Episode 006 - Ruchika Sikri
When we see the benefits of softer values in tomorrow’s world
Ruchika Sikri (b. 1976) is a well-being pioneer in Silicon Valley, USA, a mother of two and VC following her calling to create a better world through investing. After a successful corporate career of 25+ years at Google, Microsoft and Cisco, Ruchika is now following her life's purpose and mission to create a more equal world by supporting globally accessible mindfulness, compassion and wellness offerings.
EPISODE SUMMARY
Ruchika reflects on her long career at Google, leaving that company to team up with an all-star talent at Wisdom Ventures, a fund investing in entrepreneurs and early-stage companies in the impact space.
RECORDED AT
Ruchika’s home garden in San Jose, California, USA, on a pleasant Saturday March afternoon
“If you look at the word imperfect, it has perfect hiding in it. I am perfect, is imperfect.”
KEYWORDS & TRANSCRIPTION
People, programmes, Google, imperfection, mindfulness, perfection, organisation, employees, life, grow, money, Cisco, wellbeing, project, realised, feel, venture, wisdom 2.0, enable, helpful
SPEAKERS
Ruchika Sikri & Risto Kuulasmaa
Ruchika Sikri 00:05
If you look at the word imperfect, it has perfect hiding in it. I am perfect is imperfect.
Risto Kuulasmaa 00:19
Welcome to Talks of imperfection.
Risto Kuulasmaa 00:23
We are about to meet Ruchika Sikri, a wellbeing pioneer in Silicon Valley, a mother of two and a VC following her calling to create better world through investing.
Risto Kuulasmaa 00:34
In this episode Ruchika reflects on her 15 year career at Google, and how she had an important part in making the Googlers to search inside.
Risto Kuulasmaa 00:46
Ruchika was rolling out Google's science based mindfulness, wellbeing and compassion programmes globally. We learn how the evolution of corporate Human Development changed from performance management to developing leaders towards perfection, and eventually organising wellbeing programmes allowing imperfection.
Risto Kuulasmaa 01:07
My name is Risto Kuulasmaa. And I'm your host at Talks of Imperfection, where we meet nearly perfect people revealing their imperfections. Our intention is to create an encounter, where we learn and get inspired about what kind of role imperfection plays in our private and professional lives.
Risto Kuulasmaa 01:27
Welcome to the show.
Risto Kuulasmaa 01:30
It's a beautiful morning at the Ruchika home garden in San Jose, California.
Risto Kuulasmaa 01:36
So welcome to the Talks of Imperfection podcast.
Ruchika Sikri 01:40
Thank you. It's a honour and a delight to be here with you today.
Risto Kuulasmaa 01:45
So good to have you. How does the world look now from the investor perspective? What kind of pitches and proposals you are receiving?
Ruchika Sikri 02:00
You know, I think last two years have been a wake up call for many, many people, I think, hopefully for everybody, right?
Ruchika Sikri 02:09
That we have finite amount of time on this planet, and people who've been doing the inner work, and more people are now doing inner work.
Ruchika Sikri 02:18
And they're having a retake on their life, right?
Ruchika Sikri 02:21
Like it's we call it this great resignation movement. But I must I also read an article on fortune the other day, which says it's not a great resignation movement, it's really a great retake movement, you know, like, what do we want to do.
Ruchika Sikri 02:34
And I think that's why this field is so enabled right now, the type of ideas I feel people are coming out with is to enable more therapy, you know, for mental health challenges. It's not a secret anymore. But it's a epidemic and pandemic, like whatever we want to call it.
Ruchika Sikri 02:52
People don't talk much about the increasing rates of anxiety and depression, lack of availability of good therapist and psychologists available to help people. Have like a brain Doctor available to them, like you know, for my arm breaks, I definitely run to an ER Urgent Care. But if I'm having an anxiety, panic attack, I think 100 times before I go seek help.
Ruchika Sikri 03:18
So I think people are trying to destigmatize that and create platforms for easy access to therapy.
Ruchika Sikri 03:25
And specialist helps if they need.
Ruchika Sikri 03:28
A lot of great work happening on addressing loneliness. And I would like to actually see more of that.
Ruchika Sikri 03:37
We all have 1000s, hundreds of friends and followers on Instagram, and Facebook. But we're really lacking real connections, really lacking that authentic, honest conversations and just learning from each other.
Ruchika Sikri 03:53
So people are trying to address that, you know, if you're always on our phone, how can we take people from this online world to offline world?
Ruchika Sikri 04:01
People are working on Web3 ideas, artificial intelligence, how can that be more ethical, helpful? People are working on Metaverse platform, you know, the Oculus, how do we enable better wellbeing through it? So it's really interesting to see how people are meeting and emerging ideas with the emergence of technology overall.
Risto Kuulasmaa 04:27
And what makes you most excited in your current job?
