I like about him is nobody thought to go to other countries. And so, let's get some help. Everybody is local. You just became global. It's amazing. We need 2 more, who else will be there, I have to think carefully. I would say Chanakya would be another one. It can be historic. From history, right? 13:14 Gaurav No, it could be somebody who's alive somebody who's a friend of yours as well. 13:21 Rajesh I would want my mentor Desh. 13:28 Gaurav Okay, so Mr Fuller, Benjamin Franklin, Mr Bose, Subhash Chandra Boseji, Chanakya and Mr Deshpande 13:38 Rajesh What a combination? 13:43 Gaurav And what project? what cause would you stand for with them, when these people are with you? 13:51 Rajesh So, the reason I got Desh is that he always thinks about creating systems that are self-sustaining, and does not require more and more help. Thriving ecosystems. So, now, imagine with the help of all these people, Benjamin Franklin and Buckminster Fuller, they can build anything you can think of unbelievable vessels. And if you want to bend the rules, we have Subhash Chandra Bose. If there is somebody else playing politics, we have Chanakya. Yes. 14:38 Gaurav And what cause would you stand for? What would you start to work on? 14:42 Rajesh I would say, because of my fascination with education, how do you make sure that everybody is educated? But not just normal, education but the kinds of things that they will get when people like Buckminster Fuller, Benjamin Franklin, those people will educate, the kids will be filled with possibilities. They will not look at problems. In fact, when they see a problem, they will jump on it. The joy of saying that "We have an opportunity here." 15:33 Rajesh And I'm just wondering, where should we go from this conversation because on one hand, we are talking about bringing these people and you have an access to only one right now. At the same time, you're thinking of bringing education to people, not just simple education, but that could really add value to those people and you have a battalion with you who could bend the rules who could bring new systems and processes in the game who will jump onto the problem and create opportunities from that? Where would like to go from here? 16:01 Rajesh We look at the other 4 people are not there, but we have tools like advisor, bunch of things. We can see what am I not doing now? Because we have this tools. We know that we can't bring back those people, but we can do a proxy? What would Buckminster Fuller do? what would Chanakya do? Gaurav Yeah. Rajesh How do you think about? that exercise is pending. 16:34 Gaurav It may ask another let me give you another spin. Let's say if you were to identify one person in your life, who could possibly be that Chanakya? Because, you know, what I know about you is you spoke about two things. You spoke about your ability to pull people and see brilliance in them. To have those few people in your life who could be potentially a Chanakya. Who could potentially be Subhash Chandra Bose for you, Benjamin Franklin, Fuller? 17:10 Rajesh It's a very good thought. Maybe I'll just do this exercise this weekend. And then we have another conversation where we can see what we can do with it? 17:30 Gaurav I missed out the last- the window. 17:33 Rajesh Then we can have another conversation once we have this and we'll see how we can at least do an exercise. I'm sure we can find people. Maybe not exactly the same level of people. Because these people are like unbelievable. 17:47 Gaurav Yeah. Rajesh Who knows? Gaurav Yeah, but they could have the potential. They could have the seed in them. Rajesh Yeah. 17:58 I love it, Gaurav. Thank you very much. Gaurav Thank you.