EP1 Crafting a Full Life - Ramesh Mangaleswaran on What Will You Do With Your Next Chapter?

Play to Potential Podcast

Deepak Jayaraman interviews Ramesh Mangaleshwaran about his transition from a thirty-three-year career at McKinsey to a purposeful 'portfoli

Key takeaways

Ramesh implemented a 60% work model between ages 50 and 55 to create space for exploring new ventures.
The GIFT framework stands for Giving, Investing, Family & Friends, and Teaching.

Main topics

Career transitions
The Portfolio Life concept

Notable quotes

Life is a gift.

Conclusion

The episode offers a roadmap for professionals looking to redefine the

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:06) What does it mean to lead a full life? When we are in our 30s, 40s and 50s, we often think that we need to choose between our career and friends and family, health and hobbies and ourselves. And given my work at the Play to Potential podcast and the coaching work I've done over the last 10 plus years, I've come to believe that it's a false choice. In fact, leading a full life might be a prerequisite for us to play to our potential. Speaker 2 (0:35) Hi, I'm Deepak Jayaraman and welcome to the Play to Potential Crafting a Full Life series. Short, crispy conversations around how we should think about crafting a full life. No right answers, but different perspectives that hopefully will give you some sense of how to go about being intentional in crafting a full life. Here we'll talk to individuals who've been intentional about crafting their journeys. We'll revisit some of the lessons from the podcast. And we'll even refer to a book once in a while. and see what we can learn from it, if it makes sense in the context of leading a full life. The first guest in this series is Ramesh Mangaleshwaran. He's somebody who's a mentor and somebody who shaped my life in many ways at various transitions. After three plus decades of distinguished service at McKinsey, Ramesh has gone on to craft a portfolio life. But what I really love is the thoughtfulness with which he's gone about it. Let me not give away too much. Without further ado, let's listen and learn from Ramesh Mangaleshwaran on Crafting a Full Life. Ramesh, thank you so much for making this, making time for the series that we're calling Crafting a Full Life. You're the first guest on this series. Thank you for making the time. Speaker 1 (1:47) Thank you. Thank you, Deepak. It's always a joy to connect with you. Speaker 2 (1:52) And Ramesh, I've said this on many forums, but since we are recording this and I'll put it out, I should sort of acknowledge that you played a key part in me pursuing this path. Back in 2009, when I was evaluating options post McKinsey, you were the one that said, maybe you should consider a search. And in a way, got me to take that exit from the motorway, which eventually got me to what I do now. So thank you. Thank you for opening that pathway for me. Speaker 1 (2:18) I'm Speaker 2 (2:18) glad. Speaker 1 (2:18) I'm glad this. Some Speaker 2 (2:19) of my advice Speaker 1 (2:20) stuck. Speaker 2 (2:22) Ramesh, I want to take you back to 15th December 2022. I think it was Chennai. I vaguely remember, I think it was your farewell party around the boat club area, if I remember the venue right. Speaker 1 (2:32) It was the radio room. Radio room, right? Speaker 2 (2:36) I think many people spoke how you've touched their lives and then you eventually took stage to give your farewell speech. And you started with the phrase, life is a gift. And you went on to talk about it. And I was actually, it was beautifully constructed. And clearly you've been thinking about it for a while. I think it was 33 years in McKinsey, etc. So I'd love for you to maybe talk a little bit about how you experienced the transition after three plus decades in McKinsey. And how did you arrive at that gift? And maybe just talk a little bit about what that is. Speaker 1 (3:08) Sure. Deepak, happy to do so. Especially if it's of use and relevance to anybody else that's listening to the podcast. This idea of a third chapter has stayed with me for a long time. And I've been reading a lot. I think some of the books you recommended to me, starting with obviously Linda Graydon's work, then The Second Mountain, a series of books that I was reading actually in my late 40s, because I did want to... to something beyond the firm. And this decision to move on from the firm was something I actually made on my 50th birthday. And a colleague of mine advised that be intentional about it. So what is less known to people is that between my 50th and 55th birthday, I actually went down to 60 % with the firm. And almost everyone warned me that you're being foolish. Because all you're going to do is you're going to do 100 % of your work for 60 % of your compensation. And so what I did was I made two people my conscience keepers for those five years. One obviously is my wife and two was my assistant. I said, listen, every quarter, the two of you have to come back to me and said, am I doing what people want me? That I'm doing 100 % work, I have not changed anything or am I really operating at 60 %? And then I made a lot of choices actually at the age of 50. So I stopped doing many things within the firm. Such as? Such as I stopped anything that was internal. No practice leadership role. You know, I was on several people committees of the firm. I rolled off those people committees. I decided to focus on deepening existing relationships and not necessarily build net new relationships. So I did many things to actually create time. And I was advised by my mentors in McKinsey on how to think about it. And the second thing I did was the balance 40 % was around exploring a lot of what I wanted to do. So I actually reconnected with both my alma maters, which was very clear that I wanted to give back in some ways. I got introduced to a group of people that were just beginning to think about a Greenfield University. I got introduced to Ashish Dhawan, with whom I do a lot of work now. Phase between 50 and 55 allowed me to have multiple conversations around what I wanted to do, explore it meaningfully. I mean, it was not just sort of the casual Saturday morning, can I tap you for 30 minutes and get your ideas? But it was quite deep exploration. And the