Date: 7 October 2022
We all are in a continuous deliberative development phase. Continuity is the essence of any work. A river is able to flow through the different obstacles on its path not because of its speed but because of its persistence. Persistence is a winning quality conquered by only a few out of thousands.
In this episode of The Payal Nanjiani Leadership Podcast, Payal Nanjiani a Leadership expert, world-renowned executive coach, and a New York award-winning author goes one on one with -Hersh Bhandari | Chief operating officer of Republic Media Network. You can listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.
Payal: What would you say is the secret of your growth?
Hersh: I was extremely passionate in whatever I did and whatever responsibility was given to me, I would probably give it more than 100 percent. In that course, I did not even attach a definite success title or a definite success expectation. I think the intent and good work allowed me to build it up to the next level.
Another thing was that I never took it for granted, whatever work I was doing and however the growth was happening. I felt that you don’t have the same run throughout the journey or number of years you are working for an organization. Look at each year differently, keep revolving around yourself, keep changing your approach, and start something new. That kind of helped me. I did not attach it to any particular destination. I enjoyed the journey. I did not attach it to any results or as such. Persistence, passion, grounded and taking challenges as it comes without having expectations in return, that’s what has helped me.
Payal: How would you personally define the word persistent?
Hersh: For me, persistence is basically, don’t take any challenges thrown at you as an unacceptable or impossible kind of scenario. I see different kinds of science, whenever in my career, I have been thrown into a difficult situation or a difficult assignment or cornered to a particular place. I always saw the bright side of it, that if I kind of turn up, I have one more addition of my learnings which I can use later. Persistence to me is constantly trying your best and asking yourself if better is possible. I also take a lot of inspiration from our mythology. One of my mentors mentioned it to me and I also believe in that. Goddess Lakshmi and Saraswathi the two inspirations we look at. Lakshmi sits on a lotus and it can move in any direction but Saraswathi sits on a rock. So I always give more importance to knowledge than the money part of it. Money talks, wealth whispers. In Pepe, my job profile required 15 days of travel every month. I would go to the south and come back, go the way back, 15 days of travel on the road, on the train. My best learning has been that. For me it was like a marathon school because I started understanding the pulse of people, every station I met people, and every train journey I met people, I have realized that Jaipur is different from Udaipur and Udaipur is very different from Bhopal and how people think and what sort of language they connect with, how they connect emotionally and all. That was knowledge.
Similarly, it happened to me in the media industry also. There were certain assignments that were not mainstream, and not very glamorous. They were not assignments that anybody would look at but I saw learnings out of it and somewhere that kind of helped me in lateral thinking, in whatever I did next. I took the best practices of each and implemented them. When you have the right function, finance follows you.
Payal: Is there a reason you advocate persistence?
Hersh: Well, I think I take my inspiration from sports. It is a constant search for excellency which gives you no option but to be persistent at any given time. You may be good at what you are doing but it may not be good enough at a particular challenge that you have got at a particular moment. We can see the best example of this in the last three years. We are all running on a treadmill ride. Be persistent in whatever you do. You are persistent with your family, your daily work, daily routine because without that you can’t get any. It’s a daily routine. We all have rhythm in our bodies. The rhythm of the body listens only to persistence. It’s constant progress.
The rhythm of the body listens only to persistence.
