Pandemic Downtime Helps Executive Write Five-Star Book
After a demanding decade as the CEO of a global company, Maulik Parekh was looking forward to a sabbatical year of travel to nine countries with his family.
But when the pandemic struck, wiping out all those plans, he quickly switched to a long-anticipated plan B he’d never had time for: Writing a book.
The result is Future Proof Your Company and Career. It’s a book about flourishing in an emerging era of artificial intelligence, a new digital-savvy workforce and the gig economy.
“The pandemic was the biggest trigger for me to write a book. I also did it as a therapeutic thing, because I realized if I didn't do anything for the next year, I may go crazy,” the Asia-based executive, investor, and speaker tells Published Author Podcast host Josh Steimle.
“I needed to keep myself busy with something that would be constructive, creative and channel my energy in the right direction.”
THREE TRENDS TO FUTURE PROOF YOUR COMPANY AND CAREER
The book is based on three trends Maulik observed during his final years as a CEO with SPI Global. One was the stealthy rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in corporate jobs and processes.
“We are so used to AI in our lives that we don’t think about it,” he says. “And that is very concerning for business leaders because it could one day potentially put us all out of jobs. A study by McKinsey says by 2030, up to 375 million jobs could be at risk because of automation, AI and robotics… We have to figure out what are the strengths of AI and of humans and learn how to complement each other.”
The second trend was the growing influence of what Maulik calls digital natives. “In the last three years, almost 100 per cent of the people we hired were either Gen Z or Millennials—not a single Gen Xer or Baby Boomer. In 10 years, these people will be occupying positions of influence and power, and we must understand what motivates them.
The third trend was the increasing importance of freelancing, especially among professionals in fields such as law, accounting, marketing and computer science. “That changes the landscape of how work will be done in the future,” he says. “So these three trends have the potential to completely disrupt the way we work.”
FROM TWO-WORD IDEAS TO A 50,000-WORD BOOK
Based on his observations and research, Maulik started writing down one- or two-word ideas about these trends. Those jottings became the outline for what, once fleshed out, became a 50,000-word book. That approach—along with identifying in advance what the table of contents and various chapters would cover—helped him organize his thoughts and overcome any writer’s block. He was also totally focused on the book, researching and writing up to five hours a day.
Maulik found it helpful to have 15 people from nine countries and ages ranging from Gen Zers to Baby Boomers review drafts of the book. “I wanted to see which demographic is impacted by what chapter, and what appeals to them most. They all had a unique perspective that I found very helpful.”
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Josh Steimle
Today, my guest is Maulick Parekh, based in Singapore. Maulik is an entrepreneur. Actually, he's based in the Philippines at the moment, but his home is in Singapore. But Maulik is an entrepreneur, investor and speaker and he's the author of Future Proof Your Company And Career. Prior to his entrepreneurial ventures, he was the CEO of global companies, such as in Spiro and SPI Global. Maulik holds an international MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. Maulik, welcome to the show.
Maulik Parekh
Hey, thank you, Josh. Good to be with you, and good to be on your show.
Josh Steimle
So excited to talk with you about your story and your book. Tell us a little bit about your background. Where do you come from? And what's your history? What led up to you being the CEO of these companies and then engaging in entrepreneurship?
Maulik Parekh
Sure. So I grew up in India. And after finishing my engineering degree in India, I went to the US for my Master's in computer science. And I spent a couple of years in Lubbock, Texas, out of all places, don't ask me how I ended up there.
Josh Steimle
I know a little bit. Well, that's actually where my wife was born.
Maulik Parekh
Is that right?
Josh Steimle
Yeah.
Maulik Parekh
Well, I mean, I have fond memories. It's a beautiful University, Texas Tech. But as a vegetarian back in the 90s, it wasn't the easiest choice that I made. But I enjoyed the academics. And it was fun. But after that, I realized that, you know, I was not meant to be an engineer, I couldn't even change the bulb in my house if I needed to. I have zero technical aptitude. And I was looking for a way out of that train of being an engineer, then a computer scientist, and then finding a job in IT industry. And then, you know, there goes your life. And at that time, I came across this group called Up With People, which is one of the nonprofit organizations that bring young people from all over the world together. And then they . . . . at that time, had then traveled to some 9200 different communities in a year, do community service, put on a two-hour musical performance, and stay with host families. So I thought, what a amazing way to leave my IP and computer science background. And do that for a year, I ended up actually doing that for five years, I traveled as a cast member for a year. And then I continued to work for the company for the remaining four years. After that, I decided to go back to school and got my MBA from Thunderbird, which is a great school out of Phoenix, Arizona, and . . .
Josh Steimle
The school for international business, right?
