Executive Coach | Your Copilot to a Fulfilling Life and Career Growth | Powered by the Ignite Life Method™ | Coached 1,200+ Leaders at Dropbox, Salesforce, Coinbase | Take the Quiz to See What Needs to Shift — Now

Do you feel that you are stuck in your career,
life overwhelmed with busyness, 
and you are disconnected from yourself... 
then we need to talk.

Most high achievers I coach aren’t broken — they’re just disconnected.

🚨 Disconnected from their purpose.
🚨 Disconnected from the work they once loved.
🚨 Disconnected from the life they truly want to live.

It shows up as: STUCK, FRUSTRATION, LOST.

❌ Career stagnation
❌ Constant firefighting
❌ Burnout masked as busyness
❌ Imposter syndrome despite success

I help ambitious professionals — founders, product leaders, and emerging executives — reignite clarity, rebuild courage, and create conscious impact using The Ignite Method™.

You don’t have to choose between growth and fulfilment. You can have both.

🔥 The Ignite Method™

1. Clarity Journey — Rediscover who you are and what truly matters.
2. Courage Building — Move through fear and start acting boldly.
3. Conscious Impact — Create a career and life that actually feels like success.
4. Cohesive Action — Align what you think, feel, and do every single day.

🎯 What My Clients Gain

✅ Unshakable clarity on what’s next
✅ Courage to make big, aligned decisions
✅ Confidence to lead teams or businesses with purpose
✅ Energy and ownership to thrive at work and at home

📍 A Bit About Me

- PCC Certified Coach (ICF)
- 1,200+ leaders coached in 18+ countries
- Clients from Google, Coinbase, Dropbox, Salesforce, Intel, EA Sports, Rubrik, Visa, Zynga and more
- TEDx Speaker: Can Fear Push Us to be Courageous? Google it!
- Founder, IgnitedNeurons — a platform helping build a culture of high performance, growth mindset and based in values!
- Building the IgnitedNeurons Podcast to extract lessons you and I can apply in everyday life

💼 If You’re Leading a Team or Organisation:
I also partner with founders, HR heads, and L&D leaders to design bold cultures, build values-driven teams, and humanise leadership.

📩 Ready to Take the First Step?
Take the free 5-minute Ignite Life Quiz to discover what’s holding you back.

Let’s ignite your next chapter.

Utkarsh Narang

Most career advice tells you to bounce back fast.

This story says something far more important.

At the 2026 Golden Globes, EJAE (Kim Eun Jae) accepted the award for Best Original Song for “Golden” from Netflix  Kpop Demon Hunters.
She became the first Korean-American to win at the Golden Globes.

But that’s not the part that matters most.

What matters is what came before the win.

She spent 10 years chasing one dream.
To become a K-pop idol.

She was rejected.
Told her voice wasn’t good enough.
Watched the original plan fall apart.

So she did what many of us are doing right now.

She adapted.

She leaned into what still worked.
She stayed close to her craft.
She rebuilt her identity instead of abandoning it.

And years later, she stood on that stage not as what she once wanted to be
but as something truer to who she was becoming.

Here’s why this matters if you’re:
• scared of being laid off
• already laid off
• quietly questioning your career path
• thinking about a pivot but afraid to start over

A detour is not a downgrade.
A rejection is not a verdict.
And changing direction is not failure.

Careers are not ladders anymore.
They are stories.

And the people who win long-term are not the ones who never get disrupted.
They are the ones who don’t let disruption silence their voice.

If you’re in a season of uncertainty, remember this:
Your next chapter does not need to look like your last one to be meaningful.

♻️ Repost this for someone navigating a career reset right now.
➕ Follow Utkarsh Narang for grounded perspectives on career change, resilience, and rebuilding with confidence.

Executive Coach Helping Ambitious Professionals Breakthrough Stuck Careers & Inner Frustration | Ignite Life Method™ | Coached 1,200+ Leaders at Dropbox, Salesforce, Coinbase | Take the Quiz to Reignite Yourself

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My dad hired a tennis coach at 70.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Seventy years old.
Retired.
Comfortable.

And yet, he decided to hire a tennis coach.

Not because he wants to compete.
Not because he wants to prove anything.
Just because he wants to get better.

That one decision stayed with me.

Most people slow down with age. They protect comfort.
They say things like, “What’s the point now?”

My dad doesn’t.

He shows up to the court.
Listens. Practises. Learns.

