Entrepreneurial Thought Leadership with Sidarth Mahindra

[00:00:00] Surbhi Dedhia: Hello Sidarth. Welcome to The Making of a Thought Leader podcast. It is absolutely my pleasure to have you on board today.

[00:00:07] Sidarth Mahindra: Thank you so much, Surbhi. It's my pleasure to be here with you.

[00:00:10] Surbhi Dedhia: Awesome. All right, we'll jump straight in. Share with the audience your background story and who you are?

[00:00:17] Sidarth Mahindra: Sure. We had very humble beginnings. We've been in the UAE as a family for almost 60 years. I'm born in the UAE and I've been here for 40 years.

[00:00:26] We were into the hospitality business running hotels and restaurants. And my brother and I chose to do something very different. It was a business of being in a niche within a niche. You know what I mean? We chose the pet food distribution, retail, and the veterinary business.

[00:00:44] And it's been a long journey of over 20 years that we've been in this business.

[00:00:49] Surbhi Dedhia: Oh, wonderful. Wonderful. So to unpack that a little bit, you've been born, brought up in UAE and you started your business on your own with absolutely no training, formal training or experience whatsoever in the pet industry.

[00:01:05] Sidarth Mahindra: Absolutely. And in this time and age, you know, entrepreneurs need to sharpen their impulsive and the intuitive skills. And that's what we had 20 years ago. We just jumped right in without training, without investment, without funding. No seed a, seed B, and we just began the entrepreneurial journey.

[00:01:24] Surbhi Dedhia: Yes, so that impulse and you know, intuitive that characteristic came in early for you and nobody was guiding you that, hey, as an entrepreneur, you need to be intuitive and, you know, jump right in, take the opportunities in your stride, et cetera.

[00:01:38] Sidarth Mahindra: Absolutely. Being entrepreneur in those days, was not even a word. I don't think entrepreneurial or entrepreneur or entrepreneur words existed. It was a businessman. businesswoman, and that's it. You know what I mean?

[00:01:50] So the word has evolved from what it was before as well. So it's a journey. We are all learning.

[00:01:55] Surbhi Dedhia: We were talking a few days ago about how the trajectory of the entrepreneur is not linear. You don't progress in a linear direction. It's zigzag. And that actually kind of emanates from what you just said, that it is intuitive, it is impulsive. So you're not like predictably going step one, step two, step three. It's like maybe step zero and then you go in different directions really. So in this situation, how did you stay on track?

[00:02:24] Sidarth Mahindra: I've always believed that, entrepreneurship is a journey. It's, it's not a destination. And, along course you're bound to fall, you're bound to trip, you're bound to hurt yourself, and you'll also successfully pass new hurdles.

[00:02:39] You'll explore new destinations, and you'll eventually enjoy the journey no matter where it takes you. So entrepreneurship is not really, I want to reach point B by so-and-so all the time. It's always about the journey. You might not even know where you're getting to, but because of the work you put in and the intuitiveness that you put in and the ideation that you put in and the execution that you have, it might take you somewhere.

[00:03:03] And not all entrepreneurs know where they're going. A lot more what you see in Dubai. They had a vision to build the city. But how to build the city, when to build the city, what means to use that has those things just happened along the way. So as an entrepreneur, you know, you always keep changing your strategies from time to time.

[00:03:22] Surbhi Dedhia: Yeah. just curious to know, while you were changing and iterating your entrepreneurship journey, did you have any strong systems in place? Say one is the technology, other could be people.

[00:03:34] So was there something foundationally that you did that helped you not go off course or not go like way off course?

[00:03:41] Sidarth Mahindra: So, I'll give you a few pointers on the journey and, and what are key elements to entrepreneurship according to me, in my experience.

[00:03:49] Number one, I've always stated that you've gotta be razor focused. You know, people say focused, but I've added the word razor focused. The moment you slip. On the left or the right, or the front or the back, you get cut, but you gotta be ready for that cut.