Maulik Parekh
That's right, yeah, it's been ranked number one, I haven't really followed it for the last few years. But back in the days, it was consistently ranked as the number one school if you want to learn international business, that was their primary focus. And that's the only degree they offered Actually, there was nothing else on the campus, except for graduates who are striving for the NBA with a global emphasis. So that led me to actually the career that brought me eventually to the Philippines, I got a job with a company called Dish Network out of Denver, Colorado. And it was quite interesting, because the, one of the cofounders of the companies actually went to Thunderbird. And so every year, she would go to Thunderbird, and look for a couple of crazy people who can join the crazy company she had built. And I guess I was crazy enough for her. She chose me. And I knew that I was joining an interesting company, Josh, because when I asked him, so hey, I'm glad you like me, but what would I be doing everybody else, all my peers, were getting a job as a consultant, as a marketing manager or sales manager or, you know, analyst, whatever. And they're like, Hey, don't worry about your title, or what you will do, we just like the fact that you know, you'll fit right into our company, and you just show up on your first day. And we'll you know, we'll give you like three, four different options on what you want to do in the company. And then you decide. And sure enough, I arrived on my first day and they said, Hey, so you have a choice of working in this unique opportunity, where you want to, you know, go out and explore setting up our first international call center or the contact center for the company because it was a very us focused company at that time. The other option was working in the marketing. The other option was working in the installation department. And I said, You know what, this, this opportunity where I can actually travel around the world and set up a first call center operation would be perfect for me because that's what I want to do and says, Okay, well that's your job, then go make it happen. So in the next three months, I traveled to eight different countries and did a study of all of these locations on where will be the best place to set up the call center for Dish Network. And I came back, give them a recommendation that my choice would be Philippines just because of, you know, variety of reasons. They said, Well, great, thank you for the recommendation now go make it happen. So I thought my job was done when I said, Okay, well, they go for Philippines, and then they will take care of it. But I ended up actually coming here finding a partner, setting up the operation and growing into some couple of 1000 people by 2005. And then I switched gear. Instead of working for Dish Network, I worked for one of the outsourcing partners that Dish Network used to use teletech. And they had a large presence here in the Philippines. So they said, Malik, why don't you go to the Philippines and help us run our large organization there and, and grow it. So for the next three years, I essentially grew that operation from 6000 employees to 22,000 employees by the time I left them in 2009. That was, I mean, it was just like three years, Josh, where I probably lost my hair, my hairline started receding. It I started seeing the gray in my hair. But it was an amazing experience. I mean, I could not believe that, you know, someone with my background, they were just willing to take a chance and say Maulik, you are the executive vice president of our Asia Pacific and run that organization and droid, and they gave me the full freedom to make it happen. But after three years, I realized that I was a bit burnt out. I mean, I put a lot of effort in so I took a sabbatical, Josh, and I left without leaving my resume with anybody without telling anybody that I'm looking for a job. And after six months, when I was traveling through Himalaysa, and I was tracking, I got a call from one of the executive recruiters and they said Maulik, this company specifically asked that we hire you as the CEO of their internal business process outsourcing unit. And I said, I said, but you know, I know this company. And maybe I'm not the right cultural fit for them. And they said, Maulik No, don't worry about it. They know they are a Filipino-based company, but they are willing to invest in somebody who has the global expertise has the global experience running a business, and they're willing to give you full freedom to kind of do what you need to do. So I'll give it a shot, I'll meet up with the chairman. And that led to my joining SBI Global, which I joined as the CEO in November of 2009. And I led that organization for the next 10 years. In the process, I did a management buyout, sold the three different units and stayed with one unit until the university felt comfort, comfortable that they can actually start running the company. So those 10 years, Josh essentially ended on March of last year. And I decided that I'm ready for another sabbatical, a break. And the plan Josh as I'm sure everybody had a plan for 2020 that didn't materialize. My family and I literally had tickets to nine different countries that we had already booked, we had booked Airbnb is in all of the locations, we had plans for every single thing on what we'll be doing for every single day, because I will, I thought I would never get another year off. So I might as well make the most of it. And one by one. starting April, I had to start canceling all these trips. And, and still, you know, luckily, we have the credit for all the airlines and the Airbnb’s. But God knows when we will be able to use all of that. So that essentially brought me to the point of like, Okay, well I cannot travel, I'm not able to do what I wanted to do this year, I can't just sit here and do nothing. What else is on my bucket list. And there it was. I had to write a book. And so I said, Okay, well, I'm going to commit myself to just start writing the book and get it done while this pandemic is driving us all crazy. And get it out in the marketplace.
Josh Steimle
That's great. I wonder how many other stories are out there like that of people writing books because of this COVID pandemic, and people being stuck at home and saying, well, I got to do something with my time. So yeah, now have you been thinking about a book prior to this? Like, did you think five years 10 years ago that hey, someday I'd like to write a book or was this an idea that came about just within the past year or two?
Maulik Parekh
No, I, I always wanted to write a book. I didn't know what I was going to write about. But every time I love to read books, I'm sure you know, I see a lot of books behind you and I have a lot of books behind me. But I enjoy reading books. And every time I read a book by let's say Robin Sharma or Deepak Chopra, or, you know, Obama's latest autobiography, I mean, I always wanted like, I I can put my thoughts into words that people may benefit from. So that has been in my consciousness for a very long time. But you know, when you're working full time as a CEO, even though you have a lot of work life balance in your life, because you have a great team around you, and after 10 years, you know exactly what you're doing. So it's not a matter of that you're running out of time to write a book, it's just your your frame of mind is very different. Because you're constantly thinking about what if something goes wrong with the business? And what if this happens, what if this happens, and you're brought into some last-minute crisis that you need to fix? So I was not able to, there are other people who are able to do that, where they can run a company and write a book, I was not one of those people, I had to literally leave everything behind completely blank canvas, and then start writing the book. So the pandemic essentially just was the biggest trigger for me. And I also did that as a therapeutic thing for me, because I realized that if I don't do anything for the next one year, I may go crazy. So I thought, I need to keep myself busy with something that would be constructive, that would be creative, and it will channel my energy in the right direction.