Like a beginner.

Watching him, I realised something important about growth.

Growth is not driven by fear of falling behind.
It is driven by love for learning.

No pressure. No urgency. Just curiosity.

As a son, it inspires me.

That is what I have always prioritised. Learning. Growing. 
Always asking what more and what’s next?

I thank my dad for it. 70 years. Racket in hand. On the court.

That’s discipline.
That’s presence.
That’s a quiet kind of courage.

And most of all, that’s love, for life, for movement, for becoming a little better than yesterday.

If I ever wonder what kind of man I want to be as I grow older, I don’t have to look far.

I just look at my dad.

If this lands, don’t rush past it. Sit with it.

Growth has no expiry date.

li_at

JSESSIONID

Talks about #personalgrowth, #bebettereveryday, #leadershiplessons, #utkarshbrainspark, and #leadershipcoaching

During one of the worst layoff periods at a global cryptocurrency company, I was coaching their senior leaders.

The market had turned. 
Pressure was relentless. 
Decisions were being made fast, often without the space to process the human cost.

The instinct was predictable.
“We need to rebuild fast.”
“Let’s hire stronger people.”
“Let’s bring in fresh energy.”

But that wasn’t the real problem.

The people being let go weren’t weak.
They weren’t uncommitted.
They weren’t unrealistic.

They were exhausted from uncertainty, confused by shifting priorities,
and slowly losing trust in how decisions were being made behind closed doors.

What finally changed things wasn’t a new hiring plan.

It was a harder, quieter set of conversations.

Leaders started asking different questions.
Not “How do we replace them?”
But “What made staying feel impossible?”

Layoffs don’t just reduce headcount.
They expose culture.

They amplify how safe it feels to speak up,
how clearly people understand the future,
and whether leaders default to control or clarity when things get uncomfortable.

If people keep leaving, hiring faster only treats the symptom.

The real work is understanding what your culture is teaching people about loyalty, growth, and honesty when the pressure is on.

Because the truth is simple and inconvenient: people don’t quit companies at scale, they quit environments where staying starts to feel like self-betrayal.

Before you open the next role, make sure the work environment you’re hiring into is one people would actually choose to stay in.

♻️If this resonated, repost it so someone else sees it today.
➕Follow Utkarsh Narang for more thinking on growth, resilience, and building momentum over time.

Did you know most people quit their goals by the second week of January?

Not because they’re incapable.
But because they’re relying on motivation instead of structure.

Motivation is unpredictable.
Systems are not.

The people who actually stick with their goals don’t “try harder.”
They design their environment to make follow-through easier.

That means:
• clear reminders
• real accountability
• visible tracking
• time protected on the calendar

If you’re feeling stuck, scattered, or unsure what to focus on next, clarity is the real starting point.

Take the Ignite Life Quiz to understand where you are right now and what deserves your energy next. 
(📌DM “Quiz” for the link)

♻️ Repost if this resonated.
➕ Follow Utkarsh Narang for practical thinking on career growth, transitions, and building stability in uncertain times.

1 simple way to stay more consistent with your 2026 goals

Most people see pressure as a sign they are doing something wrong.

But the people who grow see it differently.

Pressure often shows up right before something meaningful changes.
Not as a threat. As a signal.

The same goes for mistakes.

Not proof of failure.
Proof of engagement.

You only get feedback when you are actually in the arena.

The real shift is this:
stop taking friction personally.

Treat it as information.
Something to study, not escape.

Curiosity does what confidence cannot.
It keeps you moving when certainty disappears.

Growth does not come from ease.
It comes from staying present through discomfort and choosing to refine instead of retreat.

If things feel heavy right now, that does not mean you are off track.

It might mean you are finally working on something that matters.

♻️If this resonated, repost it so someone else sees it today.
➕Follow Utkarsh Narang for more thinking on growth, resilience, and building momentum over time.

You can’t change what you can’t measure.

Every January, we promise ourselves:
 “More clarity.”
 “More courage.”
 “More impact.”
 “Better habits.”

But most resolutions fade because there’s no baseline.

You don’t know:
 – where you’re clear
 – where you’re stuck
 – where you’re avoiding
 – where you’re actually making impact

And without that… change becomes guesswork.

Over years of coaching, I’ve seen this pattern repeat:
People don’t lack motivation. They lack visibility.