[00:04:03] The world is full of distractions and the one who really finds his or her ikigai is the one who runs straight and gives it the best. Imagine you're in a marathon, you don't have the time to look left or right or back. You have to just look front; you have to focus where you wanna go.

[00:04:19] You know, it doesn't matter whether they come first, second, third, but you've gotta go there.

[00:04:23] And second of all, lots of entrepreneurs are busy making business plans. They're just busy making business plans to raise funds. And, and very few entrepreneurs are actually working on their intuition. Very few people are working on their gut feeling. You know, you've gotta be flexible, you've gotta be adaptable, you've got to adapt to change. That's the only constant thing.

[00:04:46] You gotta change strategies based on different circumstances. You're always up against different circumstances. So, change is the only constant. You know, seek mentorship. There are a lot of people shy away and say, why do I need a mentor? I know it all. I've done it all.

[00:05:02] I've experienced it. It's been 20 years; it's been 30 years. Why do I need a mentor? And for me, there is no shame in being vulnerable. There's no shame in being accountable to someone else, even if that person is outside your industry, even if that person is an unknown to you. There are so many times we're in a networking group of unknown people, but you still are vulnerable to them.

[00:05:24] So if you're not vulnerable, you'll never gain. And you lose course many a times. But when you have an accountable partner, it's a self-reflection of where you're going. So, consider your accountable partner as your mirror. So, if you don't have a mirror, you don't know how you look.

[00:05:39] Mm. So, this is another way I see how to be on course. One of the biggest, or the best steps is you build a smarter team. Yeah. And what do I mean by smarter? You know, everybody says I work hard. Great. You can work hard, but you've got to have a, a team which is even more hardworking than you, even more smart working than you.

[00:05:59] So they've gotta to outperform your skills, an entrepreneur so that your business grows. You can't have people of the same caliber as you or the same thought process as you. You need people beyond you. It's, it's tricky. It's challenging, but it works for me. So, I've always kept people who are, who've always made them believe that they're smarter than me.

[00:06:17] I've got a few more points. Network around people who probably are beyond you in terms of skills, experience, status strategies, mindset. You know, they say that if you're around millionaires, you'll eventually become, and if you're around, if you're around multi-millionaires, you'll become multi-millionaire.

[00:06:36] If you're around billionaires, you'll become a billionaire. Surrounding yourself around these social networking groups will really keep you on course because if you think you're drifting away, somebody will give you a reality check. Hey, listen, you're still a pond, you're still a small frog in a huge pond.

[00:06:52] So networking really helps. And I've also promised myself that I'll upgrade my skills every two, three months. By skills, what do I mean? I can attend. Various workshops for people training, wellbeing training mindset training, industry trade shows, educating myself on new strategies, take on an MBA, take on a PhD you know, learning Arabic.

[00:07:16] For me, being in the UAE of all these years learning Arabic or another language is so important. Yeah. Because you've got a mix of nationalities that are coming into the UAE. And lastly, I've said self-care and wellbeing.

[00:07:29] I've always believed in this, that a healthy mind, healthy body helps you maintain a healthy work life balance. Yes. So these are a few points that I've, I've put together in my mind, and I always focus on these things, and then that's how I push myself every day.

[00:07:44] Surbhi Dedhia: Yes. When you were saying all these seven, eight points that you were mentioning, it felt like going through a lot of self-help books.

[00:07:51] And I'm curious to know whether you read and where did you like, you know, adapt these from eventually. You probably had this strong gut feeling and then you jumped into it. But over a period of time, it's very clear that you have thought clearly how you want to progress.

[00:08:05] Sidarth Mahindra: I despise reading books. I, I believe I'm a book in itself. I like to listen to audio books. I like to look to videos, watch videos, inspirational videos podcasts. It was interesting.

[00:08:17] I was reading some books to my son last night and I fell asleep so, it’s been with me since, since my school days that if I read a book, I fall asleep. Luckily in today's technology and today's times, we have podcasts, videos. So, there are multiple ways of communication other than reading a book. But yes, I do listen and I do watch.

