Lessons from NID and my Years of Design Journey - 8 Mistakes to avoid

Foreign. There has been a significant path which I've taken to really learn this design and also to come across a lot of different people, to talk perspectives, to understand, places to see. There are a lot of mistakes also which I have did in my career over the span of this 8.5 years, being a product designer, mechanical engineer and all these things. Every time I need to be a student to first observe what is happening, if not at that point of time, at least I have to reflect back later what mistakes I've did and how I can learn from that. Right? Keep learning, keep on learning is the only thing which made me who I am today. I'm going to be sharing you eight lessons, eight mistakes. I would say what you can learn from me and you can avoid in your career. If you are able to smartly resonate on this and take a notes and think over it, your design career will be much faster, much greater, much in an accelerated way to reach your goals. Okay, Maybe for some reason you have joined a design field and maybe for some reason you are listening to this podcast, but Universe has its own play. You must be mean. You must have a reason to really listen to this podcast. Right? So Universe also wants that, and that has exactly brought to you this particular audio with me. So I'm going to be telling you these eight points very, very important lessons and you can learn a lot from that. Okay, with that, let's start this podcast. Welcome to this Design for Change podcast and I'm really happy to welcome you and tell that we are touching around 515 countries, including India. A lot of listeners are listening from abroad and feedbacks are coming. It's really good to mean. It's good to see that response overwhelming. So thank you so much for that audience and I would request you to give me a message in the Spotify comments, which I've given. If you feel anything needs to be addressed, we can able to talk about it or we can able to collect more information and research to give you more information. Okay, so today I'm going to be discussing with you what are all the real eight mistakes which I have done. Okay. This is like more of exposing myself. I mean, I'll tell about it, why I'm exposing. Right. Normally people don't admit their mistakes or they want. They don't want to be confronted or a lot of people judge me. Right. So this is slightly different. It's. It's exactly the other way around. Hey, why do you really share Jakdish? Like, is it why it's important? Why should we Know it, right? That question might first come to you, but let me answer that. You're gonna learn from my mistakes, right? That's how we evolved as a humans, by learning from a mistake. The best culture, which is how you can say a culture is really best is the more number of mistakes they did, more number of years. They have made a lot of mistakes in terms of health, in terms of what you call taking care, in terms of relationship, in terms of cooking, everything, right? So the culture makes a lot of mistakes and then they find the sweet spot and then they evolve. So it's always good for a designer to first find out what mistakes are you doing, right? Maybe if not you, because if you are a starting fresher or somebody who wants to really start your career, you might not have that much of experience. So it is very, very important to first understand what kind of things to avoid being a designer, right? So the very first thing, what you have to understand, which I made a big mistake is I was thinking design institutes will teach me something, right? So I paid, I paid fees. I joined one of the best colleges in the country, I would say, and I came to know it. This is the India's best design institutes. Top institutes out of top three, I would say and I genuinely put lot of efforts because I started as a mechanical engineer. Like I didn't have, what do you call, I did not have much option when I choose engineering. I was very much interested in machines and what do you call how the things work? Stuffs work. Making things little bit work for moving parts was little bit what you call interesting for me. I don't know if this kind of a profession really existed like a mechanical engineering. So people told me who was wrong. So I started learning in a mechanical engineering college and I worked in a core industry for almost five years learning what is product development. Okay, engineering side of a product development. But when I really saw the creativity field, which is design, let me tell you honestly, I was thinking somebody will come and teach me like what an engineering college does. That's the very first mistake. I'll tell you what happens the moment if you are in that mindset, somebody is going to teach you design, you will not see the real design in you. It's all about finding your own way to learn from there, right? So then, then what do people really do in design institutes? Let me tell you, people don't do anything. People do something, that's it. They, they are not oriented or focused or polarized in, in one way to achieve something. There will be assignments, there will Be some class works, there will be some jury. Some design institutions will have some exams. This, that. But let me tell you, design institute, a proper design institute should be having real originality of showcasing the students real potential. That's the only one good sign of a design institute. And luckily I was blessed. And that institute was also like that. The point is, I was not believing that I did not know this. I did not have this consciousness and awareness to perceive this. That's my first mistake. And I want everybody to tell you that do not have that mindset. Design is all about you developing that skill. Design is all about you going and solving some problems. Skills can be learnt. Perspectives cannot be learned. Perspectives can be understood and learnt by you. It cannot be taught. Skills can be easily taught, as I told you, right? So you can watch and learn. You can see some videos and learn. And you can watch some sketching videos. You can watch some prototyping. You can video. You can watch some way in which user interviews are conducted. You can watch how you can what you call sander or wood block to make a material product design or to make a steel. How we can bend the steel, how you can make the material. These are skills, right? So the main point is, why do we need steel in this place? To design and solve a problem. To design a product and to solve a problem. If you are thinking that way and that is the primary source of information for a designer, nobody will teach you. This is how you have to think, right? That is the one creativity which everybody has. And that's why all products in the world are different. So you need to first learn from the mistake. It took me around six months to come out of this particular zone. A lot of people have told me this before. I do not get it. There are some instances which made me think about it. And this is how I also learned from that. Okay? This is the first. This is the very first mistake. The second mistake, what I did in a design institute is I was very desperate for job at the start of my career. Okay? Later I changed, but I was very desperate for job. Hey, Jagdish, what's the point then? Everybody needs to get a job, right? Let me tell you guys, the moment if you decide that you wanted to work for a company or if you wanted