Summary
In this episode, learn how Utkarsh Narang transitioned from physical therapist to executive coach and discover how to overcome fear and societal expectations to reinvent your own career. Utkarsh shares his personal journey, emphasizing the importance of self-discovery, confidence, and embracing uncertainty. Gain valuable insights into identifying your “why”, stepping outside your comfort zone, and ultimately authoring your own life story. Tune in to be inspired and empowered to create a life on your own terms.
Key Takeaways
- The journey of self-discovery is ongoing and complex.
- Dissatisfaction can be a powerful motivator for change.
- Clarifying your ‘why’ is essential for any transition.
- Embracing new opportunities often requires stepping out of comfort zones.
- Confidence can be built through preparation and seizing opportunities.
- Societal expectations can hinder personal growth and reinvention.
- The choice to write our own stories is a personal responsibility.
- Success is defined by individual values and actions in the present moment.
- Living authentically requires courage to defy conventional paths.
About Utkarsh
Utkarsh is a Learning Consultant, Executive Coach, Facilitator and Content Creator based in Melbourne, Australia.
Over his 18-year career, from being a physiotherapist, and a good one, to filming and editing 400 hours of content for a Columbia Business School professor, to scaling a startup and leading sales to now helping individuals and teams outperform themselves, he has learned to make fear his ally in living a courageous life. He has a passion for understanding human behavior and using his diverse experience in building programs for organizations across the globe.
When not helping others get better, he enjoys working on himself through reading, meditation, exercise, and raising two boys, 13 and 10, with his wife.
Links:
Utkarsh TEDx Talk – Can Fear Push Us to be Courageous
Keywords
Related Articles in The Journey to Reinvention Blog
Unlocking Your Career Dreams: How to Successfully Change Careers
How to Overcome the Fear of Quitting Your Job
Moments
Reader-Friendly Transcript
Tell us a little about your journey from doctor to physiotherapist to executive coach.
The question that I’ve always been asking myself for the last two decades now is who am I? And it’s such a difficult question because there’s no right or wrong answer. There’s just your answer. And that’s what’s helped me over the years to define who I want to be and what I want to do. I started my journey as a physical therapist, born to parents in India who were both doctors.
When you’re a kid in the 90s in India and your parents were doctors then you’re told that all you can be in life is a doctor. I obliged and happily so because I thought it was a really purposeful job. It was well paying. And from there, I’ll figure out my path. So I became a doctor. I did my master’s in orthopedic physical therapy, had my clinic, built it to three clinics, a fitness center. All was going well and it was very rewarding.
But after 6 years of being a physical therapist, I started to ask myself, “who’s gonna know you in the world? Is that something that’s important to you? Are you just a frog in a well?” And what I meant by that is that the world is full of possibilities and here you are building your clinics and feeling so satisfied and successful, but what more can happen? And that’s when I started to network and eventually I met a professor at Columbia Business School who is a leadership professor. His idea was to film video lectures and put it onto the world for people to watch on leadership and management. This seemed like something that would help me create impact and make a global impact on the planet. So I leaped onto that opportunity. And from the outside, it seems that these leaps are very clear. It would seem I knew in 2013 that I have to go and meet these professors and have these conversations.
But it’s not that clear of a leap. It’s actually a very squiggly, messy process where there was a lot of imposter syndrome, there was a lot of frustration. So got into that, did filming for about four years and it was a joyful process. I would travel to the US and that was first time I was from India traveling to the US. New York became my favorite city in the world. I love to carry that cup of Starbucks and walk in the streets on Times Square. And so that was a lot of joy. And then I continued with the same same company, did operations and sales for them. But when the pandemic struck again, it was like, “Utkarsh, who are you? What’s going to change now? Because the world has changed. So you better also evolve yourself.”
And that’s what I did. I started to invest myself into this idea of coaching people and helping people, because through my journey, my coach played a pivotal role in helping me figure these things out. And so here I am three years later after quitting my job, I’m a content creator, TEDx speaker, author, executive coach, staying in Melbourne, Australia. Never did I expect that this would happen.
How did you transition away from your career in medicine? It seems this would be a difficult and lucrative career to leave behind.