Ruchika Sikri 04:32
Oh, just to be able to serve and create a platform where this beautiful house can be made, and many can come into it as investors as entrepreneurs, as creators as a community, just like having, being able to, like, make my hands dirty with, like, this kind of project.
Ruchika Sikri 04:55
It's messy. It's uncertain.
Ruchika Sikri 04:58
You know, this is my first time I'm doing any work in the venture firm. But again, you know, I thrive on this challenge of learning and growing.
Ruchika Sikri 05:10
And anytime a new thing is put in my lap, it's scary.
Ruchika Sikri 05:14
And at the same time, it's exciting also, that I get to learn, and I get to learn and support something that's massively helpful for humanity, hopefully, and also for the planet. So that's most exciting the opportunity to learn and grow and contribute.
Ruchika Sikri 05:30
So we're all learning and growing together. Yeah, to talk about perfection in imperfection, right? That's how we plague.
Risto Kuulasmaa 05:54
Well, let's, let's get going. You have exited 15 years at Google. That's, that's a quite a journey. And I would like to hear their full story, how it all started then and where you ended.
Ruchika Sikri 06:14
If I look back, I feel the 15 years was such a long time. And sometimes I sit with it. And I feel like it was a blink of an eye that those 15 years have passed.
Ruchika Sikri 06:26
Isn't that just reflective of our lives, Risto?
Ruchika Sikri 06:29
I feel that's how our life typically is, we feel we have this long amount of time on this planet.
Ruchika Sikri 06:37
And when you look back, you're like, oh, my gosh, I'm in my 30s. I'm in my 40s. Already, where did the life go?
Ruchika Sikri 06:44
It was something similar at Google, for me. I was there for 15 years, that journey started... in a bit of a surprise for me, I wasn't expecting to be working at Google.
Ruchika Sikri 06:59
I was a new mom. At that time, I was working at Cisco, and was quite unhappy at that time. I don't think it has anything to do with Cisco particularly.
Ruchika Sikri 07:08
So I'm not saying anything like that. But I feel there was an internal conflict for me to be more present as a mother. And also working the long hours that technology industry typically seeks out of you, at least in that stage of my career.
Ruchika Sikri 07:26
And I resigned my job at Cisco. And I remember going to the daycare to visit my daughter, she was nine months old at that time. And we had just started her in daycare, and I met this executive from Google, who also had their child and they had come to nurse their baby at the daycare, and I went to do the same thing.
Ruchika Sikri 07:51
And so we were sitting and she asked me, "So, what are you doing? How are you doing with your career and overall?"
Ruchika Sikri 07:57
And so I told her like, you know, I'm quit quitting my job at Cisco right now. And I would like to take some time off or find a better flexible opportunities where I can dedicate time to motherhood or to my work.
Ruchika Sikri 08:12
And she said, "Have you applied at Google? "
Ruchika Sikri 08:14
And at that time, my husband was working at Google, and he had already put my resume in? And she said, "Why don't you send me a resume, and I'll put it in as well?".
Ruchika Sikri 08:24
And so I sent it to her, you know, not being really attached to if I will find a job or not.
Ruchika Sikri 08:30
And lo and behold, like, in a couple of months, soon after I left my job at Cisco, I found myself at Google.
Ruchika Sikri 08:38
And I joined as an HR analyst, the circumstances were kind of lending towards me taking on that employment. And who would pass on Google, it was just such a great company, known for, you know, great practices for employee Care and Development.
Ruchika Sikri 08:55
And my husband had good things to say. And we had a lot of friends working there. So it was very reassuring. So I joined as a HR analyst, and my first task was to actually put a performance management system in place along with some really incredible people around me.
Ruchika Sikri 09:12
And there I go on a journey, trying to figure out how does Google want perfection, to be valued? And all I could tell was, it was a very imperfect process. And what we were gauging was not so much about perfection of people. But their ability to be open to learning and growing and adapting to that constantly changing ground and that we were as Google.
Ruchika Sikri 09:41
At that time, they were probably 4000 employees in 2006. Don't hold me to that number, but approximately It was around that.
Ruchika Sikri 09:49
And when I left Google, we were 130,000 employees. So I saw a massive growth happen at Google when while I was there, and I feel so privileged and honoured that I was part of that growth, and could adapt myself and see people who were successful adapt themselves to the change as well.
Ruchika Sikri 10:11
And so we did put a performance management system in place, which was very peer driven. I did that work for good three to four years and spent long hours, making sure we deliver that system with as much perfection as possible.
Ruchika Sikri 10:32
But they were always, you know, changes coming down our our way, we were always refining it further, making it better for employees.
Ruchika Sikri 10:43
And then while I was there, I got an opportunity to go do my master's programme on organization design and development from University of San Francisco.
Ruchika Sikri 10:53
And that actually sparked a lot of interest in me looking at the people side of things. Being an analyst and a programme manager, I looked at processes and numbers and data a lot more than the people behind those processes and numbers.
Ruchika Sikri 11:10
So it was kind of an awakening for me to see that actually, an organization is like an organism.