Josh Steimle
So how did you come up with the core idea of the book? How did you decide this is what I want to focus on?
Maulik Parekh
So, you know, the book idea was in my consciousness, as I mentioned, for many years, but in the last three years, it started becoming more concrete as to what I wanted to write about. And it was based on two parts of my lives. And I write about that in my book in the introduction chapter. The one reason I wrote the book was professional, and the other reason was personal, professionally. In the last three years of my job as a CEO, I saw three things happening in my business. And I saw the same thing happening in other businesses in the same industry. Number one, I started seeing the impact of artificial intelligence, slowly infiltrating into our jobs and our processes. And I realized it was so sneaky, that we were not even thinking about it. Because it's almost like electricity, we don't think about electricity, it's part of our lives. We only think about electricity when it's not there. Right. And the same thing is happening with AI, we are so used to AI in our lives, but we don't think about it. And that is very concerning for business leaders, because it could one day potentially put us all out of jobs. And there was a study done by McKinsey that says that by end of decade, by 2030, up to 375 million jobs could be at risk because of automation, AI and robotics. The second trend that I noticed was the digital natives. You know, in the last three years, almost 100% of the people that we hire in our company, were either Gen Z or are millennials, not a single Gen Xers, not a single baby boomer. So we realize that the generational shift is taking place. And this people who are just starting out as interns, or as entry level employees, one day in 10 years, we'll be occupying positions of influence and power, and we must understand them as to what motivates them. So that was a second trend that I noticed. And the third trend that I noticed was the power of freelancing. I started realizing that more and more professionals and I'm not talking about grab, or the Uber drivers or the folks who bring pizza at your home. I'm talking about professionals in the fields of law in accounting and marketing in computer science, slowly shifting from traditional employment to freelancing. And that changes the landscape of how the work will be done in the future, not only who will get the job done, but also where they will get the job done, how they will get the job done, when they will get the job done wearing what they wanted to wear office suits anymore. If they're working from home, they could be working in their pajamas. So these three trends, were so clear to me that they have the potential to completely disrupt the way we work today. And our workplace. So that was happening in my professional life. At the same time, in 2016, my first daughter, Clara was born in 2016. And that changed everything for me. I mean, I'm a late bloomer when it comes to having kids. So I lived my life, not worrying too much about the future. The only time I thought about the future was when I had to write a five-year strategy for the company. So it was all professional related. But once my daughter was born, I realized that I need to think a little bit about what kind of future she will be in inheriting what kind of skills and talents you would need over the next 10 2030 years to succeed and to thrive in this disruptive in this increasingly digital world that we live in. So I started doing some research, I started paying attention to every trend that I can see that may potentially become big in the future and started jotting down those thoughts. And I was just doing the right thing. I was just until March of last year, I was just writing down starts in one or two words in, you know, one of my document platform that I use on my iPhone. But I didn't think that this 50 or 60 words that I had there could essentially end up becoming 50,000 word book. But that was something that was completely i thought was impossible until I started writing the book. And you know, one thing led to the next and then it just built on the momentum.
Josh Steimle
Which perhaps was helpful that you didn't . . weren't thinking about the full book, because sometimes people get overwhelmed thinking, oh, I've got to jump from scratch or zero to a full book, but you took it like you said a step at a time. Going back to the AI, is there a specific example you can share with us about how you saw AI sneaking into the workplace?
Maulik Parekh
Sure. So if you look at a variety of industries, and I view very specific examples in my book, so, you know, the first example that I gave is the hotel of the future that you see in Guangdong, China. This is a hotel built completely on AI on automation. When you arrive at the lobby of the hotel, there is not a single human being you see you literally right, you know, get the room using their app, you pay for the room using their app, when you arrive at the hotel, there's a self-help kiosk where it takes your picture, you enter your room using face recognition technology. When you're in the room, there is AI driven robot that helps you close the curtains order you order food, who brings the food to your room, a robot, you go down to have a drink. After a long day of travel, who makes your drink? It's a robot. So that's just a just a small example of what is happening in the hotel industry, for example, on the BPO industry in the business process, outsourcing industry. Now there are chatbots, we all are used to going to company website, and there will be that small little icon that says May I help you. And then you start a conversation with them. You think there's a human being behind it because the chat bots are becoming so humanized. They . . .
Josh Steimle
They are getting better and better. I mean, you used to be able to tell and now it's getting to the point where you're like, I'm not sure if this is a person or chatbot. But that's kind of scary that I can't know.
Maulik Parekh
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you don't know whether you're talking to Ramesh in India? Or is it really a chatbot? That is driven by AI. So that's a great example of how the AI is impacting the BPO industry and even in medical field, right. Google Health announced just a year ago, that its AI driven algorithm did a better job reading mammograms than experienced trained, educated professionals who have been doing it for four years. Why? Because we were able to feed this AI algorithm with data of the past mammogram, that the, you know, the, the professionals had looked at. And the algorithm was able to learn from these past examples and actually become better then the human being. So that just gives you a glimpse as to how powerful this technology is, and that we need to actually pay attention to it and pay attention to it in the sense, we need to learn how to compliment it. Instead of competing with it, we don't have to worry about being better than AI, we need to figure out okay, so what are the strengths of AI? And what are the strengths of the humans? How do we complement each other? And what are some of the things that we are better at and what are skill? What are the skills that we need to really zoom in on to become better?