That’s why we built the Ignite Life Scorecard — a free tool to help you measure where you stand across:
 👉 Clarity
 👉 Courage
 👉 Action
 👉 Impact

No labels. No judgment.

Just an honest snapshot of where you are right now.

If you want 2026 to be intentional — not accidental — start by measuring.
👉 Take the free scorecard here: https://lnkd.in/gEYUvyea

Because awareness isn’t the end of growth. It’s the beginning.

Welcome to another beautiful week. When an idea sparks that I think is worth sharing, it becomes this weekly newsletter. If something hits home, write

Open article: You Can’t Change What You Can’t Measure by Utkarsh Narang • 3 min read

You Can’t Change What You Can’t Measure

A year ago, on January 1, 2025, the IgnitedNeurons podcast had 24 subscribers. 

Not 24 thousand.
Twenty-four.

There was no launch strategy.
No momentum.
No guarantee anyone would care.

Just a decision to show up… even when it felt pointless…
to have real conversations, hit publish, and do it again the next week.

Fast forward to January 1, 2026: 873 subscribers.

Still not viral.
Still not flashy.
But undeniably built.

Here’s what changed in that year:
not my talent,
not my confidence,
not my circumstances.

What changed was that I stopped waiting to feel ready
and started acting like the life I wanted was already under construction.

Most people don’t fail because they aim too low.
They fail because they keep rehearsing a better future
instead of tolerating the boredom and doubt of building one.

One year will pass anyway.
The question is whether you’ll be able to point to something real or just another version of the same wish.

What are you quietly committing to build this year, even if no one’s watching yet?

♻️ Repost if this feels like the right reminder for this stage of the year.
➕ Follow Utkarsh Narang for more clarity on growth and inner work.

I took a two-week break from work recently.

It was calm.
It was slow.
It was peaceful.

And yet, something felt uncomfortable.

Not because of money.
Not because of pressure.

I was okay on that front.

The discomfort came from somewhere else.

Freedom isn’t time off. It’s knowing what you return to.

Work gives me energy.
It gives me joy. It gives me a sense of who I am.

During the break, I realised how much I value that.

We are often told that if you truly love life, you should want to escape work.
That wanting to return means you are trapped or over-attached.

That isn’t true for me.

When I came back to work on January 5, it felt… right. Almost joyful. Not because I had to work. But because I wanted to.

That moment taught me something important.

Freedom is not about getting away from work. Freedom is about choosing work that gives you energy instead of taking it away.

If something lights you up, don’t push it aside. Don’t feel guilty about it. Don’t let someone else’s definition of balance make you doubt yourself.

Hold on to it.

And if you haven’t found that yet, keep going.

Try new things.
Change direction.
Learn about yourself.

There is a place where effort feels meaningful.
Where work feels like contribution, not compromise.

When you find it, you won’t need convincing.

You’ll feel it.

♻️ Repost if this feels like the right reminder for this stage of the year.
➕ Follow Utkarsh Narang for more clarity on growth and inner work.

I have learned to enjoy my own company.

This didn’t come naturally to me.

There was a time when silence felt heavy.
When being alone felt like something was missing.

So I filled the gaps. Anything to avoid sitting with myself.

Over time, I realised something uncomfortable.

If I couldn’t be alone with my own thoughts, no amount of company would fix that.

So I started small.

Early mornings.
Quiet walks.
Journaling with no agenda.

At first, it was awkward.
My mind kept wandering.
I wanted to reach for my phone.

But slowly, solitude stopped feeling empty.

It started feeling honest.

In solitude, there is no performance. No role to play. No one to impress.

Just you, as you are.

That’s where I hear myself most clearly.
That’s where I notice what excites me and what drains me.
That’s where my values show up without being forced.

Solitude is not loneliness.

It is presence.

It is choosing to sit with your life instead of escaping it.

And the more comfortable I became with my own company, the richer my relationships became. With my work, family, and with myself.

Now, I protect my solitude.

Not because I want to disconnect from the world. 

But because it helps me show up fully when I do.

The most important relationship you’ll ever build
is the one you have with yourself.

A reminder for the first week of the new year.

Stress is rarely about pressure.
It is about postponement.

❗️The email you are avoiding.
❗️The decision you keep circling.
❗️The conversation you know you need to have.

Unfinished things quietly drain more energy than hard work ever will.

This year does not need a perfect plan.
It needs movement.

✅ One small action today can release weeks of mental weight.