to really work for a corporate, it's good, it's fine, it's okay. But what happens, I'll tell you. It will not give you a very clear openness in your thinking, right? Because you have already put your constraint that you wanted to work for Some hours you wanted to work for some goal. You wanted to satisfy someone because you wanted to save your end of the day job to be in that company, right? So what happens is this predominant thinking always will be there with us. That's called desperateness. Okay? See, I moved in the age of 29 where I was about to get married because of masters and other reasons. I was not opting that option. But my desperate situation was I need to go and get a job even before completing my design college. The reason being, you know, I'm from a South Indian family. Like nobody gives their daughter for a guy who doesn't have a job, who's still a student, right? Because I quit my job and then I went for masters and I did not have job for 2.5 years almost, right? So that is a very big inherent pressure which is built on me. A lot of people have different pressures. Some people have educational loans. Some people have borrowed from their relatives or something. Some people will have a pressure of peers. Everybody is working. I'm not working. Everybody's earning this much. So some people have a different, different pressures. And with respect to me, I had this pressure. What I have seen in this pressure is I was completing all the assignments on time. I was completing all the exams and whatever the institute has called me. On time. On time, on time, perfectly. I was working night and day. Everything is like. I was, I was. So what do you call discipline? In the hope that if I'm completing everything and getting super marks and super this thing, that thing, I'll get a super job. Let me tell you, there was one moment in the end of the first year. I was seeing the campus interview of different, different students. My seniors, my Bachelor's design students and master design students. People were hired based on a portfolio. People were hired not based on experience. Right? See, there were, there were students in Bachelors of Design. Hardly. The Bachelor's of Design student will have 22 years or 21 years when he's gradu. Graduating out of NID. Okay? So they were getting like 38 LPA, which is like crazy. It's like 40 LPA, 45 LPA, 24 LPA. I mean I saw a guy who was in the product design who's like. I mean, I think his name is Rohit. Okay? So he was like offered a 24 LPA by just his portfolio. So they were actually scrutinizing a lot of people and they selected few people and they were actually left with almost. They have scrutinized all the people and they've selected, but they had little time. So what does what the campus recruitment students who are volunteers did is they. They asked the recruiters, hey, it's a company, Honda. Okay, so they asked, hey, can we. What do you call? Can we. Can we ask some people to come for interview? So I mean, this story I've heard from one of my senior, but I'm not sure about the name, but I'm sure it's a Honda. Okay? I don't know exactly that person or whether that person comes through an interview or he joined later. But the point is he was being called since the time is left. Okay? See, he's a bachelor student and he is called and they saw their works. Okay? This guy showed his portfolio sketches or whatever. You know what? That guy was hired 24 LPA for Honda Simple. There were a lot of stories like this. I'm just quoting you one. The point is, it's not about your marks. It's not about your academic curriculum. It's not about your desperateness of becoming perfect to get a job. It's about showcasing your real raw things, right? You know what? He's not prepared. He has some work. But he showed whatever he sketched. They saw his sketches. They saw not his final finished product which is there in the market, which is used by a lot of people. No, they saw that realness in whatever that particular guy is. Like he's 24 or 23 or something. So imagine what kind of a skill set a 21 guy, 21 years or 22 age guy will have. Or a experienced guy. Like let's say I have 29, I'm in the 29th age, right? I had five, six years of experience at that point of time. So what is really lacking in me, it's like I have everything perfect. This. I also have something like a portfolio. But there is something which is really missing. Even I'll tell you, there are master students who attended that interview was not selected. There is a department called Transportation Design. Even those not highly qualified people were not selected for that interview, right? So industry really expects something else which is called a very unique differentiating factor which should come from you. So the desperateness of job will actually constrain you that this is the second mistake which I've learned. Okay? Then the way in which I started looking at a portfolio and I started putting my realness and what I normally put in the output will be very different. After hearing this kind of stories, this is the second mistake what I did. The third mistake, what I did is I was believing on the fact that people will offer me once if I have everything like let's say I have a portfolio. I should have a portfolio. I should have a good projects done. I should have a very good credentials and what you call something like already a pre built thing then and only big industries will offer me, okay a job or internship or anything. There was a guy in my senior batch who's like I don't want to name his name and I want to name him but he's one of the inspiring guy in my institute. He, he was actually just pitching for a design studio. Okay, I'll name the studio. It's Wildcraft. So he told Wildcraft interview that I'm really interested to design a product portfolio for you. Not just doing your design work or not just doing the regular stuff. I would like to introduce a new product for you. Why don't you give me a chance for six months as an internship. That one particular statement got him an internship. Wildcraft Design studio is one of the best design studio. I think it's more creative like you don't show portfolio, you don't show your experiences. That and all is fine. Every industry knows before interviewing a student they have it. But this particular one thought process which this student had, my senior had which has actually made them curious. They did not ask him to do a design task this, that. Of course if he would have done design task also they would have already hired him because of his curiosity to show his willingness to produce something new which is not in a usual way. Right. Normally what happens when an interview, hey, you see my portfolio, you see my resume, I'm a hard worker, I'm a this, that. I'm good in sketching, I'm good in research, I'm good in design skills, I'm good in Photoshop this, that rendering 3D model. A lot of people talk about this, right? But this guy, you know, he, he did something different. He said Wildcraft have bags. Wildcraft is predominantly a carrying wild. I mean backpacks and other things, right. For, for trucking, for traveling purposes. But he said something I wanted. I want to introduce a very new product portfolio for Wildcraft. If you give me six months times I can able to prove it. See what it matters is the way in which you project your uniqueness. You have to find it out. Hey Jagdish, can you give me some templates to do what happens? Go back to the