Josh Steimle
Yeah, bringing it back to books. Google also just rolled out a service that will read text in a human voice. And it does it in 40 languages and people are already starting to use this to narrate their audio books, which is amazing to me because you would think narrating audio book that has to be a human being that has to be a human who can read the words and inflect tones and understand the context and yet through machine learning In AI, Google's developed a system that this bot can do it and can do a pretty good job. And we know it's only going to get better. So it is amazing how fast this is progressing. In fact, we just had April 1 here in the US April Fool's Day. I'm not sure if that's a global holiday. It's kind of a weird one.
Maulik Parekh
Yeah, it is. It's a global. It's a global phenomenon. Yeah.
Josh Steimle
But but there's this company read z. That's a website for authors and people in the publishing industry. And for their April Fool's joke, they sent out an email saying, We've developed a new tool with AI that will write your novel for you, all you have to do is put in some character names and some details, and then it will literally write the whole book for you. And then you can just go in and edit and everything. And they totally got me like, I thought, Wow, this is amazing. Isn't the future great. And then it turned out to be this April Fool's joke. And yet, I thought, gee, they caught me. But then I'm thinking, in five or 10 years, this will be happening, this will be reality. Today, it's a joke, but 5 - 10 years down the road, it will be reality, and how do we adjust to that? I mean, this is the whole topic of your book, right?
Maulik Parekh
Absolutely. And I mean, just going along with what you just shared, while there isn't anything that I came across, that would, you know, write the entire book. So clearly, this was an April Fool's joke. But when I was doing research, I came across a few companies that if you just give a title, let's say, you want to write a blog, or an article about tigers in India, you just give it a title. And it scours the internet gathers a variety of data points about the topic. And then it collated into an article. When you read it, it's not as well put together, it's not as if like somebody who likes to write has written it just kind of a hodgepodge of this data point and this data point, and it has references to where it pulled the data from. But there is no creativity involved. But imagine, I mean, it's already happening now, where you don't have to write your blog any more all the data points you need, and you just have to kind of edit it and you know, give the final touches to it in two, three years down the road with the speed with which this disruption is happening. I would be I would not be surprised if actually, it comes up with a really nicely written blog. So maybe it's going to start with 5 - 10 pages of well-written document, and then then probably goes into a full-fledged book.
Josh Steimle
Right. And that's the thing is, we're just at the starting point of this. There's so much that's coming in the future. So to give us some insights from your book, how do we prepare for this? How do we adjust to this new reality that is already here, and is only going to get more futuristic and more unbelievable?
Maulik Parekh
Sure. So in the book, I have three sections. The first section essentially dives deep into each of the disruptive forces that we just talked about artificial intelligence, digital natives and the gig economy. The second section of the book talks about five ways to future proof your career. So what are based on these three disruptive forces? What are some things you need to do to be sure that you have a future proof career going forward? So the first dimension of the future that we have to prepare for is that the future is AI? So what do you do you become a human? And I know it sounds very trite, and it sounds almost, you know, ridiculous. What am I? What do you mean? Like we are humans? Why do you need to be a human? Well, because at times, when we go to work, we leave our humanity outside, you know, when we check in into our workplace, the employer is expecting you to follow their rules and regulations. They have policies and procedures, they want you to dress in a certain way, suddenly, before you know it, you have lost all your creativity, your uniqueness, and you have become just one of the 10,000 other people will look and feel and think just like you, I think what we need to do going forward is we need to actually reclaim our humanity, we need to ensure that all of us have unique gifts that we can bring to the table. And we need to make sure that we create an environment where people feel comfortable bringing those unique human gifts, and play their strengths to that. The second dimension of the future that we need to be prepared for is that the future is people. I know, future is there. But future is also people. We are not going to get rid of people from the workplace. There are always going to be people at least for the next 10 years. You know, nobody is able to make any strong predictions about what happens in 20 30 or 40 years with the way things are moving, but it is for the next 10 years. There will be people that we'll be able to work with. What does that mean? That means, if you can become an alchemist who can bring out the very best in not only just yourself, but also others who can inspire others to achieve their best, then your career is future. It's future proof. The other dimension that I talked about in the book is that the future is change. Every day, you will be faced with changes in your lives in your personal and professional lives. So you have a choice as a human, you either, you know, ignore the change, or worse, resist the change or completely deny the change. Or on the other spectrum, you can actually become the catalyst for change, you can become the champion for change. And it's not just good for, you know, changing the world like what Greta Thornburg or Malala Yousufzai is doing on a global scale, even every company is looking for people who are catalysts for change, who are willing to take risks, who are willing to move things, who are willing to shake things up a little bit, and come up with something more exciting. So that's those are some of the dimensions that I talked about in the book as to how you can future proof yourself and your career. Then the third segment of the book talks about how to future proof your company. So the first dimension that we need to understand is that the future is digital. You have to transform your business, you know, look at the world around us. Last year, despite the pandemic, the top five technology company brought in at least 18% more revenue than they did in 2019. Whereas so many other brick and mortar companies, you know, the likes of JC Penney and Brooks Brothers and, and Taylor, they filed for bankruptcy. Even in the food industry, a company like Domino's Pizza, who went through an incredible journey to digitally transform itself, prior to pandemic in the last 10 years survive not only survive, actually they thrive during the pandemic, their revenue increased by 15%, in 2020, compared to 2019, whereas Pizza Hut, a company in the same industry competitors, the parent company of pizza had filed for