Episode 14 on Travelling Spontaneous Conversations

Hi.

Welcome to episode number 14 of spontaneous conversations. The topic we selected before we hit the record button is traveling. The joy of travel or the power of traveling. This is Ravi Gundlapalli, founder CEO of Mentor Cloud.

This is Rajesh Seti. I'm a serial entrepreneur in the Bay Area.

Excellent. You know, Rajesh, I love travel. And maybe that's why the topic came to my mind. And I find traveling is such an amazing way to meet new people.

And kind of have some time for yourself to kind of reflect on where you're going.

And I've had some amazing, amazing stories, you know, just on traveling, going to new places. So that's. That's the first thought that comes to my mind is I love to travel.

Yeah, I am with you. I used to travel until we had our son Sumukh in 1998. Kavita and I traveled to Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, France, Belgium. Finally we came here. And my life is so much more enriched because of the travel. In fact, my dad had just a government job as an engineer in the public works department, so. So we almost had no choice, Ravi, but to travel every three years to a different city because you would be transferred and whole family will move. And at that time, I used to think we now travel to a new town or city or village or anything, which means I just let go of my relationships with my friends, my college, school, teachers.

They are constantly moving.

Mahajur is like, you are a nomad kind of thing. But looking back, I think that was one of the best things to have happened to me because now I have pockets of networks from my childhood school, my primary school, from middle school, from high school, from college and engineering college. Everywhere I travel, there is groups of people, each with a different mindset, different outlook in life, from a different city, different outlook, different backgrounds. So that alone changed the perspective with which I look at life. Which is. Change is inevitable.

Exactly. Especially.

You know, in today's world, we have to work with people from all over the world.

Yes, right.

With different ways, they think.

So by.

Having that outlook towards traveling and.

Really meeting new people, your ability to work in teams that have people from other parts of the world becomes that much better. Because you are that much more understanding of other people's perspectives. Right?

Yeah. Because remember, Ravi, we wanted to make it a fun episode. I'll tell you a traveling story, and I might have told this to you before. So right after our marriage, Kavita and I moved to Malaysia. We used to work in a place called Petaling Jaya. And Petaling Jaya is like A Bay Area kind of thing. And under that there will be different cities. Just like in Bay Area, we have Cupertinos and even there is Damansara Jaya. Damansara, Uttama. My home was in Damansara Jaya. Kavita had not joined me yet, and the office was in Damansara, Uttama. I asked them, will the cab pick me up? What should I do? He said, no, it's very easy. And that guy drew a map. Just walk. It's like less than a mile, so you can just walk. It will be a great time to walk. I said, okay, no problem. But I don't want to miss the house. So I went walking. And then I was noting down landmarks, and at the end of the street there was a sign called Jalan Sahala. I said, okay, now I got it. I told Jalan Sahala is where I live. And I went to the office and everybody greeted me and everything. And they asked, where are you staying, Mr. Shetty? I said, I stay in a company guest house in Jalan Sehala. Company guest house? I said, where? We have 16 guest houses. Which one? I said, the one in Jalan Sehala. And they all started laughing. And I was thinking, what is. And then I looked at my notes and it was clear. It was Jalan Sehala only. I said, are you sure? He said, yeah, yeah, I'm very sure. I wrote it down also. I showed them. Then one of them explained, Jalan Sehala means one way street.

So that's a great. That's a very interesting story. You know, it's how important it is to know the sort of the local language and, you know, so I think again, you know, traveling is an opportunity to have some, you know, fun in life, to reflect. One of the episodes we talked about white space. So traveling can be a best way to choreograph that white space.

Yes.

And, you know, traveling with friends because you get to talk about things that you normally don't talk. When life is so busy, when you're driving to work, coming back and making meals and catching up on shopping and stuff, you got to create some time where you get to know people. And I've had some amazing trips with people, and I know exactly who they are and what really drives them every morning. It's not their job. Everybody has something that they really believe in, and you can only explore that when you go on trips with people.