first mistake, what I did. If I teach you something as a pattern or a template, you will never do it. You will only follow that for Your entire life. Find out your way to pitch them. You can send an email, you can talk to them, you can send a voice note, you can even showcase your portfolio. You can write to them directly. You can show your live portfolio, you can do anything. You can do a demonstrative project in a day and also show them that particular industry that I'm so interested. But the point is not experience. The point is not your talent. The point is not your skill set. The point is what's your real intention being a designer? This is the third mistake which I have learned and changed after that. Okay, the fourth mistake, one of the prominent mistake, you need to have a why very strongly before you go for a design fit. Okay, Let me tell you one, one flip side of it, to be very honest, everybody has a why. Everybody has a very strong why. Why do you want to become a designer? Of course, the problem is lot of people don't know what it is. Lot of people don't know how to say it. Lot of people know it little abstract, but they put lot of false, what you call layers, which is social pressure, which is a peer pressure, which is a money pressure, which is a what you call their own family, relatives pressure. This, that they don't want to expose that. So the point, what I was actually did, there was a thing called interaction which came in my institute and a lot of people ask me this one question, why you want to become a designer? This is that I did lot of things. They were actually juniors to me, but in NID they were seniors. So a lot of people are bombarding me with this question. Interaction is something like very casual in nid, which is, it's not a ragging, it's just like making you come out of your comfort zone. And we realized it later. But that particular interactions really turned up a lot of things in me. A lot of my seniors, I have to thank my graphic designers, graphic design seniors, who really pissed me off. But later their questions and their perspectives really flipped my thought process of viewing the design particularly. There was a girl called my senior graphic designer. There was a girl, there was another guy from graphic design. Again, I want to name them. Maybe in the later podcast I'll name them, but they were great designers working in industry now. But these people were really pissed off me, my entire batch got really pissed off. But the point is it all made sense. After a point of time, I understood why I've learned design, why I joined design, right? They're asking me, hey, tell me, what's your name? I am Jagdish I'm a mechanical engineer. So. And so I wanted to. I'm interested in joining design. They stopped me. Stop. Why do you want to become a designer? Oh my God. Well, I've already told this in interview here. Why do you ask again? And. And I'm here. You. You tell me what I have to learn from here to become a designer. Why are you asking me this? They said no, Jagdish, tell me. It's like I answered. I wanted to really create some social impact. That's what people say, right? That's not the real answer. Okay. I was also layered with a lot of social layering which normally students and other people really have. So I also said I want to really create huge design. I already have a mechanical engineering knowledge. So I want to become a product designer. So already that engineering materials knowledge will help me. So I want to become a great designer with that knowledge and make beautiful meaningful products. It's like. Okay, fine. Shut up. Good. Okay, Jagdish. Next day happens. They asked me, Jagdish, hi, How would you tell me about yourself? I said for mechanical engineer, I'm a jagdish. I'm interested and passionate designer. This is like tell me why you want to become a designer. Yesterday you asked me the same question. No answer. Just like, is this guy really Already these people are pissing us, okay? They're asking to tell everything again and again. And they ask you to talk in front of others, tell your name, introduce. So some kind of weird activities will be there. But everything made a sense. Why do the people really ask me again? The magic happened. Not at that moment. I was answering them, okay, I was answering them. Something different compared to yesterday's answer. And one guy pointed out at me, he was a textile design senior. He was three years senior to me. He was about to convocate. I thought he's in the convocation stage and he has a lot of works to complete his final dog. Why would he come and sit and piss off our life? There is a reason, guys. He took some time to come because he felt it would really turn us. Okay? We didn't know. We thought these guys are coming. And what do you call maybe watching our batch new girls who is pretty or watching the new students and to really what you you call piss them off or for them it's entertainment. That's what is the honest feel everybody has in my batch. Okay, but these people were asking why do you wanted to learn design? It's not only for me, it's for everybody. It's for every people in my batch, they ask the same question. Why, why, why, why? Why? You were like, why it is so important that people want to really know why we wanted to be a designer. One of the senior really asked me again the same question and he explained me the moment when you ask why you. Your answer keeps changing every day, every time when you ask this question, if your answer becomes consistent, then you found the real reason why you wanted to become a designer. I said, cello, why? It is. It's fine that you're saying exploration and you find the clarity while you ask and retrospect yourself. But what is the point of finding that real reason? They say that's how your real design starts. That's where your real 0 to 1 starts. That's where your first Alphabet A in design starts. No, I'm already learning some basic drawing skills, sketching skills, colors, composition. I've started learning design. Like I'm learning that. No, they were like, that's, that's skills. Okay, that's fine, that's good. But your design will start when you really answer this question. Why? I was like, I was little bit understanding what they're saying, but I didn't think it was so important. Let me tell you another example, okay? There's a guy who asked me this question. You will understand this point when I tell this story. There is a guy who asked me this question, why in the scanned room of MRI children were not going inside. I said, they might be scared or something, some reason. So how do you solve a problem, Jagdish being a designer? I said, maybe I'll make it little scary. Maybe I'll blindfold the child. No, the child will run off if you blindfold. I said, okay, maybe you create that environment with a different likelihood. Right now the MRI is like a hole, right? So you create something like a square. Or maybe you keep a separate device only for that phase so that it scans. I was my own mechanical engineering wise answer. Okay. More relating to machine, machine, machine. He said, you go and find out. He gave me one day, okay. I was like finding out things in library this that I have found. So I mean I was giving more mechanical engineering answer. And next day I went to him and I asked, I was finding this much of answers. So what do you think? So he said, jagdish, you are very rigid in your thought process. Please think little