bankruptcy. Why because Pizza Hut had not taken proactively all the steps needed to digitally transform itself. So digital transformation is no longer just oh, you know, I got to do it one day, it's a must do otherwise you are end up, you will end up becoming obsolete. The second dimension of the future we need to understand is that future is meaningful. So that means we have to infuse purpose in our workplace. And the reason why the purpose for the company is important is because the demographic shift that I talked about earlier, by 2032 thirds of the global workforce, Josh will be made up of millennials and Gen Z. And millennials and Gen Z are one unique group of people. And one way they are different than the rest is that they are very purpose driven. They want to work for companies who believe in something that is larger than the company's profit and revenue. They want to work with company where they have a meaning they want to work with company, not just because they're giving them money, but they're also getting a meaning for it. So companies who will come up with great purpose that goes beyond their quarterly results, or the annual results will do well in attracting and retaining talent. And that's going to be a critical differentiating factor going forward. Another dimension that I talk about in the book in how to future proof your company going forward is the future is fun. You know, enjoy expedition. One of the things we forget sometimes when we are running large organizations is that it's hard work and it's stressful. And because it's stressful, everybody's stressed out and they burn out. But companies who continue to produce amazing results year after year, year after year like Southwest for example. I give an example of Southwest Airlines for 47 years consecutively until 2019 it has made profit. Show me one other airline company in the world that has done that not there are hundreds of airline companies will file for bankruptcy in the last 30 years. How did Southwest did that? By creating an environment where the employees are having fun if you're flown Southwest. I lived in the US for 14 years. I used to fly Southwest all the time. It's a great airline to fly with because time flies You know their stewardesses and the cabin staff are having so much fun. You don't you don't think that you're actually flying you feel like you're just flying with some friends.
Josh Steimle
You know some of the best jokes I've ever heard have come through allowed speaker on a Southwest Airlines Flight.
Maulik Parekh
Absolutely. In . . . I actually give an example Josh about, you know, one of the safety announcement, Martha Cobb made. Martha Cobb was . . . She's still with a company, stewardess. And somebody actually recorded the video of her safety announcement and posted it on YouTube. And that video has been seen by guess what 25 million times. That was six months ago, when I was writing a book, I was doing research, it must have been watched many more times by now. Why? Because she took something that was so boring, like how many times you will pay attention to a safety announcement when you're flying? Never, I never did that I would start putting my head for on or I start reading or doing my emails. Everybody dropped everything that they were doing. And they were listening to her safety announcement, because she cracked everybody up with her humor, she completely changed it, she got all the key points because she is required to buy, you know, FFA, I guess or FA. But she did that, so that she got the message out. But people also had fun. So if you can create an environment in your company where people are having a good time, not just among themselves, but also with your clients and your customers, then your company is future proof.
Josh Steimle
That safety videos probably done more to promote actual safety, then all the other safety presentations on airlines combined. because like you said, nobody listens to it! But when it's funny, and entertaining, then you do. So I want to go back to that second part that you were talking about, which is changing ourselves. Why is it so hard for us to change ourselves or deal with change? And what are some tips on breaking through that and embracing change?
Maulik Parekh
Yeah, change is quite difficult. And I actually write a few pages about that, actually. And I give an example of my one-year-old daughter. And I said that, you know, when my daughter was born, the only thing she knew was how to lay on her back. And she was not unique. Every child her age does the same thing. But they don't stay there. That's their comfort zone because they know how to stay on their back. But even though they know what their comfort zone is, they're constantly pushing to learn the next thing. So then she learned how to rollover, then she learned how to crawl, then she learned how to try to sit up, stand up, now walk, very soon run and jump and guess what, you know, guess what else you will do? If, as kids, we know that it's really bad for us to just lie on our back. Because if we rely on our back as a kid, we would never be successful than anything. Even all the adults will be basically lying on our backs if you've never learned how to roll over and crawl, right? So what happens between being a child to being an adult, it's very simple. As we become an adult, we start becoming accustomed to our own comfort zone, we like to become comfortable and cozy right in the center of our comfort zone. And anytime something pushes us out of our comfort zone and pushes us to the edge of our comfort zone. The journey between the center of your comfort zone and the edge of the comfort zone is the most painful part of it. Because once you get to the edge of the comfort zone that becomes your new comfort zone. And then you push that edge again. So one way to become a champion for change or catalyst for change is to not wait for an external event, an external person to create change in your life, and then mess up everything in your life. The way to do that is keep pushing yourself. Keep pushing your boundaries on your own. You know if if you think that you would have a very hard time learning how to dance because do you have to laugh it? Guess what, go and sign up for a dance class. If you think that you can never learn a new language, then you know, go subscribe to Rosetta Stone, you think that you will feel extremely uncomfortable being in a country where nobody speaks your language? Well go find a location in the world where nobody actually find you know, speak your language and figured out a way to survive for a week and do that. When you start doing these things. intentionally. You start cultivating what I call the catalyst muscles or the change agent muscles because now, change is not an unwelcome intruder in your life. Change is the life that you have created that you are willing to go through changes that you welcome; change that you are comfortable with change. And before you know it, you become comfortable being uncomfortable. That's very powerful. If we can on our own without something else making us uncomfortable if on our own, if we can make ourselves uncomfortable, and in that process become comfortable, then you have mastered the art of being a change agent or a catalyst. Because change doesn't throw you off your game anymore. Change becomes your game.