Yes, I look back now, I can say that it worked out for me. But there was a high possibility that it would not have worked out for me. I think when the dissatisfaction of being somewhere is very high, then you have to find a way out.
And the dissatisfaction there was not financial. It was not outer success. But it was just seeing that as a 25, 26 year old, I have these clinics. I’m working really hard, 10, 12 hours a day serving. And healthcare is a very demanding space because you are physically, mentally and emotionally invested into your participants, your clients. And so I was asking myself, “Utkarsh, imagine yourself turning 35 and then maybe 45 someday. Do you think 20 years down the line, you will be happy being who you are right now?”
I think that question really made me feel like the answer is no. And the answer on the first day is no, and the second day is no, and third day is no. And so the first experiment I started was to reach out to people in different cities of India and ask, “let me do some physical therapy assessments and treatment for you over Skype.”
I wanted to stretch the boundaries. And I thought if I can stretch the boundaries, then it’ll allow me to experiment and to fail fast and to learn. But the world at that time was not ready for these things. And they were like, “what’s wrong with you? You got to come and touch my shoulder and you got to see what tendon is and this and that.” So that idea failed and that’s where the shift happened.
The second point is that whenever you’re shifting anything about your life, make sure to clarify your why.
Why do you want to do it? And if that why is really clear, you’ll find a way forward. It’ll be hard. It’ll be messy. It’ll be squiggly. But if you know that you have to come out of this situation, so you will. And then finally, the third and the final point that I want to share was my first days walking into that corporate office in Gurgaon, India. The next three months were the probation period for me while I continued with my physical therapy as a backup. I’d wake up at 6am attend some patients, then, I’d get to the office, work until 330pm and go back to my clinics, check on one, check on the second one and be home by 10 o ‘clock.
Those were really grueling 14, 15-hour days, but I did that to make sure that if I fail in this new world, I have something to fall back on. And three months down the line when I realized that I’m able to pave a path for me in this new identity, that’s when I let go of physical therapy.
Tell us about the work you did with the Columbia Business School professor?
Well, my sister was working with them and she had a part-time role and at the dining table in our home she’d watch some videos of this professor. I asked, “who is this person, whoever this is, this is making sense to me. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?” And so she said, we are looking to hire someone at the office. Why don’t you come in and have a conversation with the founder And so I went there and they said, Utkarsh, you want to be part of this company, what exactly will you do? We don’t need doctors here. And I asked them to give me a chance. And to this day, I try and figure out what did I say or do in the interview process that inspired them to hire me. And I think it came down to that. I was ready to leap into that identity, Roger. And I keep coming back to these deeper ideas and concepts because if I did not believe in that moment that I belong there and I could be there even on the outside, inside I would be a mess, feeling like an imposter. But on the outside I thought, “I belong here. And if I come here, I’m going to deliver impact.” And that’s it. And I could tell them, “I’m great at marketing. I’ve run my business for seven years. I’ve grown it over the years. And so all I need is an opportunity and I’ll make it happen.”
I told the founder that I can film videos. And they’re said, “we work with BBC producers and videographers who fly from London. We pay them half a million dollars or something like that. And here you are one month into your role, not even that. And you want to film for us? That’s not gonna happen, never gonna happen.”
In that moment part of you feels dejected, right? You feel you had such a brilliant idea, and you had full faith in it. But here’s what I did at that point. You know those Sony Handycams? I kept one of those in my drawer at the office. And I said that there’ll be an opportunity when they’ll need something to be filmed, and I’ll be there. And so a few months later, a client wanted some content. The founder was out of town. So they could not get to the BBC videographers. They could not get to the Columbia campus. And they scrambled to find someone who could be a videographer for the client. For our company, this was such a difficult situation. The content was needed the next morning. They wondered who was going to do it for us. And there I was, having lunch and I overheard the conversation. I said, “I can do that.” And they responded, “Utkarsh, are you sure about that?”
I said yes and there it was my first opportunity to film. I filmed only 10 minutes of content that day, Roger. But when that content was sent over to the client and the greater team of producers, they said it was brilliant work and wanted to know who filmed it. And that’s how kind of I leaned into that role. And that’s when the confidence of the stakeholders finally came, because I was able to show results, the confidence of the stakeholders in me improved and they finally allowed me to do that work.