soft. Okay? Remove this thought process and think why a child gets really scared. Actually, your doctor solved this problem in real time. He has solved this problem by understanding. Kids really like fun Places like Park, like an amusement park. This, that, right. What this doctor has did is he put a picture of park. He created a playful environment over the walls of the roofs of the MRI machine. And then he created a story for the kids. And then he would used to tell that story. And then the story comes like, let's say the child has to go into this hole to explore the real remaining part of this, what do you call this particular journey. So the child would be more interested and curious to go into that hole. And he would be patiently watching what is happening inside that thing. The point is he created a story narrative with that curiosity which made the child become normal and made it interesting to go into that particular hole of mri. What this doctor has used, he said. I said, maybe common sense, he understood what the child needs. He said exactly who taught him design thinking in that particular moment? Even designers are not sometimes struggling, I mean, sometimes are struggling to solve this kind of a problem. I said, yeah, maybe his common sense is really good. He said, this is called design thinking. And this will come only from the person, from an individual, from that particular context owning to that situation. No template or no teaching or nothing will tell him to solve that problem. He has a perfect reason why he is charged, why he is serving that child. He has a perfect reason why he wants to become a doctor and solve the problem. Right? That is why once that reason is fixed, solid, he will find n number of creative ways to solve the problem. There needs to be no template, there needs to be no process. Then and only your originality will come out. So the moment when you fix that particular why in a very anchored reason. See, it could be money, no problem. It could be to get a job in a social pressure. No problem. It could be you want to really create a social impact through design. No problem. It could be like you just want to explore this field to see what it is. Your reason could be anything, guys, but find it out. That anchor on that, the moment when you anchor on that, you will never be the same. Trust me, because I've exactly been in that moment. It was exactly 2019 when I was asked this question. When I find out this answer, when he replied to this perspective and from that moment, I was not the same. There is one more moment also which has really changed me. But let me tell you that. Okay, that's also another mistake. But the fourth big mistake is I was not having a proper reason why I wanted to really become a designer. I really found out I need to have a proper grounding why I want to become a designer. No problem. If you still don't have it, at least find out. Now pause this podcast and think about it for a minute. I'm sure that this podcast is going very long, but people who wanted to really get into the perspective of a design and really cut short your journey of five, 10 years into one year, you want to become big, successful designer. Hear me out. Till this last of this podcast. It will change your way. It will change your design career in a 360 degree angle which you would never thought possible. Okay, I'm talking to you heart to heart, in person. Imagine I'm sitting in front of you talking like this. Okay? I hope you can close your eyes while you're listening to this podcast because I believe this has to go inside you. It's not just an audio which you listen and then you go out. It's not like that. I'm making sure that you will really read retrospect on these points or when you go back to your design world after listening to this podcast, each and every mistake of me will come in front of you when you do that, and you will never make that. So set that intention, close your eyes and listen to it. Okay, I believe I cannot see you. It's not a live interaction call, but I believe, heart to heart, that you're doing it. Because if you really wanted to get a hundred percent output of this podcast by learning the design for Change in Jagdish, you should do it. Okay, so find out a reason. I hope you would have passed this podcast and written why you wanted to become a designer. And I will not tell you that that is the only reason. Or let's say if I choose that reason, and that should be satisfying for others. No need to be. Okay? No need to be. It is a very unique signature for you and it could be for any silly reasons, right? It could be for anything. And after that, each and every problem when it is given. I was totally thinking in a different way. Something has really rearranged. Something has changed in my neurons. Like I was not thinking exactly like problem, solution, mechanical, mechanical solution solving problem. I was taking a pause to think about a solution before giving an answer. That one perspective has really given me a lot of insight before going and approaching it. When a problem is given to me and my friends or colleagues, I mean, I really think differently compared to them, it's because of this particular instance. Okay? So finding your why and anchoring to that is very important to change the way in which you think about a solution. This is a fourth Big mistake. Let me come to the fifth mistake, okay? I was very rigid in terms of mindset. It is very much coupled to the fourth question. Again, there was one more senior. Who's. Who's actually two or three years senior. He asked me. No, no, no. I was asking him. He was actually interacting with me, asking, where are you from? Why do you want to learn design? Same question. This, that. So he asked, what's the module which you're currently studying? I said we were learning a subject called psychology of science. No, no. There was a subject called sla, which is science and liberal arts. Okay? So I was like. I said the science and liberal arts. So what are you learning in that? I said it was very boring, senior, for me. I really did not like this subject. I came here to learn design, okay? I came here to learn what you call product design, materials manufacturing, and what are the user needs and how I'll solve it. This, that. But what is the science of liberal arts? Why will I learn about Bauhaus movement? Why will I learn about what you call Scandinavian design? Why would I learn about Renaissance movement? Why will I learn about rasa? In what way? 9 different type of rasas is going to help me in my design career, which is completely BS for me. It's a waste of time. Rather, they can cut this and teach me colors, teach me sketching, teach me composition, teach me anything which is related to design so that I can make more, better design to win this world. Okay? He passed for a moment and then he laughed. It was really pissing me off the moment he laughed because I was more emotional. And I'm telling this curriculum is yaf bad. Okay? So he was like, wait, Jagdish, so why do you say SLA is not important like science and liberal art? I said, this is rasa something. People are saying this, that I am. He. He took me. He asked me, Jagdish, wait. He gave me the cup, okay? Which is next to him there was a cup. He handed over the cup to me and then he asked, what is the rasa which is associated in this cup? What is this cup really telling you? I said, this cup is for drinking. This cup is made out of