Josh Steimle
This is so fascinating. I want to get to talking more about how you wrote the book. But I'm really interested in the contents of the book.
Maulik Parekh
Yeah.
Josh Steimle
By the way, have you read the science fiction book Dune?
Maulik Parekh
No, I have not. Yeah, but I would love to know more about it. Yeah.
Josh Steimle
So they're coming out with a new movie, or they were going to come out with it. That was another plan that was interrupted by COVID. But I read this science fiction series when I was a teenager. And now I'm going back and rereading it, because I want to reread it before I watched the movie that's coming out. Plus, my kids are at this age where they can start reading books like this. So I'm kind of screening it to make sure it's appropriate for them. But I was reading the first pages of the first book of the dune series last night, and you mentioned this thing about becoming human. In the dune book, there's a scene in which the main character is being tested. And if he fails this test, he dies. And the person who's testing in response to a question when the main character says, What are you doing? Why are you testing me? What are you trying to figure out, and she says, I'm trying to determine if you're human, and she talks about how the difference between animals and humans and how animals kind of just react to the stimulus stimuli around them. But humans can overcome things. She specifically says a, an animal will knock off its leg to escape from a trap. But a human can overcome that and say, Hey, if I stay in this trap, maybe I can kill the hunter, when he comes back to catch me. And then I'll be able to get a key from him and escape from this trap. So humans are able to reason we're able to use logic, we're able to change. And so as you're talking about becoming human as the future, or that's the way to future proof your career, really, what we're seeing is the elimination of careers that are more animal-like you could say, or that are more, you just go in, you do this same thing over and over and over again. There are a lot of tasks that don't demand the real human within us to arise and use our creativity, those jobs are getting automated first, that's where AI can take over. And those jobs are being eliminated. But the great thing about that is that it forces us to be human and to use those higher parts of us. And so that this is what I love is you're talking about being human, I think this is a hard transition for the whole world to make. And yet if we can make that transition, imagine the potential Imagine the possibilities, if we're all thinking and acting like humans, versus doing these more animal jobs.
Maulik Parekh
Absolutely. I mean, you hit it right on the nail, that if you are doing any part of your job you're doing is repetitive, boring and predictable. Guess what? AI will be doing it in the next 10 years, no doubt about it. It's a given, it's going to be cheaper, it's going to be faster, it's going to be smarter. The other thing to keep in mind to go along with this logic, Josh, is that if the only thing you know in your life is just being a one-trick pony. So if the only thing you're good at in your life is that you are the best chess player in the whole world. Guess what? We have seen it already. AI will beat you to it. If the only thing you know, in your life is to be the best paralegal. Then guess what? AI will beat you to that. What AI is not able to do though, today, at least for now is when they deal with ponies with many tricks, you know, and what I mean by ponies with many tricks is Steve Jobs. For example. What magic he did at Apple was not related to him being a one trick pony that he was, you know, great at technology, or he was just great at marketing or he had an amazing eye for the user interface design that is so user friendly. But he had all these things combined in him. And in fact, when he launched iPad two in 2011, when he presented the iPad two there was a big sign behind him and it was essentially intersection of a road and one sign led one side read technology. And the other side, the other side read the humanities. And so what he mentioned after that presentation is that the magic happens at the intersection of technology, and human humanity, technology and arts. That's where we create products that make our hearts sing, not just focusing on technology, or not just focusing on humanities or the arts, it has to combine both. And today, only humans have the ability to combine two very disparate fields to come up with something unique. I give another example in the book that you know, bullet train in Japan, for example, they had a very difficult time for many years, because every time a bullet train will go through a tunnel. In Japan, when it comes out, there will be a big loud sonic boom, that will be heard 400 meters away from the tunnel. So the passengers were complaining it The staff was complaining, but also all the households living along the tunnels were complaining about it as well. So the gentleman who's running the Japan railways at that time, got the solution on how to avoid creating that sonic boom by combining his engineering degree with his hobby of birdwatching, because he observed that when a Kingfisher dives into the water to catch a fish, it barely makes a splash. That means the beak of the Kingfisher is so aerodynamically designed, that it doesn't push the water down. It just the waters the slides by it. So he thought to himself that what if I change the beak of the train from the bullet shape? why it was called bullet train at that time, to the big of a Kingfisher. So he gave a 50 foot beak to the train, and guess what happened? Sonic Boom was gone. Now imagine if AI was doing his job? Yeah, it would be completely lost, because AI can only solve one technology problem or our problem. But he doesn't know how to connect the dots between two or three or four disparate forces. So one thing that I mentioned in the book is that when when when you want to be a human be the kind of human that AI cannot replicate, be the kind of human like Leonardo da Vinci, who was not just a great painter, but he was a good architect, he was a master in a variety of fields. And the reason why he contributed so much to us to the humanities, because he was able to connect the dots from so many different fields that he was good at, and create something magical for us.
Josh Steimle
It's so inspiring. And this is so relevant for authors too, because when you're writing a book, this is the key to making a successful book, too, is to take disparate things, things that most people would look at and say, I don't see any connection there. But then you find that connection, and you put it together, and then people see it. And that generates that aha moment in the reader where they say, Oh, that is so interesting. I never thought of that before. I mean, this is what makes books interesting. So let's dive into how you wrote the book a bit. You said you were collecting ideas, you're writing down notes and everything? How did you go through? after that? How did you start to write your book? How did you outline it? What was the technical process of going through and actually writing this book?
