Entrepreneur, author and speaker Ankur Warikoo shared his insights on the ‘art of relying on yourself’ at the third edition of Outlook Money’s 40After40 Retirement Expo in Mumbai.
“While I create a lot of content around personal finance, I thought that the best thing that I can leave you with is, which is the topic of today, as well, and that is the art of relying on yourself. Because very often in the chase of what we want to do with our life, whether it’s chasing money, whether it’s chasing fame or status or glory, we tend to lose the most important relationship that we ought to have, and that is with our own selves,” Warikoo said.
Warikoo added that the art of relying on yourself has three key components that have helped him in his journey and could potentially help everyone.
“The art of relying on yourself is this discovery of realising that you have enough. And it has these three components that I wanted to leave you with, because those are frankly, the things that helped me in my journey and I’m sure will help you in yours as well,” Warikoo said.
Warikoo said that the number one thing to do to start relying on yourself is to interact with people who are different from you. He added that while it is a human tendency to surround oneself with similar people, one should try to spend more time with people who are different from themselves in order to learn from different and diverse experiences.
“Number one, and perhaps the biggest thing when you acquire a certain age and a certain mindset and certainly a certain experience, is to go back to the day when you joined your current organisation. If you remember that day as well, and I’m sure it was an auditorium like this, you were surrounded by different sorts of people, all from very different backgrounds. I don’t know any of you personally, but I guarantee that within the first few hours of you spending time with these very different people, you began to look for people who were like you. Surprisingly, the best way to discover yourself or to actually rely on yourself is to speak. Spend time with people who are nothing like you. Nothing like you. Because that's when you truly find out what exists in the world that you had no idea about,” Warikoo said.
Warikoo also advised people to step out of their comfort zones. He added that one goes through life, becoming comfortable becomes a central goal of life. Warikoo said that while becoming materially comfortable is fine, one should avoid becoming ‘intellectually comfortable’. He added that intellectual comfort numbs people’s minds and limits their mental growth as they don’t get to experience the things they could have experienced.
“A lot of us, as we get experience, start to become intellectually comfortable. What happens then is you believe that the goal of life is to make life comfortable. What we begin to believe and the world endorses outside is that comfort is the only goal we're looking for. Don’t get comfortable, because the day you get intellectually comfortable, you are numbing yourself to any level of growth that you could have witnessed in your life but will never experience,” Warikoo said.
Warikoo said that the third component of relying on one’s own self involves asking questions. He added that people in his generation often complain about Gen Z’s impatience, but fail to understand why the new generation is different from their own. Warikoo said that the best way to ask more questions and resolve differences is to become a student. He also advised people to go back to learning something new or picking something new to learn.
“And then the third and the final point. I don’t think there is any hour that passes by where somebody of our generation is complaining about Gen Z being impatient, privileged, they have everything, but yet they are so confused. Recognise why this difference is happening so that you get to the point that I’m trying to make. And the surest way of ensuring that you ask questions of why things happen is to become a student. So go back to any new thing that you were learning in the last six months, months or something, if you have at all,” Warikoo said.