Ruchika Sikri 11:15
And it is made of people who are all different, they're changing all the time, the processes are changing all the time.
Ruchika Sikri 11:24
And we as a collective, were changing all the time.
Ruchika Sikri 11:27
And it gave me this bird's eye view of how should one run an organisation or how an organisation is even run and developed.
Ruchika Sikri 11:35
And that sparked a lot of interest. So I took a detour and started doing more people development kind of work, and found myself to be inviting that type of work in my life.
Ruchika Sikri 11:49
And my first project on that was to, again, help establish something new that was not done at that time at Google to develop a process to do executive development. You know, we wanted to grow talent from within the company, we were growing at massive rate, you know, hiring 5000 - 10.000 people every quarter, every six months.
Ruchika Sikri 12:15
And we needed leaders from within who understand the culture, who could preserve it, protected and grow along with them.
Ruchika Sikri 12:24
So I was lucky to find an opportunity to support a process like that, and did that for another couple of years.
Ruchika Sikri 12:31
And that kind of just sprinkled into management development, team development.
Ruchika Sikri 12:37
So spent a lot of time really looking at how to enable people to grow and develop, I did not quite have a very good understanding of it that time. But if I look back, you know that all of that work and adaptation and evolving was helping me learn and grow so much as well.
Ruchika Sikri 12:58
I started with a business degree as an analyst. And then I started doing like people programmes at all different levels.
Ruchika Sikri 13:05
And while doing all of this, to manage my own stress, and wellbeing, I was really immersed in yoga and meditation and mindfulness, I was going on retreats, taking weekly classes. So I also kind of became this known quantity of somebody who has some practices to manage my own stress and burnout, which most of these companies, you know, you end up being in that state if you're working long hours with some smart people around you.
Ruchika Sikri 13:37
And, you know, a few years, fast forward about seven years into my career, and we had a moment of realisation we've grown so fast that employees were actually not able to adapt to that level of pace, in terms of also, taking care of their well being and health.
Ruchika Sikri 13:58
So we saw some kind of interesting numbers come through our yearly survey, which indicated we need to put more focus and attention on that.
Ruchika Sikri 14:08
And that's when you know, our leadership team put a team together, a cross functional team together to enable mindfulness, wellbeing, and compassion programmes for employees.
Ruchika Sikri 14:21
And again, I found myself to be in this completely new territory of being a practitioner, myself, however, had never done any formal education on wellness. I was attending retreats for mindfulness, but I had never taught a class on it.
Ruchika Sikri 14:37
But I kind of knew the trick to get the programmes off the ground and scale it, globally, because I had done it a couple of times before in different areas.
Ruchika Sikri 14:47
And that's where, you know, my journey started on wellbeing learning projects at Google, and our SVPs and VPs. Were very supportive of that. They believed in the scientific evidence we were bringing on how this is helpful for employees to raise their self awareness, their emotional intelligence so that they can realise that they have boundaries and limits. And then they can manage to those limits and take the time off. And disconnected vacations, manage their well being day to day.
Ruchika Sikri 15:19
And I thought, honestly, it would be a six months to a year project that I would just rotate into and rotate out of and do something different. But it ended up being an eight year journey, you know, really cultivating mindfulness at Google.
Risto Kuulasmaa 15:34
What's been the evolution of measuring perfection?
Ruchika Sikri 15:39
Yeah, great question.
Ruchika Sikri 15:41
I think I'm not sure if we were ever in the business of measuring perfection, at Google.
Ruchika Sikri 15:47
I think we were in the business of measuring growth and evolution of technology of people, of our capabilities and interest, and things that can be helpful for the world.
Ruchika Sikri 16:05
And Google has a great mission, you know, make products that are helpful for the world, right? It's simple.
Ruchika Sikri 16:12
And I think it stayed that way. Risto, it got more complex, I think towards the end, when I left, I realised we were a massive organisation.
Ruchika Sikri 16:23
And the processes that I supported like performance management, compensation planning, leadership development, management development, team development, they all just grew by magnitude of, you know, amount of people we had, and the complexity added a the number of products that Google offered, when I joined, we were primarily a search and advertisement company, right.
Ruchika Sikri 16:49
And now if you look at it, we are an Alphabet company. So pretty much every alphabet has a company associated with it.
Ruchika Sikri 16:56
So the processes I think, are continuing to evolve and adapt to the growth and the need that the organisation has now.
Ruchika Sikri 17:04
And of course, like, I've been out of Google for one year now. So I'm not sure how things are.
Ruchika Sikri 17:10
But a lot of attention was continued to be paid on. Are we taking enough risks? Are we rewarding people for taking risks? Are we not, you know, treating failures as bad things, you know? And how do we kind of also evolve people dynamics around, you know, the agility and organisation needs adaptability that organisation needs.
Risto Kuulasmaa 17:38
And how was the culture around imperfection and failures?