steel and there's a handle like a. Stop, Stop. You are. You're going into a functional mode of. It's fine, but what is this cup really telling you? I said, it's maybe steel in color. It looks like a cup so that it has a water container. Jagdish, I'll give you time. Go to your SLA professor, ask this question. See what if she tells. Come back to me later tomorrow and tell this. I was like, what the. He's gone crazy. He wants to make entertainment out of me. I left my job which is 60,000 rupees. I was paying. I mean I was paid monthly like that. And I left another job at Mahindra and Mahindra which has paid me 11 LPA at that point of time. And I quit my entire job and my career to study this design in NID for 2.5 years thinking I'll become best product designer. But what am I learning here? Getting bullied by the seniors. Learning subjects which is not useful to me. Science and liberal arts. Learning about rasa. What is this rasa? I don't even know why are we learning Rasa theory? And this, that I was in a complete frustration. Have I really choose the correct decision in my career? Okay, but I had one thing in my mind. I have taken this decision. I have to see what's ups and downs. And I have to see really what is there in it right before I take it. Because nobody in my family was really appreciating this decision. Why will people appreciate you when you leave your job which is 60,000 rupees? And when you go for a field which is like artistic, you draw something, you color something and then you make some. That's what people perceive from outside. And that's what I was also thinking initially. But the point is I took this challenge. What my senior said, I really asked maybe something. Okay, what? What can happen? At least to give him a nose feedback. At least to give him a. What do you call? I want to at least nose cut him, right? So just I asked my professor. One of my senior really asked this question, professor, like what is this cup telling? What is the rasas associated to it? My professor started telling Jagdish, you tell me what do you really see this? I told the same answer mechanically. Then she said, it's fine, Jagdish. But understand one thing very carefully. If a glass is having a material of let's say procelene or steel or plastic, when people touch it, they feel differently. When people sip a coffee when it's hot, they feel differently. When a glass has a different shape, like let's say if it's a conical shape or it's a cylindrical shape or it's a very different shape, people have a different meaning associated to it. And when they touch, feel, see, smell, they have a different. Different emotions associated to it. I was like, okay, something artistic. She's telling. I still do not get it. Okay, so she said, whenever you're designing a product or something, each and every product tells you something. And when you deliver to your customer, this product tells customer some language. The cup is talking to you. If you keep a cup which is like a sipper, it tells a different communication. If you keep a cup which is open, which is an open cup, it tells you a different communication. The way in which you color it, the way in which you put the material, the way in which you design a handle, the way in which you put a finished and shine to it. Everything communicates a different emotion. Like let's say there are nine different types of emotion. She said, she asked me, yesterday, we saw about nine different type of rasas, right? Yeah, I was memorizing that. I said, we have this rasa. We have anger, we have smile, we have excitement, we have pleasure, we have this, that, that nine rasas was there. But what kind of emotion is this class really making you feel Jagdish? You now you see this, it's like okay, happy. I said, maybe that cup had a little smiley symbol or something. I. I could not exactly remember what was there, but I told one expression. So this is the expression you are creating Jagdish out of this particular cup. Like, let's say if your client or customer wants to give a different emotion, how will you design this cup too? Can you change it? I said, definitely, I can think of it. Try one more emotion. Can you design this cup? Now see the dance. Now see the poetry. Now see the music. Now see the dramatic play of different. Different movement what they did. Can you associate some emotion and an expression to it? I was like, oh, maybe I'm not very good at it. I was started to thinking in that way. I started to get that consciousness in what that professor was telling me. I was tuning my mind to see that. Before that I was completely zero. My entire neurons and brain wiring was completely shut. I was like little bit getting enlightened. But the point is, next day I went to that senior and then I told him, this is what my professor answered. I was like, what did you understand by this Chinese? Your professor said something, what do you think? So I said, everything really talks to us in a different way. Everything has an emotion associated to it. Only thing is, I don't have the eye to see it. He said, yes, jagdish, congratulations. You started learning design. Like where did I learn? What did I learn? I was just talking to people. He said and left the same day. I was little Bit thinking more. See the day before that I was thinking whether I have really choose the right decision. Frustration, frustration. On the next day, I was in the other corner of frustration. Whether this field is for me or not, because there is so much to learn, there is a new consciousness which has opened for me by my seniors and my faculties that every product has an emotion, every form, or a color or a texture, or a kind of artistic movement or a painting or anything which you have, like let's say if you have your mobile in front of you, if you have a laptop in front of your mouse, anything is giving you an emotion. If you are really understanding and having an eye to see it, you can recreate it for your customers in a different way. And when you become so rigid, you don't see it at all. You just see it as a material, you just see it as a functionality, right? Earlier I was answering like that cup is for drinking water. It has steel, this, that. But the moment when I flip that thought, I can see what is the associated shape of me. What do people really think of when they wake up in the morning to drink a coffee for it? How do I really recreate that moment when I wanted to design a new cup for my audience? Who is coffee lovers? Or maybe if somebody is not a coffee lover, how do I bring him into the world of coffee by designing a cup to entice him. So my entire degree of thinking about Design, it flipped 360°. You know what? It was very painful. It was definitely painful. And it was telling me that I have to relearn everything. Whatever I learned about design and whatever I've seen as a design and engineering and whatever I've seen as a. I was working in a tractor industry as making some components, developing that component. I was more into manufacturing materials, this, that, but here everything has already talked to me a lot of things, but I did not have the consciousness to see it. I was so rigid, I was so mechanical, I was so formula oriented. Let me tell you guys, if you are coming from a different background or if you are already a designer who still don't have that particular consciousness to think about what I told you, then you are still rigid. Just see your smartphone in front of