This reminds me of a Leonardo DaVinci story.
A key idea that stood out there is the identity piece and it reminded me of a story about Leonardo da Vinci when he was reinventing himself. When he left Florence to move to Milan, he wanted to leave so badly that he decided to reinvent himself into a military engineer. He had never done the job.
But he figured, it’s what they’re hiring for so why not. He applies for that job. And he wrote one of the boldest, probably the boldest cover letter ever written. And essentially, he says, I could do this job better than almost anybody, probably on the planet. I mean, and this guy’s never done the job, but it just reminds me of that. He assumed that identity. He acted as if he was already that new identity.
All of this was powered by his confidence that once in the job, he could figure it out. You’ve learned this in your example example that you shared and I’ve learned this in other scenarios. I used to always think that only the most credentialed person can get the opportunity. And that’s just not true. Or only the person who has earned the most experience or is the most experienced can have that opportunity. Also not true.
People don’t always get the opportunity because they’re the best at something. Sometimes it’s because they were in the right place at the right time. Or as in your case, you had the camera in your desk. They say that luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity. Well, preparation was you having that camera in your desk and opportunity was the need for somebody to help out with the project right away. I believe that’s one of those big ideas on the journey to reinvention that if you can put yourself in the right place and act with confidence, you can make your own luck. And it doesn’t mean that you’re lying. It’s very different thing than lying because lying is saying that you have an experience that you don’t have, but acting with confidence as if you can figure it out because you know deep down you will find the way to figure it out.
All of this really comes together to show that it’s so important to act with confidence That’s what you did so well in that situation.
I remember when I was becoming a math teacher and I had never taught in the classroom and I’m in front of a superintendent I just acted as if. I gave all my energy all my passion to that conversation in that interview and the guy gave me a chance. I believe that’s one of the secrets to getting these opportunities and your story just encapsulates so many of those ideas together so well.
You always say, don’t let the world tell you otherwise. Tell us about that.
Yeah, absolutely. In all these moments, if I compile all of them, I think the world was telling me that Utkarsh you’re going to fail. You’re a physiotherapist. You cannot be a videographer. You’re a videographer. You cannot get into sales and operations. You have a good job. You cannot leave your job in the middle of a pandemic because if you do, then no one’s going to give you a job and you’re going to be bankrupt and die of hunger. And it goes on and on.
Our move to Melbourne, Australia was a leap. My wife got a job here and we packed our bags and two kids and we moved from India to Australia. And we keep on taking these leaps. But the whole idea is that the world tells you that it’s not going to work out because that’s how the world has grown up. We have all evolved from a scarcity mindset.
We’ve all come from situations where we have seen either our parents or grandparents, and especially coming from India, where were a very young country where resources were still kind of coming to the state. And so our parents have grown up in a place where if you get a job, then you stay in that job till you’re like 65 years old. And then you leave that job and then you die because that’s how life was supposed to be. You get married at a certain age, you have kids, you raise them well, and then you die.
They never thought of the reinvention. They never thought of changing careers. They never thought of living a life that you truly want to live. I remember when during the pandemic, I told my parents and my wife that I’m going to quit my job this year.
And their jaws dropped. They’re said, “Utkarsh what the hell is wrong with you? People are not getting jobs because of COVID. People are being let go of opportunities. And here you are thinking of leaving your job and starting this company, and becoming an executive coach. What does it really mean? You’re going to screw it up.”
And I understand that. That was the emotion. However, fortunately, they’ve been my unconditional support and pillar through the journey. And I can’t thank them all enough for who they have been.
The world will tell you things that are not true and your brain will tell you things that are not true. But I think it’s that identity piece, Roger, that you have spoken about. What are your core values? What do you truly believe in that if today I’m talking to Roger, they still stand true. If I’m going to go back and send my kids to school, they’re still going to stand true. If I go back to my clients, they’re still going to stand true. So to me, it all boils down to having a set of core values that you truly believe in, that you truly express in every moment, so that when the world tells you something, you don’t let it change you and change how you want to be.