If 2026 is about anything, let it be this:
Do the thing you keep delaying.

Momentum follows action.

♻️Repost if this feels like the right way to start the year.
➕Follow Utkarsh Narang for more reflections on growth, leadership, and clarity.

Getting Joshua Freedman on the IgnitedNeurons  Podcast didn’t happen because of reach, status, or a perfectly crafted pitch.

It happened because of patience.

I reached out.
Then I waited.
Then I followed up, respectfully.
Across platforms - LinkedIn. Email.
Not chasing. Not spamming. Just staying present.

And I did it with love, one of my core values.

There were long gaps with no response.
Moments where it would have been easy to assume disinterest and move on quietly.
But something told me to stay consistent.

Eventually, he said yes.

What followed wasn’t just an episode.
It became one of the most powerful conversations I’ve had on emotional intelligence - 
deep, grounded, honest, and deeply human.

That moment reminded me of something I keep relearning:

The best things in life often come not from intensity,
but from sincerity sustained over time.

Perseverance doesn’t always look loud.
Sometimes it looks like showing up again, calmly, without entitlement.

Grateful for the conversation.
Grateful for the patience it took to get there.
And grateful for what happens when values lead the way.

Leadership isn’t about your resume.
It’s about your ripple effect.

Want to be remembered?
Leave people better than you found them.

✅Speak truth.
✅Stand for something.
✅Choose compassion over ego.
✅Listen more than you talk.

That’s the real scoreboard:

→ Not your position, but your presence
→ Not your awards, but your actions
→ Not your accolades, but your attitude

Robin Sharma said it best:

“Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, influence and inspiration.”

How you lead matters.
But how you make others feel, that’s what endures.

Be someone who lifts others.
It’s the kind of wealth that multiplies.

♻️ Repost if this hit home
➕ Follow Utkarsh Narang for more on human-centered leadership

Six months from now, you’ll either have....

six months of real progress behind you
or six months of very reasonable excuses.

I’ve learned this over the years:

You don’t grow because you’re the smartest person in the room. 

You grow because you are deliberate, intentional, and willing to sit with discomfort longer than you’d like.

Most of the time, the thing holding you back isn’t lack of ability.

It’s avoidance —
> of the hard conversation,
> the awkward decision,
> the honest admission that something in life or work is no longer working.

It’s easier to stay busy than to be brave.

Easier to explain why now isn’t the right time than to admit you are scared of what happens if you actually try.

Six months will pass whether you confront this 
or keep negotiating with yourself.
 
The question isn’t whether time will move.
It’s whether you will.

When you look back, you don’t regret moving too slowly.

You regret the periods where you knew better and chose comfort anyway.
Six months from now, you want evidence... not intention.

If this hit, you already know what you’ve been avoiding.

Save this to re-ignite that spark and follow Utkarsh Narang for more!

I need to admit something. I am being vulnerable here.

Selling does not come naturally to me.

I love deep conversations. Meaning. Reflection. Human connection.

Sales calls used to feel like a performance. I’d walk in hoping they’d like me. Hoping they’d say yes. Hoping I wouldn’t mess it up.

And every time I needed the outcome… I stopped being myself.

Then I learned a concept from Daniel Priestley that changed everything:

“With or without you” energy.

It doesn’t mean I don’t care. It doesn’t mean I’ll succeed at your expense.

It means this: I want you with me. But my success is not dependent on your approval.

The moment I started walking into conversations with that energy:
– the pressure disappeared
– the conversation deepened
– I stopped performing and started practising my craft

I was no longer trying to convince. I was trying to understand.

People don’t respond to desperation.
They respond to calm conviction.

So here’s a question for you:

👉 Where in your life or work are you needing the outcome a little too much?

Try walking in with “with or without you” energy this week. Care deeply. Release the outcome.

That’s not arrogance. That’s leadership.

Open article: With or Without You Energy by Utkarsh Narang • 3 min read

One of the most important mindset shifts I have learned over the years is this:

The question you ask determines the direction you grow.

“Why is this happening to me?”
keeps you focused on the problem.

“What is this trying to teach me?”
moves you into agency.

The moment you switch questions, you switch power.

Nothing magically becomes easier.
But you stop feeling helpless inside the situation.

In leadership, in careers, in personal growth
this shift separates people who stay stuck
from people who evolve through difficulty.

