I just finished reading Priyanka Chopra's autobiography, Unfinished: A Memoir and I am truly blown away. Not that the book offered a completely new perspective into her life, Priyanka had been seen sharing the anecdotes covered in the book in TV appearances and interviews but somehow it came beautifully together in her memoir. I couldn't get over the book and deliberated on what I could imbibe from her life into my own.
In the history of Indian cinema why has she been the only one to successfully cross over and conquer the west?
What is so unique about HER?
Growth Mindset :- Priyanka embodies a growth mindset, perhaps that had something to do with the fact that her parents had transferable jobs (and hence the family kept relocating every couple of years) which made her comfortable with embracing change with gusto. Her entire life is based on her being comfortable with change and demonstrating a willingness to experiment with new things - moving to the US at an early age, deciding to be a part of unconventional projects right out the gate in her Bollywood career and then foraying into the music industry, well the rest is history.
As with all experiments, some are successful while others can be a fiasco. Priyanka has given herself the freedom to fail and has a great coping mechanism to deal with failure - a huge tub of ice-cream and some downtime so she can pick herself up, dust herself off before getting back on the horse and trying new things all over again.
What could I learn from this
In the words of Marshall Goldsmith :-
"What got you here, won't get you there"
To be successful, it is imperative that I keep reinventing myself every single day. This means being comfortable with the idea of change. Like everyone, I find solace and comfort in the familiar and any deviation from it is simply unpalatable. But to reach greater heights, I had to do things I had never done before - I had to put myself in uncomfortable situations and resist the temptation of the 'familiar'.
I decided to put myself in an uncomfortable situation every single day, no matter how big or small. It could be as small as watching a documentary that lies outside my interest or speaking up in all meetings (remember there are no silly questions) or choosing to skydive again (God save me!). But besides being comfortable with discomfort extrinsically, there were several intrinsic things that I needed to deal with so the adaptation to the change became like second nature to me:-
- Letting go of my preconceived notions,
- Questioning my own beliefs (what's right vs wrong for me? is this my belief or imposed onto me by the society?)
- Understanding that there is no mould/template that I needed to fit into
I think if I could reinvent my beliefs and my personality, everything else would hopefully fall into line naturally.
Eye for opportunity :- Priyanka has a knack for identifying opportunity and if opportunity doesn't present itself, she doesn't shy away from pursuing one. She is self-assured and has had a strong sense of self right from an early age (immensely supported and fuelled by her parents). She is not one-dimensional but has dabbled into multiple things that she can connect the dots and keep building onto her repertoire - she's an actor, producer, writer, humanitarian, restauranter and now owns a hair care brand. She is far from being entitled and is always on a look out to collaborate with people to create synergy.
An example that greatly resonated with me is when she found out on Twitter that director Ramin Bahrani was making a movie adaptation of Arvind Adiga's award winning novel 'The White Tiger', she immediately ranged him and asked to be part of the project both in terms of acting in the movie and co-producing it. The deal was thus sealed. No wonder this movie has been nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for the upcoming Academy Awards.
What could I learn from this
Opportunity, I feel, has the most underwhelming way of finding us. It finds us when we least expect it and instead of greeting us in a dramatic way, it mumers a coy 'hello' - can you blame us for missing out?
I think it's worthwhile (at least for me) to explore every opportunity that comes my way and say a 'yes' to it unless it's an outright losing proposition for me. If not for anything else, I'll end up building a strong network by working with numerous people. Opportunities have a funny way of laddering up and eventually leading us to our destination so when we look back, the dots start to connect and it starts to make sense almost like it was destined. I am always amused when people ask me where I see myself in the next 5 years - honestly, I don't have any idea. I've never had any idea! I firmly believe in this adage -"“Inch by inch, life’s a cinch. Yard by yard, life’s hard.” Like Priyanka, I'd like to dabble in every opportunity that comes my way and give it my best shot and see where that'll take me in the long run. I am certain that foraying into multiple opportunities would eventually help me in developing an acumen that will let me move out of the frame to see the big picture and pick up winning opportunities for myself.
I recently watched this amazing Ted talk by organisational psychologist Adam Grant - The surprising habits of original thinkers which drove home the point that people succeed not in spite of bad ideas but they succeed because of them. This can also be used in the context of opportunity - people succeed not in spite of taking on bad opportunities but because of them (just as long as you are willing to learn and grow).