Greater Purpose Growth Mindset Passion

Finding Joy in the Journey

Manish Chandra

05.17.22

Manish Chandra’s family moved a lot when he was a boy. He credits his upbringing in India for his ability to adapt and seamlessly adjust to new conditions and situations. But Manish also welcomes the unexpected, and still finds joy in the journey.

Summary:

Manish Chandra’s family moved a lot when he was a boy. He credits his upbringing in India for his ability to adapt and seamlessly adjust to new conditions and situations. But Manish also welcomes the unexpected, and still finds joy in the journey.

Thuy

How have your experiences as an immigrant, and also the various companies that you have formed and your various challenges that came along with that, how have all those experiences shaped your understanding of adaptability to others in the workplace?
Manish_Chandra

Manish Chandra

Yeah, adaptability is, I think, probably the one thing that we’ve all needed in the last two years, but for me, it’s been a defining function of my life. Because when I was young, I was moving around through different cities, because my dad’s job was such that we were moving around. So, I had to change schools and meet new friends every two, three years. And for a set of circumstances, I ended up going to college at the age of 15, so I had to adapt to a very different sort of environment, living away from my parents. And then at 19, I came to the U.S. and arrived in Texas. So it was, again, a very different environment. But I think the thing that’s consistent across all of this is the people. If you can engage with the people that are local, accept them, embracing their weirdness, engaging with them with an open mind, it’s very powerful.
And so, to me, I’m always fascinated by the people I’m surrounded with, and really trying to understand and trying to sort of connect with them at a level that I can take it from their point of view, and hopefully, share a little bit about my journey. And through that shared understanding, a lot of good things happen. And that seems to be one thing.
And the second thing is looking at the circumstances and seeing where the economic opportunities are. And even in Silicon Valley, they shift every 5 to 10 years. And I think if you can continue to sort of identify and work with them, you can identify many different opportunities. And some opportunities to become real, some opportunities fade away, and some opportunities take a longer time to gestate and become real. And so Silicon Valley is definitely an area where you have to adapt, even within the same area. And what keeps you constant is the people relationships.
For me, I started my journey as a semiconductor working for Intel. And today, it’s all about helping people buy and sell shoes and dresses. So, it’s a journey, which has kind of taken a lot of different detours and who knows what the next decade is going to bring? Maybe it’s all about the metaverse. So, it’s kind of exciting to be on this journey. And if you treat it with excitement and sort of a little bit of the beginner’s eye, it’s actually a lot of fun.