Utkarsh Amitabh explains that backable people combine curiosity and persuasion to attract supporters. He argues failure often comes from lost motivation rather than lack of ability, and pushes for immersive learning over passive consumption.
Chapters
Hi everyone, I'm Utkarsh. I'm today going to talk to you about this beautiful concept called Backable. I learned about it while reading Sunil Gupta's book about the subject. He'll be on NetworkCapital TV on June 14th to talk about his wonderful book where he explains how his multiple failures created the ground for success today. Back in the day, there was once a long form article in the New York Times where Mr. Gupta's face was plastered with the headline which tantamount to the definition of failure. And fast forward, you know, many years, about 10, 15. And he's created a category of one for himself by building a career at the intersection of law, politics, technology and now advising CEOs and thinkers with his work. What I learned about Backable, the book was that people who tend to be like that are those who combine creativity and persuasion. What that means is that they are not just talented people. As we all know, working hard and being talented is sometimes not enough. We need to bring more people to support our mission, support our vision and and in doing so, we create the kind of context where people want to support our mission by becoming part of our team even in. Even if they are say investors or people who are volunteers or those who curious about what we are building but don't have a direct involvement. So backable people tend to involve a large army of troops to support their mission and make these troops actual stakeholders in in that particular mission. The second element to complement this is creativity. Typically backable people discover and tinker a whole lot. Creativity is found often at the edge of one subject matter. And to explore that edge we need to go beyond Google, beyond the obvious sources of knowledge and really participate in and tinker. The beauty of active learning and immersive learning is that it transforms something very passive, something very state into something meaningful. So if you want to become back able, if you want people to support your ideas and missions, try and combine creativity and persuasion in a way that energize people to become part of your inner circle, to support your mission, to make you successful by becoming each other's mutual support system. This book, reading it in the past few days, Preparing for the June 14 session with Mr. Gupta really gave me practical insights and mental models about what does being backable in the 21st century really look like? What can we do to become more backable and fail safe our career? And what does fail failure today really mean? Failure is not such a bad thing if we reflect on it and if we try and re pivot or recreate our path. We can't succeed in everything. We just need to find out what problems need us the most, what people need us the most and act in concerted ways. So I look forward to you joining NetworkCapital TV on 14th for a discussion. If you have questions, please send them our way. And yes, let's become more back able together. And I just like to conclude by this line which really resonated with me. It said that the failure is not the lack of success. Failure essentially comes down to being bored with what you're doing. And I think equating failure to boredom means makes us realize that when we don't accomplish a goal, perhaps we are not as motivated by it, perhaps we are approaching it the wrong way and we run out of steam. It happens all the time in the entrepreneurial world with writers, even with thinkers and creative writers. When you stop being energized by the process is when you start to fail. Usually failure and energy have a detailed, intimate relationship and I want you all to remember that. Take care. Talk to you soon.