Maulik Parekh
Yeah, it was, you know, in the early days of putting together my table of content, that was my first goal, right, I thought, the best way for me to kind of organize my thoughts was to actually create a table of content that would seem logical, and yet creative enough for me that people would be interested that they will see I've kind of a flow. So I knew that I wanted to introduce the readers about the 3d, you know, disruptive forces, obviously, it was a no brainer that section one would be let's have a chapter about each of these forces. Then, the next challenge for me was, so how do you go about future proofing your career? Because people will be interested to know if all these disruptive forces will be impacting my life so what do I do? So then I started thinking about what are the dimensions of the future that people should be prepared for and I listed down what the future would be so you know, future would be I be a human future would be people be an alchemist and you know, future will be changed. Be a catalyst. And there are two more. And then I thought, Okay, well, that's good for the career, I need to also give five ways to future proof company for the leaders who are reading this book. So I thought about as a CEO, what would I like to what would I have liked to know about how to future proof my company? What are the dimensions of the future that I may not think about, in the way that I was thinking of writing? So I automatically thought that okay, well, the future is digital. You know, that's something I personally felt and acted upon when I was the CEO. And I thought it would be important to write a chapter about how to digitally transform your business, I knew based on the number of digital natives that I was hiring, that the future is meaningful that unless company has a larger-than-life purpose, that gives meaning to their employees, it would be very hard for companies to be relevant, unless company creates an environment that promotes lifelong learning, people will not be able to survive. So very quickly, I was able to kind of jot down five-chapter headings for how to future proof your career and how to future proof your company. And obviously, if you look at my first list of adapters, there's completely different than what I ended up with. Because I kept on revising it, I kept on changing it. I kept on talking to people and say, Well, which one makes more sense for you? Which one would be more appealing to people? And, you know, I was able to then eventually come up with the ones that now are in the book.
Josh Steimle
Tell us a little bit more about that about testing out your ideas with other people, how many other people did you talk to, and how valuable was that feedback?
Maulik Parekh
It was quite valuable, actually. So what I did was I selected 15 people that I've had the opportunity to work with, or to be connected with through acquaintances from all five continents. And they came from nine different countries. And they ranged from and I purposefully selected Gen Z years, which just completed their degree college degree, to a baby boomer, who was about to retire. And I will look and I get a gamut of perspective. So when they read my initial drafts, I wanted to see which demographic is impacted by what chapter and what appears to them the most. So I have when I'm marketing it, and when I'm talking to people through webinars, I can customize the presentation. And very quickly, I realized that, obviously, based on what part of the world they were in, based on their age based on, you know, what they did, and their seniority and their careers. They all had a unique perspective. And I found it to be quite interesting. And very helpful.
Josh Steimle
I want to be sensitive to your time, we're heading towards the top of the hour here, do you have a few more minutes? Or do you have a hard stop at the hour?
Maulik Parekh
No, we can spend probably an extra 15 minutes.
Josh Steimle
Okay, great, because I have a few more questions I want to ask, during this process of writing your book then, was there any point at which it became difficult that you had writer's block, or you felt like I'm stuck here? I don't know where to go? Or did it flow pretty well through to the finish?
Maulik Parekh
You know, I had read so much about the writer's block. And I had talked to other folks who have tried to write a book and how they got stuck. But I told myself that the only way I would be able to finish this book is to just read through it. So every morning, Josh, I'm telling you, when I'm thinking about it, now, I cannot believe what got into me to made me do that for six months in a row. But I every morning, I got up at 430, partly because my youngest would wake up and start screaming. And I had no choice but to wake up. But that was a perfect alarm for me, I would wake up and my best writing was done between five and seven. So I did that. And then I will do some research in the afternoon. And I would give it a shot to write a little bit more in the evening. So I know typically people say that you should write maybe two hours a day, I was actually just focused on this book, say that I was writing or researching three, four or five hours a day every day. And there were days when every time I had to start a new chapter, Josh, I would have a doubt in my mind whether things will flow again or not. But as soon as I start writing, like I realized what I needed to do was write the first sentence and then the next sentence, the next sentence game and the next sentence game or a question came in my mind, then I would research and then I would probably put something together. So that happened almost for, you know, five months. The writer's block happened when I was completely done, and I had not written my conclusion chapter, because I had read multiple times that please don't write your conclusion, as soon as you're written everything else, you need to kind of walk away from it, and let it simmer in your life, you know, marinate yourself in your own content before you start conclusion. But the problem was, I gave myself four weeks. And so I lost that momentum that I had of writing every single day. And I'm telling you, trying to get back to write those three pages of conclusion was the hardest thing I have done in my life. I did not want to do it. I did, I avoided it to the nth degree. But I realized that you know, what, if I don't do that, then this book would never be published. So finally, it's, it's done. And actually, based on the feedback I received, people thought that was the most beautiful chapter for them, that it, it really kind of brought everything down together. Because typically, when you pick up a book, like atomic habits, for example, you know, there's one common theme, that author keeps repeating and focuses on and goes deep into here, I was introducing so many unique themes. And I had to walk away from all of it, to then come up with a conclusion that brought it all together for them. Not in kind of, Okay, let's list down everything I just talked about, but in a creative way. And when people read this, like Mulligan, what if I didn't write, if I didn't read your conclusion chapter, I would not have still walked away with what you're trying to tell me. And that felt good that maybe walking away from the book for four weeks was worth it, and it came out nicely.