Ruchika Sikri 17:44
You know, for the most part, I felt I can speak personally, from my own part, that there was a lot of permission to take risks and fail, you know, even to do this Mindfulness Learning Programme at Google, I don't think any other organisation had ever thrown money or resources to enable their employees to scale these kinds of programmes.
Ruchika Sikri 18:08
It was risky, you know, money and headcount was given to that.
Ruchika Sikri 18:12
But we found that to be quite successful and helpful.
Ruchika Sikri 18:16
And it showed through the level of adoption. So that is, like in my area, as an observer of Google overall, I think it was very much valued, and it still is valued. However, you know, when you kind of get to this level of where Google is right now, and the number of people we have, there are certain like boundaries that need to be created around it.
Ruchika Sikri 18:46
So, I don't, my perception is that the innovation risk taking, evolving, how we work is continuing to happen. You know, even now, I would hope for sure, up until I left, there was a lot of permission to do that.
Ruchika Sikri 19:04
To be imperfect, and fail, take risks, try again, get up and then fail again.
Ruchika Sikri 19:13
So I call it like, It's a beauty, beautiful, you know, story of imperfection at play all the time.
Ruchika Sikri 19:21
But then, you know, you also had to have good judgement, as an employee, as a leader.
Ruchika Sikri 19:27
Like, you know, if you're failing too many times, it's not just because it's your passion project. There are some signals and indicators that are telling you that this may not really work. For example, we tried some programmes within our unit as well. And we did like try for quick fails, rather than like spending resources and time on something for five years. And then sunsetting something, so I feel like as organisation grew, there were more calculated, and smarter ways to take risks as compared to like a lot of opening and unforeseeable future.
Risto Kuulasmaa 20:04
In a way you are describing the evolution of forward thinking, corporate life.
Risto Kuulasmaa 20:12
So if we look at this 15 year span, from performance management, to developing leaders to wellbeing programmes, and I remember when we met a few years back, and that was exactly the time when we were in event and I was quite impressed coming from Europe, and on the same stage, we had just freshly appointed Chief Mindfulness Officers from LinkedIn, I think it was Facebook, and then then it was you.
Risto Kuulasmaa 20:48
And, you know that that was, for me an event where I realised that, Okay, now we've taken the next step in the wellbeing cultures of the corporations.
Risto Kuulasmaa 21:02
So let's go back to the kind of the beginning of wellbeing programme set at Google. How it started, like, was it you who pitched it? Or was it coming from the senior management? Or what was the kind of starting point?
Ruchika Sikri 21:24
Yeah, you know, that was about 10 years ago, things would often start as a very employee driven initiative at Google, that was quite a popular thing.
Ruchika Sikri 21:38
We had and still have, hopefully 20% time to dedicate on a project that we would like to work on. And that's helpful and related to what the company wants to do. And that advances our organisation and Google forward together.
Ruchika Sikri 21:55
And the way the mindfulness work particularly started and I have a different answer for how it became important to pay attention and give resources to wellbeing programmes, let me actually go to the mindfulness part first.
Ruchika Sikri 22:09
So one of the engineers at Google Chade-Meng Tan, he, you know, who he and some other people would just generally host meditation sessions once or twice a week at Google. So that was something that I was taking part in.
Ruchika Sikri 22:25
And eventually, Meng ended up writing a book called "Search Inside Yourself".
Ruchika Sikri 22:31
And that was a play on Google a search company, we help the whole world search for things on the internet.
Ruchika Sikri 22:37
And, you know, Meng designed this book called "Search Inside Yourself" that employees at Google, we need to "Search Inside Yourself" to stay, to really know like, what we are doing, who we are, and what we are, you know, working on, and his book got published, and it became, you know, a best seller.
Ruchika Sikri 22:56
And then Google employees got very motivated to read that book. So he started offering short trainings. And he was very instrumental in bringing a lot of leaders in mindfulness space, who were doing research, science work to prove the efficacy of mindfulness practices, in a very, you know, hardcore, like signs, ways to say, you know, it actually helps you to be more balanced, to be more harmonious, to be more productive, to be more creative.
Ruchika Sikri 23:27
So they were kind of connecting the dots between the sitting practice and what is important to an organisation. So that's how the mindfulness journey at Google started.
Ruchika Sikri 23:37
And he was offering that programme as a 20% project, you know, he was a full time engineer also. And then, you know, a lot of us got interested in it. And a lot of speakers and authors would come to Google and we would just do these talks.
Ruchika Sikri 23:52
So it was very employee driven, volunteer based programme for a good two to three years. And then a few a couple of years down the line, when we saw that employee numbers were kind of not so great on wellbeing scores. Because the organisation has grown so massively, then, you know, we also noticed like what all is working naturally at the grassroots level and mindfulness was kind of raised as one thing which was a really high in demand, you know, people wanted to come to Meng class, he had like 2000 people waitlist, and but there were no other people working on it and he had a full time job along with it.