you, right? I hope everybody will have a smartphone in front of them. Just touch that smartphone and just touch the texture because you're closing your eyes, right? And see what do you really feel by touching your mobile. Give a moment. You feel it's little personal because it's your mobile, right? How do you get that personal Connect. It's not just by some aluminium material which is coated in your phone. No, that's not the case. There is glass, there is plastic, there is a weight to it and there is a kind of different texture and a finish which was given. And there is a. What you call some kind of a vibration sound or your wallpaper or something is making. Now you can open your eyes and see what is this mobile really telling you? Your mobile could be different color, mobile could be different size or dimension or anything. But your mobile is telling, right? You can connect to a different people through this. You can communicate through this. You can get to know more knowledge from it. Or your mobile is telling that I'm with you, I can help you with whatever you want. I'm a tool, I'm your master. Something. Your mobile communicates you lot many things. Sometimes people really get bad feeling when they get a different case for their mobile, right? They throw it. Have you seen people who use mobile case? They constantly change it because different, different case, different. Different cases of your mobile gives different, different feelings. People don't get that. That's why they want to change it completely, right? So now you can understand each and every product or the. Even the mobile application, your website or app or whatever you're seeing is definitely influencing you in a different way. Try to decipher and think about what kind of an emotions it is. When you're able to associate some emotions and map it out slowly, you will also tend to create a different emotion for your audience, for your Persona, for your particular target market to design in a different way. So be open, be rigid. This is the fifth very, very important mistake. I would say fourth and fifth are one of the big mistake which I've learned from my design career. Okay, the sixth big mistake. What I did in my design career is do not do anything for free. I did two freelancing projects which I have not paid off. One, I was expecting payment, but it did not happen. Let me tell you, I did my best heart and soul work for both of them, but nobody really valued her work. If you are a freelancer or if you really wanted to give a free sample for somebody, ask them in return for something which they should be really accountable of. Don't take a free internship. Don't take a free freelancing. If you offer them for free, that's okay. But tell them upfront it's free. Their expectation should be very clear. So why Jagdish? We should not work for free. You will not be first accountable. You will not be seriously Delivering anything which is worthwhile. But that person. Okay, let's say you are assuming it very serious. The other person will not take it serious. If you go for a free internship, people will not even take care of your projects. What you really do for your industry. If you go for a paid internship, people will be paying some 20, 25,000, 30,000 or something like that, right? So for that value, they will check whether you have really delivered a quality output. Somebody will be really accountable. Somebody will be monitoring you. Somebody will be really checking how do you really go. Somebody will give. Give you assistance and guidance to make sure you reach that level. Never work for free. It's a big mistake. I did. And let me tell you, if you do it, your value is degraded, Your time is wasted. You're not really progressing. Okay, seventh important mistake. You think you can learn design by watching videos, reading books and listening to lectures? No. Let me tell you. I was also like that. I was sitting in library for a lot of time. Yeah, of course you can go to library. But the point is you will have to talk with a lot of people. You will have to visit lot of places. You will have to see different, different random things. You will have to really enjoy the presence of whatever you are. I'm not saying you travel to Paris, Italy, you travel to Switzerland. No, no, no. That's not my point. If you are solving a problem, if you're a designer who's working on something, don't stay in one place. If you feel like talking to someone, you can go and talk. If you feel like riding a bicycle, go and do it. If you feel like doing something, if you feel like watching a video, you can do it. If you feel like watching a book and learning from there, you can do it. But do not stop or resist yourself or draw a boundary that I will only learn from book to become a great designer. I'll only watch this video and apply this to become a great designer. This is one of the big draft which everybody sets for themselves, which they will not come out of it. The moment when you see everything, what you see around in your world is a syllabus for you to learn a design. Then you really started learning design in your. What do you call in your. In your own way? That is the best way. That is your best syllabus. That is your real collection of your design things. When you see a poster, when you see a painting, when you ask a question for a person and then you correct your perspective or when you develop a new perspective, right? I told you, when I Learned about Rasa, my perspective got a little bigger. My way in which I saw design was a little bigger. When I traveled to Hanover, Germany, I went for six months there for exchange education. My institute really offered me that opportunity. Selected as a best student and offered was really happy. But when I went there, there was a lot of different perspectives which I saw. The way in which the city was built, the way in which the name board, the beautiful typeface. Wherever you see in Germany a billboard or a name board, it's so beautiful. I mean you cannot see ugly billboard there. That's my consciousness little bit expanded. So when you see a new perspective, when you see a new place or something, new people, new perspective, you, your brain will never be the same again. I'll tell you one thing, if your brain gets stretched to a different dimension and perspective, it will not come back to your normal. That's why seeing a big picture is very important. Don't stay small, talk to big people, see big programs, see big designs, create bigger than that. If you are not watching that, what happens? You will stay in your own cocoon and you will never, never, never come out of it. Okay. Let me tell you, whatever you make as a design is what you call as a unique creative thing. It's a copy of something what you already seen, what you already heard, what you already remembered, what you already experienced. You cannot create something which you have not got inspired or seen or heard or something. This is a rule of design. Oh Jagdish. Then every designer is creating something really unique. Go and decipher it, you will come to know. I learned it after a lot, many times, lot many mistakes. And I was so rigid. I was not really opening up myself for different perspectives. I was very reserved. I just do my exams, I just complete my work. I just talked to a few people, I just complete my responsibilities. But when I started realizing this mistake, I really opened up and broke and started to talk with a lot of