[00:08:37] Surbhi Dedhia: I think it kind of reflects from what you said, if you are surrounded by a millionaires, you become a millionaire. So, if you're surrounded by great thinkers, your thought process also clarifies that way.

[00:08:47] So it is interesting. One of the things that really hit a home run for me during our past conversation is the mindset bit of it. And I know you touched upon right now, like, you know, self-care. The last point that you said, the self-care and mindset. But I think what we, you were talking earlier was because you had this opportunity, like you were 40 years old and you've done business and you had this opportunity to see your parents and your family in business, you had this comparative viewpoint. So I wanted to touch base on that, extending from your last point on mindset and share with me what you think about the way businesses were run and the way businesses are run right now in terms of their mindsets.

[00:09:35] Sidarth Mahindra: Right. Very good question. Like I said, everything is evolving.

[00:09:38] Everything changes from time to time. So there's no precedent that you can take back and say, this was done great 20 years ago. Let me follow the same pattern 20 years later. Great example of where you're living in the UAE. Something that could be taboo yesterday is now law today and is acceptable tomorrow.

[00:09:59] So that's the kind of transition and that's the kind of change that we are going through. It's a transformation, it's an evolution. So as part of a business family, I mean, my, my mom's side was, was quite strong into the business side, back home in India. And so, I think that my brother and I have picked up a lot of entrepreneurial skills business skills from the family.

[00:10:18] And I would say that the mindset has to keep changing because circumstances are changing. Right, and I'm gonna bring the point about abundance versus scarcity because at that point in time you know, 50, 60, 80 years, a hundred years ago, people were fighting for survival.

[00:10:36] People were not fighting for abundance, or they were, they were just trying to live through scarcity. Today we are privileged to be around abundance. So even ideas, ideation, creation, execution is abundant, which back then you had a few people who would get into business and a lot more people would get into jobs because they wanted to follow somebody.

[00:10:59] Today, as an entrepreneur, you've got to take the leap. You know, back in the day, they used to say, look before you leap. Now I say just leap anyway, and then explore what happens.

[00:11:11] So that's the biggest change. And coming back to abundance today, you're surrounded by things that used to be a need. But now it's a want. So, whatever was your need before is now is no longer luxury. For example, you know, internet. It's not a luxury anymore.

[00:11:29] Yeah. Mobile phones not luxury. A nice household's not luxury anymore. Right. You know, nice cars, a great paying job. Large parks gyms, buildings, pretty much bunch of things, you know, so. Mm-hmm. So that, that whole mindset has changed and yes, having our So, parents definitely make us realize how things have changed and how they're changing with us too.

[00:11:54] So that's the best part. Their experience matters with time and maturity comes experience. So that's what we gather from them and then we add elements of intuition and gut and that's how we make move on.

[00:12:05] Surbhi Dedhia: That's wonderful and it is a very different perspective. Now I am going to shift gears a little bit here and, on this episode, and on this podcast, we talk about thought leadership.

[00:12:15] We encourage entrepreneurs to build their thought leadership. And I know you have done so many things around that area. So, I want you to inspire other listeners who are entrepreneurs here to build their thought leadership.

[00:12:28] Sidarth Mahindra: Right. Thought leadership for me is, is built over time.

[00:12:32] Mm-hmm. It takes time, it takes resilience, it takes experience, and there are so many other factors that help you become a thought leader. For example, I'm heading up a networking organization where I have people who are aged between their probably late twenties, early thirties until mid sixties. And just to lead a group of diverse people with different skill sets, different mindsets, different experiences, different cultures, egos, you know, there's so much of variation that happens that each day that I feel there's a lot more than I'm learning throughout my journey. And at this point in time, I am trying my best to, to mentor, to coach younger entrepreneurs so that they find their ikigai, they find their purpose in life. Like I said, we are born into abundance and, and people lose their way because they wanna do everything.