Ruchika Sikri 24:32
So we looked at various things we put in programmes for nutrition, for exercise, for, you know, just kind of pointers to employees, like you can take a long walk during the day or do a walking meeting. And similarly, like we also created a programme.. programmatic aspect to scale "Search Inside Yourself" training, which involves training other employees or bringing external trainers.
Ruchika Sikri 24:57
And then we also wanted to normalize mindfulness at Google.
Ruchika Sikri 25:02
And the way we did that was in a very community driven way, which ended up, you know, being one of the projects I supported and led called "G Pause", which is Google pause.
Ruchika Sikri 25:14
So we're running and playing all the time. So we encouraged, you know, through that programme, "G paused" for employees to just take a break, sit and meditate, or just be you know, and that was quite remarkable Risto, because we got so much interest that a lot of volunteers from all around the world raise their hand to say, "Can I actually lead "G pause", in my organisation? I'm a meditator. I'm not a professional teacher of meditation, but I can hold space for people to come and sit.
Ruchika Sikri 25:46
So you know, within a year time, we had 140 offices around the world, who had a volunteer, holding the space for people to come together and meditate every day, or invite a speaker to come on this topic and talk. So that's how the mindfulness programmes grew. And we got eventually, you know, motion, the support from our leaders to also grow this programme in a more official space and capacity.
Risto Kuulasmaa 26:14
And then, after 15 years, you decided to step out? How was the process of letting go? I guess it was a tough decision.
Ruchika Sikri 26:27
Yes, and it wasn't sudden that I left.
Ruchika Sikri 26:30
It was kind of two years in the making, when I kind of started feeling, getting the signals that it's time to do something different. And I wasn't quite sure what that was.
Ruchika Sikri 26:43
It was compounded, Risto, with a personal, you know, thing that I was going through my life, I lost my mom two years ago, now almost three years ago, to neurodegenerative disease that kind of really took her from being 100%, okay to not being with us within two years.
Ruchika Sikri 27:04
And so there was like a lot of overlap that happened between, you know, my work transitioning, and also my personal loss.
Ruchika Sikri 27:13
So I wanted to, like have some time to comprehend, like, what is overpowering me right now to make this transition? Is it really work? Something else's calling? Or is it something I'm just, you know, going through a transformation of, you know, not having my mom on this planet anymore.
Ruchika Sikri 27:31
And the transition to me, at Google happened last year, where I kind of hit this point, like last year, January, where one of the executives, when they came to one of the executive development programme that I was leading, they said, something very beautiful to the audience at the fireplace chat that we were having.
Ruchika Sikri 27:59
And he said, you know, "We each have a role to play in an organisation. And when we and it's very important to know when that role begins, and when that role ends, and nothing goes on forever."
Ruchika Sikri 28:13
So in January last year, I took a transfer to work on a different project. And I realised like, maybe my role at Google has ended.
Ruchika Sikri 28:23
Because eight years doing mindfulness programmes, what a gift it was. And I know that you can continue doing the same thing. And there were signals coming in, you know, the type of work I was doing, the projects I had, my heart was not fully aligned with it.
Ruchika Sikri 28:39
Not that the projects were bad, people were great, projects were very creative. I didn't feel like I was the right person to do it.
Ruchika Sikri 28:47
And then last year, you know, in March, I ended up getting COVID. This was before vaccination came out, my whole family had it. And I took three weeks off from work, of course, because we were all sick.
Ruchika Sikri 29:02
And that was a moment where I realised like, wow, I could have died, right? And this is my second life, and I need to choose what I want to do with the second life. And I went back after I felt 100% Okay, 90%, okay.
Ruchika Sikri 29:19
And I told my manager, "Hi, I'm back. But goodbye, I can't be here anymore."
Ruchika Sikri 29:27
Because I feel I need to find alignment in my life. And I'm, you're amazing. The team is doing great work. But I don't think I'm the right fit for this team. And this was just two months into a transfer. I felt bad like I'm leaving the team in that situation that they have to backfill but it wasn't fair to stay for longer. So I left, you know, and March 31 is going to be my one year anniversary, leaving this mothership and you know moving on to this new world.
Risto Kuulasmaa 29:59
Then how did the world look with the fresh eyes, you know, stepping out from the mothership and looking at the world and starting to think, okay, well how to make a difference? What were your kind of remarks?
Ruchika Sikri 30:19
It was liberating.
Ruchika Sikri 30:22
I didn't think so, you know, when I was at Google, I'm like, I can never leave this place.
Ruchika Sikri 30:26
The wonderful people, I had, the opportunities, the projects, it was everything, you know, it had become my life.
Ruchika Sikri 30:36
But it felt so liberating.
Ruchika Sikri 30:39
And thankfully, I just had a beautiful community waiting outside to connect with. So I didn't stop. I just continued, like, you know, keeping up my connections within Google outside of Google.
