Finding One’s Calling: Gurcharan Das & Pavan Choudary Discuss at The Blue Circle's Event

The Blue Circle organized its latest event on 25^th May 2018 at The Leela, Gurgaon where Gurcharan Das spoke on “Making a Life vs. Making a Living”. The talk was moderated by Pavan Choudary and was attended by a distinguished audience of more than seventy CEOs and Industrialists.

Gurcharan Das (R) in Conversation with Pavan Choudary (L)

The Blue Circle is an exclusive community of like-minded & Thinking Industry Leaders. A community that learns, entertains and bonds together in an atmosphere of trust and true friendship.

The discussion began with Gurcharan Das citing Freud, “One is happy if the people he works with and the people he lives with at home are happy.” And added that earlier a job had only to provide an income whereas today people seek purpose, creativity, contribution and status through a job. How can one find such a job? How can one find one’s calling?

Pavan said, “The romantic world view is that every talented person will somehow experience a pull from his calling almost spontaneously. One’s professional destiny would be just revealed to him. This we know is a myth. Finding one’s calling requires wide exposure, wise assistance and often many years of searching.”

Gurcharan Das proposed that the greatest works which have been written in fiction and non-fiction should be studied by the parent, teacher and the student. He strongly recommended reading the 100 greatest books.

Pavan underscored the importance of this by saying that different eras have been repositories of different kinds of wisdom. Many of these streams of thought have got lost, muddled or submerged. These 100 books help you rescue these lost nuggets and make your understanding about life more well-rounded.

Siddharth Anand, the founder of Blue Circle said, “Currently Ashoka University, is the only institution in India which runs the 100 Greatest books program. Through its Future Leaders Program, The Blue Circle selected two fellowship students from Ashoka University who got a chance to attend this event and interact with distinguished guests.”

Both Gurcharan & Pavan happened to be fans of Marcel Proust, the early 20^th century French Writer who after years of social climbing, on reaching the “high society” found that wealthy or famous people were neither the most virtuous nor the most interesting nor wise. He came to the conclusion that virtues, vices and even intellect are scattered irrespective of wealth or renown throughout the society. We must similarly expect wisdom to be sparsely scattered across society and be looking out for it and ready to receive it from any quarter.

Siddharth said, “Aware of these learnings, Blue Circle members are chosen through a careful screening process, through a Credibility Scoring Test that it has developed. Our objective is to assist Leaders in collaborating with people of their kind to learn and grow together.” Prospective members could either be invited by the advisory board or referred by an existing member.

Siddharth is convinced that the last word on Leadership Care is yet to be written but with The Blue Circle he writes the latest.

The session ended with questions from the audience which deepened the theme.

Gurcharan Das is a Public Intellectual and a thought leader who believes in 'Make a Life, Not Just a Living!' After graduating from Harvard University in philosophy and later attending The Harvard Business School, Gurcharan Das returned to Mumbai and discovered a flair for sales. His successful stint with Procter & Gamble saw him become a global leader. In Spite of making it to the top as CEO of Proctor and Gamble India and later Managing Director of Procter & Gamble Worldwide (Global Strategy planning) - Das at the age of 50, chose passion over profession. He took early retirement to become a full time writer. Since then he has been writing regularly for The Times Of India, Dainik Bhaskar, Prabhat Khabar and Guest Columns for Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times & Foreign Affairs. He is known for his two international bestsellers - India Unbound & The Difficulty of Being Good. Both these books have been published in several languages.

To know more visit http://gurcharandas.org.

Pavan Choudary is the author of critically acclaimed best sellers like How a Good Person can Really Win which was earlier published as When you are Sinking become a Submarine, A Trilogy of Wisdom (on Chanakya, Confucius and Kabir) & Machiavelli for Moral People. He has also co-authored path breaking books with Anil Shastri & Kiran Bedi. Pavan also hosts the TV program Hum Aise Kyun Hain, has written columns for Times of India and Financial Chronicle. He is the CEO of Vygon India, the French Multinational, sits on some of the most respected boards of India and is consulted by many on business and life. To know more visit https://www.pavanchoudary.in/ and twitter@writerpavan.

Watch the full session here: https://youtu.be/K1nGfT79-4o.