[00:13:34] They want to be a car dealer. They want to be a real estate agent. They want to be an investor; they want to be an angel investor. They want to be an employee, right?

[00:13:41] I love to go on talks to different corporate offices where I can embody what I believe through my experience. And of course, every two to three months I work on myself. So, like for example, I did a neurolinguistic programming course where I'm now a qualified coach.

[00:14:00] So we've gotta work with replacing a lot of words. You know, when we were young, you know, we always just think about jealousy as bad, or competition as good. Know stuff like that, like you could replace these words of being jealous to being inspired. It just changes the whole concept of perspective, bad to good, you know, competition to collaboration.

[00:14:27] I've never thought competition is bad anyways. So, I always think of how to compete in a better way, and that is to collaborate with the person who is number one. Hmm. Because the person whose number one in his business or in life will always continue to be number one. Mm-hmm. People persuade to be number one, will always be behind the number one because they're always catching up to the number one.

[00:14:51] So rather than running in a race, you might as well collaborate with them because you know, they're already up there. So maybe you'll get a small little nugget out of their learning or their experience and you can add it onto your business. So yes, thought leadership for me is built along the way.

[00:15:06] There's a lot of information that people have, they want to retain. But the point of living life is not to retain, it's to offer.

[00:15:14] It's to give. So I believe that I'm here to offer my wisdom, education, experience to people who need it, because people who need it are people who want to help themselves, right? So you can only help someone if they want to be helped. Mm. So we have social media, we've got different platforms, you know, blogs.

[00:15:36] We're doing a podcast now. You know, you're educating people. Yeah. In the unknown because there's a lot more in the unknown than there is in the known. You know, like I said, leap anyway, so let's sleep anyway. In the unknown, you don't know what's gonna happen, so let's sleep. Mm-hmm. You don't want to, these thoughts about regretting that I didn't take the jump.

[00:15:51] You know, it's ideas what's free in today's life. It's not even air, it's advice. You could get a bunch of advice, a bunch of ideas, but what really counts as execution. So, for me, thought leadership is, much more than just talking for the sake of talking, you gotta add value. You gotta create, you gotta create an abundance mindset in everybody's mind.

[00:16:17] Surbhi Dedhia: Right? Right. And I think what you just said, right, like the, the nature of giving is so important in any kind of leadership because we are talking about thought leadership and primarily, you know, you have invested so much in yourself building your thought processes, and now that you're giving.

[00:16:35] It multiplies, like the giver’s mindset is always the multiplier effect. Also, it's like a win-win situation because when you are sharing what you know and what you learn, you remember it better, you imbibe it better into your system as well. So that is a real powerful point.

[00:16:52] One other thing that I'm very impressed about is your own personal branding website. Like I keep telling all the clients that I work with, or even the entrepreneurs that I come across that, look, you need to have your brand out there. Even if you're not using your own, like building your own website, use social media and all of the other platforms to build your thought leadership and personal brand.

[00:17:15] So talk to us on how did you think about having a personal brand website?

[00:17:22] Sidarth Mahindra: Oh yeah. Good. Good question because the website for me again, and I keep telling my family about this, I said, don’t wait for someone to give you the gratitude. Don't wait for someone to say, hey, you've done a good job.

[00:17:38] Because by the time you wait for people, they'll never come. So, it's best you give yourself self gratitude. It's time that you give yourself the merit that, hey, listen, I've built so many things along the way. So, my website was really a reflection of what I did. It. It's not really for, you know, a perspective.

[00:17:59] To show people that, hey, listen, I've, I've arrived, I've made it. No, it was more of telling myself, I've done so many things in 20 years, which people of my age probably wouldn't have done. So here is your self gratitude moment.

[00:18:12] I look at the website, I feel proud of it because at the end of the day, we've, we've built an ecosystem. We're not just, we're not just feeding one person by paying a salary in my office. We're feeding families, we're feeding an ecosystem, feeding an industry. Mm-hmm. So, so the website is more of self gratitude and, appreciation. That's one of the things people miss is celebrating their milestones, right? For me, I don't think celebrating my milestone is my age or my wealth. For me, celebrating milestone is, the next thing that I have achieved in my professional life.