Ruchika Sikri 30:53
And a whole world open up, I felt like somebody burst the bubble. And I'm suddenly like, out of this bubble, and I could see things more clearly I could have freedom, I could have possibilities that were untouched, untamped, of course, like the financial stability had completely shifted, because now it's all like exploration.
Ruchika Sikri 31:15
But at the same time, thankfully, I had planned my reserves enough to not worry about it, you know, for at least one year, I gave myself one year.
Ruchika Sikri 31:25
But it's been great. you know, I've had such heart to heart connection with real, authentic people in this last one year, and have been given more than what I deserve. Sometimes I feel Risto, in terms of opportunities and connections and possibilities, there's so much to be done that I feel my finite self, in terms of time, body and energy, cannot fulfil all of those responsibilities, that there's so much good work to be done outside.
Risto Kuulasmaa 31:56
And then things started to build towards Wisdom Ventures. How that came together?
Ruchika Sikri 32:04
Yeah. You know, one of the very unexpected things that happened when I left Google was a few startup founders started coming to me and said, "Hey, can you actually advise us?" "Can you be our advisor?"
Ruchika Sikri 32:21
And I thought, it's like the status I had with Google in my title was kind of, you know, someone from Google is on our advisor. But these were really genuine, authentic people wanting to create products and platforms and businesses that help mindfulness, human connection, wellbeing, compassion in the world.
Ruchika Sikri 32:42
And that was energizing for me because I was like, oh, my work, they get to work with innovators.
Ruchika Sikri 32:47
And so I joined many advising boards to understand and see where I can help. So that kind of started growing. And then Soren Gordhamer, my lovely friend, who is the founder of "Wisdom 2.0", he and I were also in touch about, like, what is my next chapter looks like? And he was exploring what's the next chapter for "Wisdom 2.0" looks like.
Ruchika Sikri 33:12
And I shared this with him that I'm somehow inviting this innovator energy in my life, right now, entrepreneurs who want to create technology, platforms, businesses that are good for humans and our planet.
Ruchika Sikri 33:25
And he said, "Oh, that's interesting, because, you know, I'm also really exploring that right now. Like, why wouldn't venture capital world prioritise, investing in companies that are really aligned with what we have been trying to do?"
Ruchika Sikri 33:39
And he already had this platform Wisdom 2.0, where you and I met a while ago, Risto, where he was cultivating conversations with really senior technologists in the Valley to say, what role does technology and mindfulness have together?
Ruchika Sikri 33:55
How can we create products that are less addicting and distracting in nature, but more connecting, an authentic creating authentic connection between human being and how technology in many ways has also disrupted our lives? you know, we were talking about the youth mental health is so compromised right now, because we feel like they're spending much more time on devices, with on Instagram, Snapchat, all of these things, what created with maybe a good mind of, you know, creating more connections for people, but it's also having a lot of adverse effect on society.
Ruchika Sikri 34:31
Especially after "Social Dilemma" movie came out. We were just boggle like how these algorithms work and why can't we have some governance? Why we cant' have some ethics in designing these technology and platform? And are there people outside, who want to invest in these projects and create platforms that are more helpful than, you know distressful?
Ruchika Sikri 34:53
And so we kind of, you know, he also was working with another partner of his and they had some attention going into it. So we came together and I kind of just put, as I always do, like, oh, amorphous idea beautiful, something that's helpful, great. And something that can scale, amazing. So let's put like a process around it. So my operational sense kicked in.
Ruchika Sikri 35:17
And we came together, we had some more people join, you know, Diego Perez, Yung Pueblo joined our team than Jack Kornfield, our wisdom holder, he joined the team, Gus Tai, he's a venture capitalist, he's been advising us for a long time.
Ruchika Sikri 35:36
And Bradley Horowitz has joined the team. He is a VP at Google and founder of Area 120.
Ruchika Sikri 35:42
So it's just beautiful to see like people who have had that internal shift in their life want to pay attention time and give energy to this project.
Ruchika Sikri 35:53
So that's how Wisdom Ventures came about.
Ruchika Sikri 35:55
And now we're an official company, with a great team in place with a beautiful community like we do once a month community gatherings, and more than 150 people show up and they share with each other their inspiration, intention, what they're wanting to create an what help they need.
Ruchika Sikri 36:14
So I don't think there's any venture firm out there that's developing a community around investments and innovation in this way. And I feel very proud of ourselves. And we hope that it Wisdon Ventures is successful and continues to grow and inspire many other venture firms to adopt a impact based mindset as compared to only returns on investment based mindset.
Risto Kuulasmaa 36:41
What is your relation to money?
Ruchika Sikri 36:47
Risto, I did not grow up with a lot of financial stability in my life.
Ruchika Sikri 36:52
And for me, like, you know, to have that stability came, that realisation came to me very, very early.
Ruchika Sikri 37:00
Like I remember, I was probably just starting high school at that time, to know that I want to be financially independent.