Yeah, I agree with you. In fact, I always believed, until our kid was born, I always believed that not only we had to travel, we had to just live there. So that way you get a Very different perspective. So one is travel is you get to see all the touristy places. When you live there, you get to see not so touristy places, which is where the real life happens. Correct. And that's a different perspective altogether.

It's almost, you know, you travel to unravel. Is that a good way to say it?

Yeah. Beautiful.

Because you see, you discover a lot about yourself, you know, about your habits, about your, you know, like, for example, last two years ago, we went to Mexico City. Sorry, not Mexico City, Mexico, you know, to build homes for the homeless people. And we went with about 500 people, students, and we had to live in tents with no running water for a week. And we were building homes, which we have never done. And while the trip sounds very strenuous.

It helped us discover as a family, as friends, what really brought us joy. It's not the shower in the morning. It's not.

Plate full of breakfast or anything, but it's the joy of living for somebody else that we discovered it. And since then, my wife and I and my daughter were looking for ways to be of impact to other people because we can always travel to see, take photos, put on Facebook, Everybody's happy. But what have you done?

Beautiful.

A billion people have done that. But imagine in trips like this where you are doing things because. And you're having fun because of a totally different reason.

Yeah, I totally agree with you. So travel with some purpose.

Which is higher than, okay, let's just go and have fun. It makes it even more enriching.

Yeah, I mean, like, so one of the things that I kind of want our listeners to keep thinking is when you travel, just don't go for taking photos or kind of checking of boxes. Yeah, I've seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa, I've seen Paris. But really, yes, that's important. We all have to do those things. They're all part of the bucket list. But I challenge everybody. When you go on a travel, use the excuse as a way to increase your network, make friends with somebody. Suddenly now you now have a friend in Paris, a friend in Italy, and because of the social network's power, we can actually be in touch with them. And who knows, five, six years from now, some. Somebody will be needing some help in Italy, and you have somebody you can help. And so by using travel as a way to increase your network, I think is one I would like people to be conscious about.

Yeah. Have I introduced my friend Kirubha Shankar?

No, I've heard the name before.

Kiruba was the instigator for a set of conferences I do called Celebrate, like Celebrate.

The Brain. So Kiruba and I have been friends for close to 15 years now. And he is also a big traveler. He speaks at conferences and everything. Exactly. Is a good example of what you said. Travel with a way to enrich his own network and also be a contribution to the networks that he touches. And one of the things he said, Raj, you don't have to even travel. So he opens up his couch to some interesting people that come to Chennai, and then very interesting people stay there. And then what will they do? They have conversations. They will have conversations. It's free. Of course, if they want, they can pay for it, but it's not the important thing, because somebody comes from South America, somebody comes from Ireland, and they finish their work in Chennai. And of course, they have a meal. And during the meal and after the meal, what will they do? They share who they are. Why did they come there?

It opens up a new world, isn't it?

His kids are so enriched. He is just small krutiya and kalpita. They themselves are so enriched because they get to meet their uncles and aunts from somewhere else because their strangers become uncles and aunts for them. And they get to learn from the best minds from all over the world. Right. At their hall.

You know? Yeah. Because again, you know, you can either travel to have those experiences or you can, you know, bring travelers or bring travelers to you. Right. So that.

And again, you know, basically travel for business or, you know, travel with family. You always want to make sure that there is more, more to it than just taking photos and having food in place and having stories that are all about you.

Yeah. In fact, one of my friends, Phil Garbishek, who also gives keynote speeches and everything, he always tells me that whenever he travels that he tries to find people in the local city. He comes to the Bay Area, then he will meet with me, or when he is meeting with me, he will also invite somebody else that I might not have met in the local area, but they are friends with him. So we all have a meal together. Now, not only he reconnected with me and a few other friends, he also expanded my network in the local area.