designers. I don't really see any biases. I used to go to a guy called in my German institute who's one of the judge panel in if Designer. What? He was one of the 80 members of the board across the world. Okay, 80 big designers. And I started talking to him. I didn't have any kind of a shah. He is that. I mean, what are we, judges? No, that's not the point. I just opened up. The point is you will have to reflect on that. You will have to understand why this perspective, why these people said what and what made you really think out of it. The moment when you do it, you will start realizing lot many things. It's all about finding a real, real, real inside you. It can come out by talking to people. It can come out by watching some videos. It can come out by reading some books. It can come out by a lot of, lot of things which you. Even while you drink a coffee, a lot of people ask how do you bring creativity? This is how you bring creativity, right? Going to random people, going to talking with random people, going to different, random places, watching and reading some random stuffs. And let me tell you, okay, Jagdish, having talked about it, what are you trying to say? You need to be a good pattern finder. Talking to people and watching different stuffs will not give you anything. If you try to find a pattern, if you draw a pattern, if you correlate everything into something, then you start making meaning out of it. Let me tell you, humans are meaning making machines, right? If you are not making a meaning out of it, you will not make anything useful of whatever you did. You will not come up with anything new. Have you seen journalist? They make something, right? With the fact and data available. They create a story. That's what, that's what we see. That's what the world is being framed. If the media catches one guy and says if he is good and if he is bad, we started to believe them, right? They frame that story with the data, the fact, the evidence, whatever they got. And then they do it. I mean, I mean we can refuse it, we can accept it. That's up to you. That's up to your opinion, whatever political party you are or whatever religious background you are on. What are the layering you got that's different, but same like a journalist. Why don't you draw a pattern for whatever you've learned in your career and put it into something when you solve a problem. I went to a island called Langeles, which is in a Nordic island. So more like I took an experimental design course. I did not expect I'll be traveling for 10 days in a weird place like that. Can I tell you something? That particular island has only 83 people. There was a church, there was a school, there was a farm, there was a hotel, there was a small restaurant. And there was other places which we used to just walk around and cycle around. The whole island is covered with completely 4 size water. And it's, it's out of northern Germany. It's like almost close to the border of Denmark. So we were like, what if, what if something happens isolated from this world My professor said we have really isolated ourselves, distract, getting stopped, distraction from our social world, switching off our mobiles, not talking to outside world. We are here to self explore ourselves in a journey. There I really talked to almost five to six different country designers. There I talked to different professors starting from small age to big age. There I started seeing nature more closely. There I started really thinking about what do I really do? What do we really do with this? There is no particular set goal for that particular course, but they were asked to do something which you like that particular course module. After 10 days I was not really the same. I'll tell you when that realization happened. After two or three days I was having a lot of fun. I was. I was driving cycle. I was in the wind of the. What you call Germany. I was in the. What do you call going here and there. And I mean I went and jumped into a pool which is like almost 1 or 2 degree, 4 degree I think. Bad body. That was the craziest thing I've ever done. It was like needle poking in your body completely. People really get shivered or people really get sometimes sick or people get into terrible things. But I actually experimented myself because I wanted to make myself really interesting and I wanted to really take up as a challenge. One of my faculty called Thomas in Germany. He said, hey Jagdish, can you do it? I said, nothing will happen, right? I mean, I only partially know swimming. I mean, I'm not a very proficient swimmer and all. I mean that was like a very deep water. And I was asking one guy, hey, if I'm drowning a little bit, try to catch me. See, there are two risks. One is the temperature. I don't know what will happen. Second is I don't know what is the depth. So the point is I jumped into that. I continuously, I jumped three times. One after the day, other day, it's just one minute. Everybody has to stay for one or two minutes and come back. So the point is I've tested myself new I tested, which I have not done in my life. And the same day I was thinking what should I do? Something which is new, which I have not done. I started taking some magazines, I cut some pictures, I started to form some stories. This is where I really understood how to connect some dots and patterns out of it. Really guys, let me tell you one thing. Lot of things really changed when I did this exercise. It was an experimental course did by a faculty called Dorothy. I mean, I was really thankful for her. She invited me to her home after my marriage with my Wife and kids. And she's a very nice faculty who really flipped my thought process and perspective. She was the one who encouraged me to do mistakes. She was the one who encouraged me to explore things. It's nothing, right? Wrong. Jagdish. Nobody is asking you to submit a module. This, that in this course. If you feel like submitting, you can do. But it's okay, fine. That freeness you need to have, guys, then only you can see the patterns. Design is the one who sees the patterns, which nobody sees. If you learn from my mistake, I when I was like I was completely doing a module wise exercises that rather if you choose to find a pattern out of something, what is happening around you and maybe you can draw something, maybe you can write something, maybe you can just have an iPad to sketch you do whatever you want to collect that information, whatever you're seeing and going through. End of the day, if you try to make a pattern, you will never be the same again. Guys, this is the big, big lesson I wanted to say. Okay, so the eighth and the last mistake, what I wanted to say is fear of judgment. I'm not saying I got completely rid out of it, but I was much, much better after I learned it from my design institute. I was like very feared of perfection. I wanted to show people that I'm. Once I'm done, I was taking my time to perfect that I was doing my solution. I was this, that I was, I was, I was. What do you call taking a lot of efforts to make that perfect before showcasing? What if people rejected? What if people say no? What if people say I don't like. What if I didn't get selected for job? What if my portfolio was bad? What if this color was not correct? What if this data was not. Let me tell you guys, if you are in that kind of a fear of judgment zone, 100% sure you will never become a designer. You can become a designer for a corporate or