Ruchika Sikri 37:08
And thankfully, you know, I've worked hard and I've been given opportunities to have that in life. And we know that that's a you know, that structure is really needed that stability is needed to be able to grow in what else does life offer? Right? Like the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, if people know about that, it tells you like, you know, the clothing, shelter, food, are our basic needs.
Ruchika Sikri 37:36
And then, you know, we can do more sense making, meaning making. Have work line to doing more impact until we reached the self actualization. So that's my overall my personal relationship with wealth and abundance that, you know, we all need it.
Ruchika Sikri 37:51
And I remember this quote from Jim Carrey, I saw it on Facebook, he said, "I wish for everybody on this planet to have enough money, that they know that that's not the only thing we need in our life."
Ruchika Sikri 38:03
I'm probably not paraphrasing it well, but he said something in that context.
Ruchika Sikri 38:09
And now to bring it to the VC world, you know, it's all about money, right? It's the returns on investment, really high stakes, very high risk.
Ruchika Sikri 38:18
And I'm learning and growing in that field as well. But I feel the wealth is given to us, or the money comes to us as an energy. And it needs to circle because any type of energy when constricted, it can cause a lot of challenges, right?
Ruchika Sikri 38:41
We are energy and money is part of that energy that we have. So the stability that has been given to people who have been given some capital, I feel, you know, it's just our karmic contributions towards how to keep that money going, and how to make good things happen through that money.
Ruchika Sikri 39:04
And I think that's my relationship with this. And so that, so that's, that's where I'll pause and see if you will have a follow up question. But that those are my, my remarks on it.
Risto Kuulasmaa 39:17
What would be your message to people who see money as and, you know, some sort of fun negative force or there is a bias or negativity towards wealth?
Ruchika Sikri 39:31
Well, my invitation to, you know, it's the same as I give to myself that. I was talking to a sweet friend yesterday and we were talking about wealth.
Ruchika Sikri 39:31
And, you know, I feel my invitation to people who have the wealth and money is to have a relationship with it, to know that that stability has been given to you with a sense of responsibility to use that stability effectively to bring stability and others people's lives.
Ruchika Sikri 40:01
People who may have negative relationship with like, "oh, I don't need money", you know, it's also interesting, important to reflect on.
Ruchika Sikri 40:09
Why does one feel like that, maybe that whatever they have is sufficient, and they don't need any more. And that's fine. We need to honour and respect that.
Ruchika Sikri 40:19
And so you could design your life around that.
Ruchika Sikri 40:23
But if somebody wants, like more money, or does not want enough money, it's really important to reflect on why is it the case for you, I can't answer this for everybody.
Ruchika Sikri 40:35
But I always remember one of my founder of a company that I advise, I had the same conversation with them. And I was telling them, like, you know, I really don't care so much about the money, but I really want to serve and enable this work to them.
Ruchika Sikri 40:52
And he reminded me that "Ruchika, don't say that, like, you know, the wealth, again, is a it's an abundance that comes to you, so that you can use it effectively and wisely."
Ruchika Sikri 41:02
And that kind of like made me pause a little bit to say, okay, you know, if I get money, then you know, how can I circle it back so that it creates more abundance and stability for others, just the way I needed it, right?
Ruchika Sikri 41:16
Like if I had like, oh, I don't need money, but I want career stability and financial stability, like in going to Google and getting paid for it. You know, all of that is like part of the whole mix.
Ruchika Sikri 41:28
And so that's where, you know, my only invitation is like, you know, how we have health energy, we have spiritual energy, we have friends, social energy, I treat like money and wealth as an energy. And to enable us to be aware of it, and to regulate it and direct it in a way that's helpful for ourselves and for everybody around us as well.
Risto Kuulasmaa 41:56
Which imperfection you are working on your on your personal side currently?
Ruchika Sikri 42:06
Always everything is work in progress for me.
Ruchika Sikri 42:11
I think self doubt is something that I would say I have to practice a lot of self compassion to say, "Who am I to be doing this?" or "What am I to be enabling this kind of work?" "Am I capable of doing it?
Ruchika Sikri 42:27
So I have to like, just pause and see that talk going on in my head and respect it and honour it, because it's telling me to grow and to learn, and then have that effective relationship with it. I've always had that Risto, right, like, how am I worthy of it? Can I do it right? What if I fail?
Ruchika Sikri 42:53
And now I have a relationship with it. Because I know that that voice is only trying to... it's a friend of mine, which is speaking a language that typically a friend wants to say, but it's also gui... it's my guiding force as well to say, okay, yeah, I hear you. But I'm going to continue trying, I will make my list every day, I will make my connections every day, I will be open to receiving guidance and advice from others. And that's how I learn and grow.
Ruchika Sikri 43:22
So it's that imperfection, finding that perfection in the imperfection every day in every moment.
Risto Kuulasmaa 43:30
What would be your advice, how to be friend to your imperfection? I think that was what you were already describing.