❌Growth is not about avoiding hard seasons.
✅It is about extracting wisdom from them.

That is how experience turns into maturity.

♻️If this resonates, repost it for someone navigating a hard moment.
➕Follow Utkarsh Narang for more clarity on growth, leadership, and inner work.

We romanticize success.
But survival comes first.

Tesla didn’t grow in a straight line.
It stayed alive long enough to figure things out.

That’s the part most people skip.

Before scale comes stability.
Before dominance comes endurance.
Before momentum comes survival.

If you’re in a phase where the goal is simply to last,
you’re not failing.

You’re building the foundation that growth requires.

Survive first.
Refine next.
Scale later.

♻️ Repost if this reframes how you see slow or difficult seasons.
➕ Follow Utkarsh Narang for more clarity on growth, resilience, and long-term thinking.

Comfort rarely looks dangerous.

It looks like stability.
Familiar routines.
Staying “reasonable.”

But comfort has a quiet cost.

❌It delays hard conversations.
❌It postpones decisions you already know you need to make.
❌It keeps you busy, but not moving.

Failure, at least, gives feedback.
Comfort gives none.

Most careers don’t stall because people fail too much.
They stall because people wait too long.

If something has been on your mind for months, maybe years, it’s probably not going away on its own.

Discomfort is often the price of growth.
Avoiding it is often the reason dreams fade.

♻️ If this made you pause, repost it.
➕ Follow Utkarsh Narang for grounded thinking on growth, career transitions, and building momentum without burning out.

Most people want business ideas.
They just don’t look in the right place.

They look outward.
Markets. Trends. Tools. Tactics.

But some of the most powerful ideas come from lived experience.

On the latest episode of the IgnitedNeurons Podcast, I sat down with Bart Merrell, an entrepreneur who believes that life’s challenges often carry the seeds of opportunity.

We spoke about:
• Why setbacks are not wasted
• How adversity can become an asset
• The “lemonade stand” mindset for entrepreneurship
• When monetization makes sense and when it doesn’t
• Why perspective matters more than strategy

This conversation is not about hustling harder.
It’s about seeing differently.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your experiences matter, this episode might shift how you think about work, business, and opportunity.

🎧 Listen on Spotify and Youtube!

♻️If this resonates, support IgnitedNeurons Podcast by sharing it with someone who’s navigating a challenge and wondering what to do next.

Your brain is not stuck.
It is trained.

And anything trained
can be retrained.

Every reaction you repeat
teaches your nervous system what to expect.

Tension becomes familiar.
Chaos feels normal.
Rest can feel unsafe.

Healing is not a personality change.
It is a pattern change.

Pausing instead of reacting.
Choosing calm on purpose.
Staying present when avoidance feels easier.

By now, the new year energy has settled.
This is when real change begins.

Not loud.
Not rushed.
But consistent.

You are not broken.
You are rewiring.

♻️ Repost if this feels like the right reminder for this stage of the year.
➕ Follow Utkarsh Narang for more clarity on growth and inner work.

Most people wait for permission
before they begin.

The right title.
The right funding.
The right room.

But progress rarely starts in boardrooms.
It starts in garages.
Side projects.
Rough drafts no one applauds.

Apple did not begin fully formed.
Neither do ideas worth building.

Small starts are not a disadvantage.
They are an advantage.

They force clarity.
They reward focus.
They build resilience early.

Start smaller than you want.
Think bigger than feels reasonable.
And keep going longer than feels comfortable.

That is how most meaningful things are built.

♻️Repost if this is the reminder you needed.
➕Follow Utkarsh Narang for more clarity on growth, leadership, and long-term thinking.

Business Consultant - Construction, Earthmoving, Material Handling, Sales Management | Motivational Speaker | Trainer | Storyteller | Personal Mission: To help 10,000+ sales professional excel... |

With over 35 years of distinguished experience in Sales and Marketing, I have forged my expertise within the Construction, Earthmoving, Material Handling, Concrete Equipment, and Mining industries, extending my impact across Pan India and Southeast Asia. 

Throughout my tenure, I've had the privilege of collaborating closely with over 1500 sales executives, operating seamlessly within both company teams and dealer networks. My contributions have extended to over 10,000 sales transactions, solidifying partnerships with more than 32 esteemed dealers. This extensive experience has afforded me the unique ability to discern critical gaps in the Indian approach to this industry.

