Take risks, focus, never stop learning: The Nandan Nilekani method to success

Nandan Nilekani is a name not many who aspire to climb up the corporate ladder are unaware of. The entrepreneur turned bureaucrat and politician, who co-founded Infosys, served as the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and helped in the creation of Aadhar, and currently heads TAGUP (the government of India’s technology committee), apart from penning the globally-acclaimed book: ‘Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation’.

With a career as expansive, Nilekani has served witness to many undulations across the business industry, capturing insights and learnings over the years.

Success, risk, focus
With a net worth of $2.1 billion, Nilekani’s mantra for success goes beyond simple hard-work. For the top boss, risk-taking is as, if not more important. And this has been reflective in his initiative with UIDAI - he had more deterrents than incentives at the beginning, with the initiative presenting no guarantee of success and severe consequences if it were to fail. However, undeterred effort led him to success with the Aadhar system.


Nilekani also emphasises the importance of ‘focus’. According to him, “A goal can never be accomplished unless a target is fixed. No matter what you do, without right focus, success is difficult.”

Never stop moving
Another essential-for-success quality to learn from the entrepreneur is his unending desire to achieve, regardless of how established he is. This escapade from complacency has led him to heights of success in several areas of work. In a 2010 interview to Forbes, he reasoned taking on UIDAI, saying, “I thrive on challenges and new intellectual issues. I had to show that I could execute something outside my normal world. So there was that desire to prove myself again.”

He keeps this never-stop-moving attitude alive through constant learning as well. The India Inc boss advises young students to do the same by engaging in ‘lifelong learning’ - a process of acquiring knowledge in bursts, anytime, anywhere. This, Nilekani believes, is a useful way to remain relevant in a world wherein machines have the potential to outsmart humans.

Philanthropy

For this top boss, money is about the choices it brings. He feels empowered in his ability to give it away, as he feels that is money’s most important value. It is in this spirit that he gave half of his earnings away as part of the Giving Pledge - an elite network of the world's wealthiest individuals committing half their wealth to philanthropy.

In an earlier interview to ET Now, he details his take on the forum saying, “Giving was already part of our DNA. It has always been there. But this was a way to become part of a group that was looking at the same kind of problems worldwide.”

However, his inspiring efforts aren’t limited to just money. He has co-founded the non-profit organisation - ‘Ekstep’ to better education and has worked relentlessly towards other social issues as well. This philanthropic disposition of the entrepreneur is another one of his qualities one should aim to inculcate.