[00:18:47] You could have parties every day, but you don't set up a business every day. You could have wins in your personal life probably because, you've got a social status. But when it comes to your entrepreneurship journey, there are very few occasions that you actually create value or there's very few occasions where you actually can celebrate that.

[00:19:07] That's success. So, journey for an entrepreneur you've gotta be extremely resilient. You've gotta be extremely grounded. And I tell my team, I said, guys, tell me something. When you guys are awake doing work hours, what do you think I do? And they said, sir, you are working.

[00:19:26] I'm like, yeah, that's true. While you're working, I'm working. So, I said, okay, tell me the times when you guys sleep at night, what do you think I'm doing? And the answer's still the same. You're working. So as an entrepreneur, you're working all day long, whether they're sleeping, you’re working, whether they're working, whether they're awake, you're still working.

[00:19:45] So it's like the army. Yeah. Why is the army looked upon as the greatest? Because while you're asleep, they're keeping you safe. So, this is what we do. So, I give myself a badge, even if I'm not given the badge, but I give myself the badge to say, hey, listen, you've arrived. Here's your website.

[00:20:01] You've achieved this, and kudos to you. So, this is my mindset and why I've developed a website for myself.

[00:20:07] Surbhi Dedhia: That's nice. I think in digital age and space, you build that perception before people can actually meet, meet you. And also, once you have done all of this, it is almost like keeping like a log book of your achievements to showcase. So, I think that is a very important reason why individuals must think about investing in personal brand.

[00:20:28] Sidarth Mahindra: So, what is personal right now? I think everything is so transparent and I believe in two things, vulnerability and transparency. Hmm. So, I'm coming back to the point of giving, if you can be vulnerable and you can't be transparent because people will judge you anyways, whether you are there or you're not there. So, you might as well speak out what you feel.

[00:20:47] I was telling my team, I said, guys, if you guys have questions, even if they're stupid questions, stupid questions are always welcome first before intelligent questions. Because if you think they're intelligent questions, that's your perception. They could be stupid to me.

[00:21:02] Yeah. Or they could be stupid. The winner is the person who asks the question. Not sits back and he thinks, oh, I should have asked, oh no, it's not answered. Because unanswered questions, they will go in your grave.

[00:21:13] So ask questions no matter where, what, whom, because the worst thing that can happen to you is, is if you don't ask those questions, you will never have them answered, number one. And you'll always live in that guilt throughout your life.

[00:21:28] Surbhi Dedhia: True. Absolutely. This has been such a phenomenal discussion, Sidarth. Thank you for sharing and giving to all of us what you know. I think it proves the point as well.

[00:21:38] So before I let you go, tell us about where people can connect with you. Of course, I've already mentioned your personal website and so I'm going to put that link. Do you think people can connect with you on LinkedIn? Is that a better place?

[00:21:51] Sidarth Mahindra: Right. So, you can connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm pretty much available on TikTok as well.

[00:21:56] I started posting some videos. I've got a very funny side to me, I suppose. I try and bring them out because I feel like in the video, the videos might make sense. Sometimes the videos might talk about job openings. The videos might talk about my life. The videos might talk about abstract things.

[00:22:13] So some of my friends say that, Sid, you're very unique in a weird way. Or they would say, you are weird in a unique way. You know, one of the things. You can connect with me on LinkedIn, on TikTok, on Instagram on email, on my website, Sidarthmahindra.com and I'll be happy to talk to you. I'll be happy to have an engagement with you at any point in time.

[00:22:35] I'm always open for these things.

[00:22:37] Surbhi Dedhia: Wonderful, wonderful. And all of these links will be mentioned in the show notes below. So do have a look and thank you so much again, Sidarth.

[00:22:45] Sidarth Mahindra: Surbhi, thank you very much for today's podcast. Really appreciate this.