In response to these observations, I've meticulously crafted specialized training modules tailored for Construction Equipment OEMs. These modules are meticulously designed to bolster individual and organizational performance and enhance productivity.

Training modules I've conceptualized and delivered:
1.	Salesperson Effectiveness: Empowering our sales force with the differentiation strategies crucial for success in this industry.
2.	Annual Plan Preparation: Crafting and executing victorious, product-specific annual plans to attain challenging goals effectively.
3.	Salesperson's Effectiveness: Equipping sales professionals with techniques to channel their focus exclusively towards selling activities, thus elevating efficiency.
4.	Territory Planning: Implementing an innovative approach to optimize territory plans, resulting in maximum customer outreach and a reduced "order per km travel" ratio.
5.	Art of Prospecting: Instilling scientific prospecting methodologies to ensure we seize the initiative in reaching potential customers.
6.	Sales Manager Role: Guiding sales managers in assuming the role of territory CEOs, transcending from senior sales roles to strategic management.
7.	Market Share: In-depth exploration of the constituents of market share, along with strategies to control and enhance factors within our sphere of influence.

In the past three years, I've had the distinct privilege of delivering these impactful training programs to esteemed organizations, including Tata Hitachi, Doosan Bobcat, Manitou India, Ammann India and Hailstone Innovations, while also training over 400 sales executives. 

Beyond these endeavors, I am deeply committed to sharing my insights and expertise as a Guest Speaker at prestigious Management Institutes, where I've addressed over 500 students. Many of these students maintain regular contact with me, seeking guidance and mentorship.

Sanjay Pendharkar

Size Doesn’t Win Games, Mindset Does

“The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life.” — Carol Dweck

A short video recently caught my attention. In it, a 10-year-old girl, during a basketball exhibition, consistently outplays and scores against a taller, stronger, and older opponent.

The adult had every physical advantage. But she had the only one that mattered: an unshakable, winning mindset. She wasn’t just playing the player; she was playing a game in her mind where she had already won.

This isn’t just a cute sports moment. It’s a masterclass in what separates high achievers from the rest in business and in life. 

We often believe that resources, size, experience, or title are the ultimate advantages. But true breakthrough comes from the internal software we run on: our mindset.

Here’s what the girl on the court can teach us about winning our own professional games:

🔴 Focus on Your Footwork, Not Their Height. She didn’t lament the height difference; she relied on superior dribbling and agility. In our world, this means stop focusing on your competitor’s market share or your department’s smaller budget. Double down on your unique processes, customer service, and nimbleness. Perfect your own footwork.

✅ Play to Your Strategy, Not Their Game. She used her speed and low center of gravity to her advantage, forcing the adult to play her game. Don’t get sucked into competing on terms set by others. If you’re a startup, don’t try to out-spend a giant. Out-innovate, out-connect, and out-hustle them. Define the rules.

💡 See the Opportunity, Not Just the Obstacle. Where others saw a mismatched opponent, she saw a chance to test her skills against a bigger challenge. In projects, view tight deadlines, limited resources, or new problems not as barriers, but as the very conditions that force genius and innovation to surface.

🔥 Belief is Your Most Potent Skill. Before any basket was made, she knew she could score. That confidence shaped every move. Self-doubt is a tax on performance. Cultivate a belief in your preparation and your team’s ability. That internal certainty changes your posture, your decisions, and ultimately, your results.

We all face Goliaths, a daunting market, a veteran competitor, a seemingly impossible target. 

The lesson from a 36-second video is clear: you can be outsized but never out-thought, out-resourced but never out-willed.

Stop measuring the gap in size. Start believing in the power of your mindset. The net is the same size for everyone; it’s the approach that determines what goes in.

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.” — Henry Ford

How Your Mistakes Increase Your Value

“The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.” – Stephen McCranie

There’s a powerful 55-second video that compares personal growth to the transformation of everyday foods. 

It shows that when milk sours, it becomes yogurt, a more valuable product. If it sours further, it becomes even more valuable cheese.

Grape juice, when fermented, turns into prized wine.

The lesson? The process that seems like spoilage is often the very thing that creates greater worth.

This isn't just a cute analogy; it's a revolutionary framework for handling failure in our professional and personal lives.

We’ve been taught to fear mistakes, to see them as stains on our record. What if we saw them instead as the essential "fermentation" required to become a more seasoned, innovative, and resilient version of ourselves?

