Find you mojo – By Rethinking Success

Mojo

–      A quality that attracts people to you and makes you successful and full of energy: Cambridge Dictionary

–      To be able to find something you like doing, and to do it with passion, zeal, energy and enthusiasm: Urban Dictionary

For a few years now, I have been working with business and social leaders, young entrepreneurs, writers and artists and many others seeking to rediscover their mojo. The primary space for this work is Reflections, an offsite programme run at specific times of the year, usually in Uttarakhand. Many participants have benefitted and truly rediscovered their mojo.

This is the story of one such person who benefited from being a part of Reflections.

What does it take to effectively control diabetes when medication seemingly does not work?

Alok Agrawal, an IIT and IIM alumnus, Group COO of one of the largest media companies in the country, asked himself this question as he stared at his Hb1ac report that showed a score of 9.8! The upper limit is 6.5, give or take a few decimal points. For the first time in his life he admitted to himself that something was missing and what he had done so far to beat his restlessness was not going to work anymore.

Dream Run But….

To explain a little, Alok’s career journey had been what most people dream of. Starting off in advertising, he made his way to the very top of a multi-national agency. The characteristic restlessness had already made an appearance and he tackled it in his own inimitable style of plunging into something bigger that earned him even bigger bucks and larger perks. He quit advertising to join as the CEO of a news channel and then went on to head a clutch of channels and multi-million dollar deals. However, did that dissipate his restlessness? No it didn’t. The dissatisfaction mounted.  

In personal interactions he had begun to sound cynical and frustrated even though he continued to do well in his job. He missed the creativity and ideas driven work of advertising but had no desire to return. Once again Alok put his dissatisfaction down to the organisation and that job. Health, he argued, was a ‘personal’ problem – a family inheritance and his frustration was linked to his ‘professional’ issues with the organisation. Besides, the job did not allow him time to exercise or diet properly. He did what he had done so far – changed his job. This time the group was larger, had a reputation of being more professional and his job was bigger. After the first few months all the restlessness returned. One year later, he was staring at his 9.8 diabetes report and thinking how life and everything he had been doing seemed so incomplete.

Alok finally admitted to himself that he had lost the drive and passion. To put it in a nutshell, he had lost his mojo.

What Alok was experiencing was not a unique phenomenon. His diagnosis of the reasons for frustration, that it was about the job and that it had no connection with his personal or other self, is also a common misconception. I see it all the time in successful leaders. In Alok’s case he had not allowed himself to question what he really wanted to do with his life. The glitter of the 8-figure salary had blinded him to the fact that he had failed to move out of the paradigm of ‘success’ and find his real ‘Purpose’. His journey to a happier state of being, of enthusiasm, energy and spreading positivity started when he was willing to revisit that paradigm.

The Unpacking at Reflections and Beyond

It wasn’t easy but Alok, with a little help through the facilitated journey in Reflections , started the process of asking himself the tough questions of what really mattered and what he wanted to do. ‘Finding Purpose’ or ‘Finding your Mojo’ for most people is a difficult and messy process. There will be many false starts but each of those takes us closer to something that really gets our mojo going again. Alok quit his job and after a period of doing nothing started exploring. He became active on social media and soon became a popular blogger on various issues. That attracted many start-ups and businesses to him and he found himself in the role of a mentor. That was energising for him and in turn his mentees were touched by his positivity, energy and ideas. The interesting shift in his outlook was the move from thinking about ‘valuation’ and revenue to being of real service to people. He began finding joy in helping others find solutions.

Finding his Mojo and Redefining Success

Alok has now moved on to being a consultant who helps organisations and people think innovatively. He has married his love for ideas and creativity with a deep desire to help others unlock their creativity. And of course, he makes money from it too, not the multi eight figure as yet but enough to keep his mojo going.

When I called him the other day to seek his permission to share his story, he mentioned a coincidence – he was sitting with his latest Hb1ac report and the score was 6.4! Purpose added to his prescription, had worked.

I invited him for a cup of tea and he suggested we meet over something more toxic! Mojo, when it gets going is like that, magical, full of happy surprises and entirely diabetes-friendly.

What is your mojo story? Share here and let it inspire those who are seeking it.

Sanjeev Roy is the founder of Bullzi Inc. Amongst other things, he is a Coach and runs Reflections – a programme for leaders to reinvent, recharge and-re-energize themselves. By Finding the Best in themselves. 

The next Reflections programme is scheduled between the 10th and 13th of April, 2019. Write in if you too want to find your mojo.

An edited version of this article first appeared in the Mint on 22nd January, 2019