Utkarsh Amitabh left Microsoft to start Network Capital. He used Jeff Bezos' Regret Minimization framework and ran micro experiments to test whether the move fit before committing fully.
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Hi everyone, my name is Utkarsh. I'm the founder of Network Capital to talk to you about my latest Harvard Business Review article on career transitions on network Capital. We run a fellowship called I don't Know what I Want to Do With My Life Fellowship. In this cohort based course we help fellows run micro experiments so that they can figure out what they want to do with this wild and precious life they've been bestowed with. It's not a super easy decision to figure out. There are many competing interest areas, many strengths that we have, there are many curiosities that get piqued as we move along. Our passions change, many people ask us to follow our passion and I personally find it really misleading advice. Because passions evolve over a period of time, we underestimate how much passions change. And also unlike the popular imagery of an apple falling on our head and giving us that wisdom or clarity about careers and such, metaphorical apples don't really fall. So we have to figure out our way, tinker along to pursue a work life with, you know, with a sense of purpose and meaning and financial stability. For me, deciding to quit Microsoft and build a career pursuing my passion project Network Capital was an important decision that I had to take last year. It was the middle of the pandemic. There were many personal and professional factors that I had to calibrate. And in this Harvard Business Review article I talk about precise the steps that I took, the mental models that I used, the frameworks that I referenced. I start the article by talking about Jeff Bezos and how his Regret Minimization framework was a strong proponent in me calibrating my choices. In a nutshell, he asked himself, what would his 80 year old self regret more trying to pursue his dream, which was to build Amazon.com sell books online in a wide array of things, or trying and failing? And the answer was abundantly clear to him that not trying would perhaps hurt him a lot more and haunt him every day. So he decided to quit his job, leaving a fat hedge fund bonus on the table. And I asked myself a similar question. What would my 80 year old self reflect more? The safety and comfort of a job that I truly liked and enjoyed doing at Microsoft? Or trying to chase my dream, a passion project, Network Capital that I had nurtured for the past five years? After lots of trials and errors, I decided to conduct a micro experiment on myself. I took two weeks off and just analyzed how I felt, the kind of work that I was able to do, the kind of energy levels that I experienced, and how much was I able to really enjoy the nuts and bolts of building a difficult business and not just the glory of entrepreneurship, which is often talked about in the newspapers. And after conducting this micro experiment, I put together a long list of things that I enjoyed doing and the things that I no longer enjoyed partaking of. So in this Harvard Business Review article that was published yesterday, I explain my thought process in great detail. I really hope you enjoy reading the article and connecting us with us on NetworkCapital TV. If you're interested in building your category of one and trying to carve out a career that you can truly be proud of, a career that can give you the financial stability, the kind of impact, and the kind of meaning that we all crave for, I think a network capital subscription would be a useful investment in creating that category of one for your future self. A future self that you can be proud of. A future self that will help you tinker along and figure out what you want to do with this precious life and make the career transitions that can have the meaningful impact that we all crave for. Take care and have a good day.