The system seems to be build to tell us otherwise
I feel systems and rules try to tell us otherwise. In my case, to become a teacher, the system said otherwise. It said, no, you need to be credentialed. You need to have a degree in teaching. You need to have a license to teach and yet, I found a way to become a teacher without all those requirements.
We have to be careful when systems, policies, or rules tell us that there is no other way.
And who’s created those systems? Ultimately, we have created those systems. And how is our brain programmed? Because it’s like, when I want to take a next step, the first thing that comes to mind is like, what if I fail? But who’s stopping us from asking the reverse question? What if I succeed? And that’s the shift I think we have to go through. That we’ve thought about failure, I can change my job, or I’ll fail.
I can become a videographer. I will have no idea how to use the camera in front of a professor and I’ll die that day and I want the earth to engulf me. But what if I succeed? What opens up for me? And that’s the shift in mindset. I think that that we all need and what can we do that looks like success? What can we change? What new approach can we bring here that’s not been thought about because those systems and those processes have been created by us in certain cases.
For example, if you look at the education system in India, Roger, that was created back by the British in the industrial revolution and that still stays there. But is that really needed? Sometimes I talk about this with my with my two boys who are 13 and 10. And they want to be studying about something, but they also have their passion projects that they work on. And part of me is feeling like, do I really care if they study or not? Because here I am, have a master’s in orthopedic physiotherapy. But where is that degree? I have no idea. No one cares about my degree anymore.
But then I paused myself because I want them to find their own paths.
What is a funambulist?
I love this word. I came to know about this word from this Indian megastar Shahrukh Khan. You might have heard of him or might not have. But he was in an interview and someone asked him like, what’s your philosophy for life? And he said, I’m a phenomenalist. And that word just stayed with me. I had the opportunity of giving a TEDx a few months ago in Mornington here in Australia. And when I thought about my whole journey that you and I have been speaking about, Roger, what I thought was that aren’t we all funambulists? And what it means really is that being a tightrope walker, we’re walking this tightrope of life where it’s scary. We don’t want to take the first step because we feel like if we take that step, then what if we fall? What if the rope breaks? What if the whole system collapses and what will happen then? But my idea for everyone is that this tightrope is worth walking.
And we cannot stop ourselves on the edge, on the pedestal and just sit there and witness this time fly by and then be regretful that, we did not walk the tightrope of life. And so the three ideas that I share in the TEDx that I would love to share here as well is that all this while, Roger, the choice to write our stories is ours and ours only. And we should not let that choice be given away to anyone. So this idea of don’t let the world tell you otherwise just kind of come back to this thought.
The second is this being able to author our own stories. It’s a privilege. It’s a joy. And so what does success really mean to you? What does really life mean? I can I can go back and say that, I wish I could have done that and life would have been different. I wish I could have done that and life would have been different. But can I change anything in the past? I don’t think so. And in a few minutes from now, the future is going to change. The future is a very manmade concept Roger. We can talk about it, we can plan for it, we can do all the strategy that we can, but consider the world in January of 2020. I remember I was at the Institute, I was leading the India operations and I’d built in the strategy for the next 12 months.
And I presented how we’ll expand into new geographies and how this will happen and we will do physical workshops and this and then come March something called COVID came up and the world changed. Come December I was no longer part of the organization. Did I predict that in January when I was building all the strategy? Not at all. I wanted to be 85 and still be part of that institute and retire there and I’d seen the team grow from 2 to 50. But within a span of 12 months, everything changed. And so the future is going to come to you. Can you do your best?
When it comes to you into a present moment, can you just do your best? Can you find your values and operate with those values? This moment, Roger, to me, there’s a lot of love here because I don’t know if we’ll speak again or not. And I don’t know if our paths will cross again or not. And not because you and I will not want it, but maybe there’ll be an earthquake here in Melbourne. Maybe something will happen to you and death is something that walks with us. So I’m going to give my whole to you in this moment. And that’s how I’ve tried to live life.
And then success then really becomes what is me, Utkarsh, doing in this moment? And I’m doing it to the best of my abilities.