Josh Steimle
That's great. So you mentioned earlier, you love reading books. I love reading books, you love reading books, we both for those who are not watching the video version of this, both Mike and I, we have a lot of books behind us on the video screen. What are some of your favorite books? What are some of the books that have been most influential in your life? Whether or not they influenced the book directly, but just what are some of your favorite books that have made an impact on you and who you are today?
Maulik Parekh
Yeah, I think the one that I keep going back to and it has nothing to do with business, it has nothing to do with leadership. Or you know how to make money. It's actually a spiritual book for me and a book that I kept on going back to and after I read that book, I've had a hard time reading other books for a very long time. And it's called the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle a I'm sure you've heard of it. But it's a very beautiful book that kind of takes you away from your mind, and allows you to focus on the rest of your being. Because, you know, once in a while, if you are a type A personality, or if you are one of those who is a high achiever, it's very easy for you to get lost in this rat race around us. And that book actually helped me ground myself, it helped me that there's more to my beam than just my brain, my ego, that can play havoc in my life. So that's one thing. And that's one book that I really enjoyed. The one that I'm actually listening to now, I'm not reading it, but I'm listening to through audio book is Homosapiens. I am so fascinated by this book. It's basically a history of the mankind, and the author is so talented. And he's such an articulate author that walks you through the entire history of the mankind and the earth. And how we got to this place, how the religion, how the, the concept of religion was found, how the concept of money was found, how the concept of a country or a city was found. He explains it in a such a clinical way, that you start questioning everything you know about life, like, you know, I grew up believing this is the God or this is the goddess and this is what is true, otherwise, this will happen to you, because of my upbringing, and it applies to everybody. But he was able to shed light on how the religion, how the concept of religion was born, and how it has been used, obviously, for many positive things, but also for many negative things. So when I'm listening to that book, my perspective on life and my perspective on how I get carried away by my own programming that I have gone through, through my upbringing, through living in different places. I've lived in is changing now, I'm becoming more open to where the real truth lies versus just believing in something just because 10 other people are telling me, okay, you should believe in this.
Josh Steimle
And I see a book on the shelf behind you. And it's called something your genius, but I can't see the first word because it's cut off. And I'm curious about that, because I always zero in on the word genius, because I have a framework called the seven systems of influence. And the second part of that framework is genius zone. So I see the word genius in so I've got to know what the title of that book is.
Maulik Parekh
It's actually Discover Your Genius. All right, yeah. So it's a book about it takes you through many folks who have been called genius in the history of mankind, you know, so the Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and many others. And it talks about how did this How did these people get to that level? And that we all have a unique genius in us, only if you are able to zoom in on that genius and bring it out. So it's a fascinating book, it just, it really, very briefly talks about this unique figures from the history and shares with us, what are the commonalities among all of them? What are some of the things that all of them did, that we can learn from and we can master it?
Josh Steimle
That's great. By the way, have you read any of Clayton Christensen's work the innovators dilemma, or . . .
Maulik Parekh
Oh, I love his book. Yeah, innovators dilemma I love. Actually, the company that I used to work with invited him in the Philippines, to the Philippines. And he actually came and did a two-day workshop for us. So I was just absolutely fascinated by his work.
Josh Steimle
That's great. Yeah, as you've been talking, I thought, Oh, if he has not read Clayton Christensen, he's gonna love this stuff. But you've got it. So that's, yeah, it's a great fit. What a great series of books and what a What a great guy. He just passed away a year and a half or so ago. And yeah, but he left us such a great legacy. So many good books. If you haven't read, how will you measure life, which he wrote, it's one of the best books I've ever read just period because it talks about, kind of like you're talking about with the . . . . Totally book. It's one of those books that you read, and you realize, I've got to shift my whole way of looking at my life and how I measure what's important to me and where I focus my time.
Maulik Parekh
Absolutely, no, I read about it. I heard about it. A couple of my friends, you mentioned that you must read this book. I haven't gotten to it. But now that you mentioned, Josh, I have to probably pick up that book, or at least listen to the audiobook.
Josh Steimle
Well, this has been so great talking with you Maulik. I have a feeling that we could talk for a few more hours, but we need to cut it off at some point here. What's the best place for people to connect with you and learn more about you?
Maulik Parekh
Sure. So obviously, the best way is to visit my website that has a list of all my social media accounts. The website is Maalikparekh.com. That's M A U L I K P A R E K H .com. I'm also on Facebook. I am at Iammaulikparekh, as well as Instagram and LinkedIn. So I would love to have folks tag along. Once in a while I share some tidbits from the book or just some other intuitions. And the inspiration that comes to my mind. And one of the one liner that I just came up with yesterday was that intelligence is not what you know, it's knowing what you need to know. Because I was thinking about, what do I need to tell my daughter because she's great at memorizing the, you know, numbers, and she is great at memorizing everything we put in front of her. But at one point, she would also need to learn and obviously she has a whole life ahead of her to knowing what else he needs to know, to continue to thrive in life. So once in a while I you know, share these small tidbits through my social media account. So love to have some folks check it out.
Josh Steimle
Fantastic. Well, it's been a pleasure to talk with you my like and thanks so much for being here with us today and sharing the story behind your book on the published author podcast.
Maulik Parekh
Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Josh. It's been a pleasure.