That's very, very true. Again, once you have the network of friends in various parts of the world, when you travel, you can actually kind of help other people expand the network. Right?

Yes.

That's beautiful.

And Jason and Jodi, our friends, they always do coffee chats.

Yes, yes. In fact, I was just thinking about it because Jason does This whenever he goes, he travels about 200 days a year and he has a full bundle of energy. And this whole idea of coffee chats is so powerful because just going to. Let's say I have a talk in New York, okay? I land there, I give a talk, and I just come. Of course I go to Starbucks to have a cup of coffee. But instead of just sitting there, here, here. With someone with so much experience in a particular domain, why not make that an event and invite some people to come? I think Jason's idea is just awesome because how many brilliant people walk through Starbucks without ever having a conversation?

I totally agree with you. In fact, I met some amazing people just by listening on Twitter sometimes. The first person I remember is the CEO of Redfin called Glenn Kelman. So he was supposed to meet someone in Mountain View, but that person was running late by two hours or something, so he tweeted out, I am here at Mountain View. I am all alone if somebody wants to come and chat with me. So I was here in Cupertino. I said, I am there. And then we just met because he is from Seattle or Portland, I don't remember. But he was open and willing to have a conversation, and we both had a great time talking. All because I was just there waiting. I was not even looking for an opportunity. I was able to rearrange everything. And his travel made one more new friend for me.

Fantastic. In fact, on our platform, we are encouraging this notion of open office hours, where you can make this available when you go on a trip, because there might be somebody. There's guaranteed that somebody in that part of the world can benefit from your presence, from your expertise, from your perspective, and just kind of telling them that you are there. So definitely, even if you go with the family, you don't want to make this all through the travel. But at least one morning, like for example, Jason does, it's so beautiful because he's making his presence kind of. He's leaving an impression in a way, not just going and having a cup of coffee and coming out. Six or ten other people are kind of learning something from each other.

Yes, yes. And also, I don't remember who said it, but he said it very beautifully. He is from a business development sales angle. He said you go to another city for a meeting, right? So let's say you go for a meeting and then you have five, six hours to just be there, because you can't time everything. But he says it is very easy to get meetings when you are traveling. Suppose you want to go to you are in Seattle and you wanted to meet a bunch of people and then you went to Seattle to meet A.B. one person, John, and he wanted to meet Bob, Becky and Mallory. And you reach out to all of them and he says, I am here for a day. Do you have 15, 20 minutes to have coffee? He might have had difficulty meeting them, but they know that he is here only for a day. If there is anything that they can rearrange, they will. Because he is here only for a day.

Exactly. And most people are kind of considerate, they are accommodating, they are good people. So I think.

This whole topic of travel, again, it's about unraveling certain things that you haven't discovered about yourself. So rather than just looking at your project alone, whether it is family project or a business project, use the travel any ideal time. You have to do something special.

Like Jason Womack's coffee chats, like basically going and visiting a local organization or a church or somewhere where you can leave your impressions and you will come back extremely enriched.

Yes. Not to put so much pressure on people, I also say that suppose you are writing a book because in your hometown you are always having lot of meetings and you meet a lot of people. You have no time. You can use the travel to complete those pending projects because there is nobody else there. And then you can say, for the three days in a row I will be in a hotel room, let me use this and go on a sprint to complete my projects. That's another way to look at it.

Absolutely. So travel is another excellent way to get things done that you always wanted to do and it allows you for that space. So I think in closing, travel is not just to see a place or check off a box, but it can open up a new world.

Of people, of mindsets that will become very, very handy as you go. And you never know, a single trip can be an inflection point.

Yeah, beautifully said. In fact, continuing what you said, travel may not be for checking off boxes. It could also be for creating new boxes to check off later.

Ah, interesting. Excellent way. Okay, with that, shall we close? Ravi kundalapalli@mentorcloud.com this is Rajesh Sethi.

You can read more about me on my blog, rajeshati. Com Blog.