some company, but you will be working for some input and you will be delivering some output. That's it. You will never bring any kind of a creativity in you because you are bound already by a lot of what you call layers, which is built from you, not from outside, right? You have built your own layers. You are thinking, what if other people think, Let me tell you, nobody cares if you really retrospect upon what I said now. You will never really get sabotage by your peers, by your faculties, by your boss. What if the concept is good, bad or even by yourself. You will just like that make lot of concepts Thinking, who cares? Okay, you don't like it, let me make more. You don't like this concept, Let me make more, let me make more. Once you have that thing inbuilt with you over the time, if you change this habit in a mindset way, you start becoming an idea generator. This is how I started exploring lot many ideas. Throwing out this fear of judgment. I was more sensitive, guys, I used to be very sensitive. I used to really think a lot. What if others think like that? But I realized this particular moment and I really changed a lot after that. And when this mistake, let me tell you, if you're not correcting it, you will be one more engineering graduate or you will be one more guy who studied in school. School, colleges doesn't teach us real thing. What isn't required to live a life. Guys, let me tell you. But NID has really flipped me. I would say not institute the people whom they were the way in which they taught me perspective. They taught me perspective, really changed myself and tried to find out who I am and what is the thing which I am interested in and why should I not be feared by somebody's opinion judgment. The kind of liberal discussions we had when it comes to gender biasness, when it comes to politics, when it comes to expressing our own new ideas, nobody really discourages you in an idea. When you, even when you show an empty paper with one line, people tend to say, okay, maybe you are trying to say a word that you want more space, white space. Okay, good. Next time do something different. See, it's not a negative criticism, but it's a positive criticism. So surround yourself with that kind of people. My mentor, Blair Singer always used to say, your environment is stronger than your willpower. It will easily break you. So it's better to change an environment to surround yourself with people and can give you positive constructive criticism so that you choose to talk to the people. Your average of the 10 people whom you talk to in phone or in live in, in your world, take your phone, take 10 people whom you talk to. Their average salary is your salary. Their average happiness level in their life is yours. Their average health is your health. You're not a super fit, you're not a super wealthy, you're not a super successful. You are average of 10 people. So choose your people wisely. And you know what, if you get rid of this criticism, you will become a different person. If you become a different person, what happens? You will start thinking clearly. If you start thinking clearly, you will start thinking why you are design, why you wanted to become a designer. If you start thinking why you wanted to become a designer, then you will anchor on to your basics and roots. And once you anchor upon your basics and thought now you will start really learning the skills faster. You will start listening to lot many things. You will start tuning to right things. You will start making meaningful products and services and beautiful or aesthetics or whatever. And you will never need any kind of a design education or material or something. Your university, your library, your mind, your thing will be the primary source of everything rest of the library materials, mentors, learning program could be an additional factors for you to make your knowledge grow more and grow more and grow more. And then you really find yourself fitting in this career much more clearer. Okay, so I've collected my mistakes from the last eight mistakes and then I come back to the first, right? So do not believe in any kind of a teaching. Learn from my from your own experiences and learn from my mistakes what I did. Okay, let me recap you the eight mistakes alone. What design institute? I thought they will teach me something. That's the first mistake, but it's not the truth. Second is I was so desperate for the job because of my social pressure and insecurity for financial freedom because I was spending my money when I don't have my job. The third is you got to find a way. You got to find a way and you got to find why you wanted to become a designer. Okay, the fourth is you need to become more open. You should not be really rigid. You should be finding your own answers. And the fourth is, I mean the fifth is you should really make yourself an initiator while solving your problem. You should apply that particular thinking. You should become a person whom without anything also you should be able to move your stones from zero to one. And definitely somebody is needed to tell you that, to push you from this boundary to that boundary. But you should be little bit open towards it. The more you're open toward it, the better you will be seeing yourself more clearly. What is the mistakes you're doing? Why you should not stay in your cocoon and come out of it to think something new. The way in which you think matters rather than what you think. Okay, so the sixth mistake is like what do you call you should draw patterns. You should talk to different, different people. You should not bound yourself in a book, video, podcast or something. Okay, you should be talking to more people and trying to make a pattern out of it. 7th and the 8th 7th mistake is go to this world to explore different, different things. Museums, places, different, different perspective. Eighth is do not be biased and do not be judgmental. Do not have a fear of criticism and judgment. You be on your own so that you will start seeing yourself more clearly to avoid any mistake out of it. Okay, this is a very big podcast I've ever recorded. That is there is no script, guys, I'm just talking to you. Whatever I felt, whatever I did, mistakes in my career, what are the main things which you need to learn? If you are really retrospective on it, definitely I'm telling you guys, you'll be a much refined and a better person in design. Okay, thank you so much guys for listening to this podcast. If you find this useful, definitely give me your feedback. I've asked about what do you think about this podcast? You can honestly give me that review. I'll be more open and I'll be happy to reflect back on you also. And if I find some people are interested in pinging me up in this podcast, I'll be giving them a special 101 as well as a gift type in exchange. Okay, I cannot do it for all the students, but I can do it for somebody who is consistently my listener in the podcast and my follower. Thank you so much guys. I hope this would have given you some thought process on what is really design. And let's see in another episode. Thank you so much. And I believe you are very serious because you're staying in this podcast for the 58th, 59th minute. Thank you so much, guys. You are really serious about design and I really wish you all the best to become a great designer or the great human being you want it to really become in your world. Okay? So all the best. Take care. Bye bye. See.