Here’s how to reframe your relationship with error and let it build your value:

✔ Mistakes are Data, Not Identity. Just as spoiled milk isn’t “bad,” it’s just entering a new state, your error doesn’t make you a failure. It provides critical feedback. Separating your self-worth from the mistake is the first step to learning from it.

✅ The "Fermentation" Phase is Non-Negotiable. You cannot rush cheese or wine. The period after a mistake, feeling awkward, analyzing, and adjusting is your fermentation. It’s where the real magic of learning and adaptation happens. Don’t short-circuit it with self-blame; lean into it with curiosity.

🔬 Breakthroughs Are Often "Contaminations." Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin came from a "contaminated" petri dish. In your work, a deviation from the perfect plan (a missed deadline that forces a process rethink, a client objection that improves your product) can be the source of your greatest innovation.

💎 Experience is Compounded Value. A glass of milk and a wedge of aged cheese cost vastly different amounts because of processed time. Your value in the marketplace increases not with a flawless record, but with a rich repository of lessons learned through trial, error, and recovery.

🚀 Perfect Practice Requires Imperfect Reps. The video reminds us: “It is not practice that makes perfect. It is mistakes we learn from that make perfect.” 

Aim for practice that includes mistakes, because that’s the only practice that truly teaches you where the edges are.

Stop seeing your stumbles as signs of decay. Start viewing them as the beginning of a transformative process.

Share that video with your team. Normalize the discussion of “intelligent failures” in your projects. 

When you feel the sourness of a setback, ask yourself: What more valuable thing is this trying to transform me into?

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” – George Bernard Shaw

#sanjayinspiresindia

VC: Unknown on social media. I am not the owner.

The Invisible Scar Every Sales Professional Carries

"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't—you're right." — Henry Ford

I recently watched a video by Dr. Shadé Zahrai, a leadership strategist, discussing a mind-blowing 1970s experiment that every sales professional needs to hear about.

Psychology professor Robert Kleck at Dartmouth drew fake scars on people's faces, let them see themselves in a mirror, then secretly removed the scars before sending them into conversations with strangers. 

The twist? These people still believed they had scars and reported feeling judged, dismissed, and treated poorly. But here's the kicker: the scar was never there.

Sound familiar? That's because we're all walking into meetings, pitches, and client calls carrying invisible scars from past rejections, failed deals, and imposter syndrome, and we're convinced everyone can see them.

Here's what this experiment teaches us about sales and leadership:
✅ Your belief shapes your reality- If you walk into a pitch expecting rejection, your body language, tone, and energy will telegraph that expectation. Clients don't reject you because of your "scar," they respond to the energy you bring.

💼 Confidence isn't about being perfect- It's about not letting your perceived flaws control the narrative. That lost deal last quarter? That awkward cold call? They're only scars if you believe they are.

🎯 People mirror your self-perception- When you show up believing you're not good enough, people unconsciously treat you that way. When you show up owning your value, they lean in.

✔ The scar is in your head, not on your face- Most clients aren't thinking about your last failure, your lack of experience, or that you're new to the industry. You are. And it's costing you deals.

So how do you remove your invisible scar?
🔸 Rewrite your pre-meeting story- Before every call, remind yourself: "I bring value. I solve problems. I belong here."
🔸 Focus outward, not inward- Stop obsessing over what they think of you. Start obsessing over how you can help them.
🔸 Collect evidence of your worth- Keep a "wins folder" of testimonials, closed deals, and positive feedback. Read it before big meetings.
🔸 Act as if- Even if you don't feel confident yet, act like someone who does. Your brain will catch up.

The most successful salespeople aren't the ones without scars; they're the ones who've stopped letting invisible scars control how they show up. 

Your past failures, rejections, and insecurities don't define you unless you let them. The moment you stop believing in the scar is the moment it disappears.

So next time you're about to walk into that high-stakes meeting, ask yourself: Am I carrying a scar that isn't even there? Because if you are, you're the only one who can remove it.

#sanjayinspiresindia

VC: Unknown on social media. I am not the owner.

Do You Really Know What You're Selling?

“The customer rarely buys what the company thinks it is selling.” — Peter Drucker

Think about the last time you confidently presented your product, service, or even an idea. You knew its features, its price, its appearance. 

But when challenged, when a client asked, “Why you and not them?”did your answer dissolve into vague claims of “quality” or “excellence”?

This isn't just a sales problem. It's a universal blind spot. 

We fall in love with our own offering, the "what," and neglect the crucial, compelling "why".

We know it intimately, but we haven't defined it critically in the landscape where it actually exists. 

True knowledge isn't about reciting a spec sheet; it's about understanding your unique space in the ecosystem of choices.

Here is how you move from superficial familiarity to defensible expertise:

✅ Sell the Hole, Not the Drill
People don’t want a quarter-inch drill bit; they want a quarter-inch hole. Are you listing features, or are you painting a picture of the transformation you provide? Know the problem you solve so deeply that your product becomes the obvious, emotional answer.

🔥 Your Competitor is Your Best Teacher
If you don’t know their offerings as well as your own, you’re navigating blindfolded. Conduct a “competitive autopsy.” Understand their messaging, their strengths, and, more importantly, their gaps. Your unique advantage lives in the difference.

🛡️ Build Your “Why Us?” Fortress
Anyone can say they’re “the best.” Your job is to prove it with a crystal-clear, one-sentence value proposition. What can you truly deliver that others can’t? Is it a faster result, a painless process, or unparalleled support? Hone this until it’s unshakable.

🎯 Know the Terrain of Your Customer’s Mind
What are they really comparing you to? It might not be a direct competitor, but a substitute, the status quo, or even the decision to do nothing. Your real battle is for their attention and belief. Speak to the anxieties they haven’t even voiced.

💎 Articulate Your Invisible Value
The real magic often lies in what isn’t seen: the reliability built into a process, the expertise of your team, the peace of mind you guarantee. Make the intangible tangible. Give it a name and a value.

This deeper knowing transforms you. It turns pressure into poise. It replaces scripted pitches with powerful, authentic conversations. You stop selling a commodity and start championing a unique solution.

Audit your knowledge today. Line up your “product” next to the alternatives. If you can’t instantly, convincingly articulate why it deserves to be chosen, you have your most important work ahead of you.

“You can’t convince someone of your value if you haven’t first defined it for yourself.”

#sanjayinspiresindia

VC: Unknown on social media. I am not the owner.

You Spend Your Life Defending Something You Didn't Choose.

"The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. The minds which are prevented from changing their opinions cease to be minds." — Friedrich Nietzsche

A thought-provoking video by Coral Santoro recently caught my attention. She shares a piercing observation, quoting philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer: that in our first five minutes of life, we are assigned a name, a nationality, and a religion. "You spend the rest of your life," she notes, "defending something you didn't choose."

This isn't just a philosophical idea. It's the central trap of stagnant leadership and a stagnant career. We inherit so much we didn't choose: legacy processes, outdated strategies, "the way things have always been," and even limiting beliefs about our own roles.

At work, this exhausting defense shows up as:
🔄 The Enduring "Because": "We do it this way because that's how my predecessor did it."
🛡️ The Tribal Defense: Automatically defending your department's poor performance in cross-functional meetings, not to seek solutions, but to protect turf.
📜 The Identity Lock: "I'm the numbers person, not the creative one," or "I'm just an operations manager," clinging to a title as if it's a permanent label.

We burn priceless energy defending these inherited positions instead of using that energy to build and choose what comes next.

The pivotal shift is this: move from being a defender of a handed-down reality to the architect of a chosen one. Your past role is not your future identity. The company's past strategy is not its only future.

✅ Audit Your Defenses: What outdated process, belief, or limitation are you spending the most energy justifying or defending? Name it.
✅ Separate Inheritance from Choice: Ask, "Did I consciously choose this approach, or did I inherit it?" The moment you see the inheritance, you can decide to keep it or change it.
🔥 Choose One Thing to Re-author: This week, identify one inherited "rule" in your sphere—a reporting format, a meeting structure, a communication habit—and redesign it with intention. Announce: "We've done it this way, but I believe we can choose a better way."
💡 Lead Your Team Through the Shift: Encourage your people by saying: "We are not obligated to defend what we inherited. We are responsible for building what we believe in."

Your origin story in a company, your starting role, the team you inherited, the problems you found on day one is just data. It is not your destiny. The most powerful leaders are not defenders of the castle walls; they are the visionaries who design the blueprint for an entirely new city.

Stop defending the version of the professional the world assigned you. Start building the one you choose.

#sanjayinspiresindia

VC: Unknown on social media. I am not the owner.

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The Battle

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Utkarsh Narang's LinkedIn Performance

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