Ruchika Sikri 43:40
I would say two words,
Ruchika Sikri 43:41
Be kind to it,
Ruchika Sikri 43:43
And bring curiosity to it.
Ruchika Sikri 43:47
So whenever we are up against, "I'm not good enough" or have self doubt, you know, know that there is that voice in most of us, like until we are like extreme narcissist or something. And we have completely, you know, we have delusion, and I probably have my own delusion states, you know, really just talking about in general.
Ruchika Sikri 44:13
I always invite like kindness and curiosity, in my mindfulness practice, when I become aware of this negative or unpleasant narrative that's going on in my head.
Ruchika Sikri 44:23
And they help me in this way, you know, if I'm curious, you know, then I have an objective relationship with it. I can become the observer of the movie, and I'm not participating in that movie. So it creates that distance. Curiosity is a very strong word. You can bring in any conversation that's happening in your head or with somebody else, like why are you presenting yourself to yourself or why are you presenting yourself to me right now? Always a great invitation.
Ruchika Sikri 44:49
Kindness is like, "Oh, it's my human nature".
Ruchika Sikri 44:53
There is this, you know, survival thing that's wired in my body, that I.. that will always warn me of any danger.
Ruchika Sikri 45:03
"Oh, that's why I need to be kind with myself right now."
Ruchika Sikri 45:06
Not to cut myself slack all the time. But you know, that enables you to take the next step and then take the next step, rather than, I'm just going to jump off the cliff today, or not even try.
Risto Kuulasmaa 45:18
How you define perfection?
Ruchika Sikri 45:24
I think it is imperfection. It is hiding in imperfection.
Ruchika Sikri 45:31
My definition of perfection is the agility, we can bring in our life, humility, adaptability, curiosity, the more like, you know, if you had a scale to measure this in your life every day, self compassion, compassion towards others, understanding each other, ability to listen, ability to be okay with the difference of opinions and teams and respect that and love that and admire it.
Ruchika Sikri 46:05
I think all of those qualities as they grow in our life, they drive us towards perfection. Not like how I'm dressed today. How is this? Am I speaking in the right volume here? Or am I the right person for Risto to be, you know, interviewing for this?
Ruchika Sikri 46:27
I think that's all opinions and thoughts and narratives that are always constantly going on. But our own sense of growth than learning, bringing in more wisdom, practice, creating a community, the more we have that around us, I think, the more perfect we are.
Risto Kuulasmaa 46:48
And what is your advice to young entrepreneurs striving for perfection and looking for financing, you start to see these kinds of type more and more often, right? What do you see there? And what would be your advice?
Ruchika Sikri 47:09
I would ask them to reflect on their definition of perfection.
Ruchika Sikri 47:13
You know, what is perfection for them? Is it a goalpost that they're trying to achieve? Or is it a process?
Ruchika Sikri 47:20
So my experience has been that perfection is a process, you know, and probably a never ending process.
Ruchika Sikri 47:30
I used to share the story in "Search Inside Yourself", which I would like to share with our audience today.
Ruchika Sikri 47:35
You know, you can we can go into a bathroom and clean it, you know, and it looks great. We can go in and continue cleaning it and cleaning it and cleaning it. Is it necessary? Likely not, right? So and each of us will have a different threshold on how much clean we want to see each of our bathrooms to be. So really reflect on that for yourself. Right? Like, you know, is perfection kind of disabling you from trying from taking risk from connecting from seeking skills and capabilities of other people that may be complementary to yours?
Ruchika Sikri 48:19
Or is it something that you are fine tuning to get better? And what's the worth of it? Right?
Ruchika Sikri 48:25
So each of us have a different definition for it. So reflect on that is my invitation to to them.
Ruchika Sikri 48:32
And also know that there is perfection and imperfection.
Ruchika Sikri 48:36
You know, I can't emphasise that enough in our talk today. And you know, specifically around financial needs as if entrepreneurs and creators are looking for funding for their projects. Just know that, it's hard, it's difficult to raise money.
Ruchika Sikri 48:59
But there are processes again, you can follow on getting your mission right, your vision right.
Ruchika Sikri 49:06
And and you know, how are you going to make the business happen, if there is a compelling story you can share with people who you're wanting funding from, you know, this, it becomes highly likely that you can get funding, but if you're not, then you need to fine tune your story a lot.
Ruchika Sikri 49:23
I have a book on my desk. And when I meet with entrepreneurs I always shared with them. It's like if you're looking for funding from VCs, particularly there are several books out there. But they will always ask you to have a pitch deck, you know, of 10 slides. What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Why are you the right person to do it? What is the impact if you come to Wisdom Ventors will ask you what is the impact you can create and why do you want to create that impact?
Ruchika Sikri 49:50
And typically in the last three or four slides, we'll read about business plan. What is your vision for two years where do you want to take this product and service and and how are you gonna get there? Right.
Ruchika Sikri 50:02
And if that seems compelling, where the impact meets the ROI, people will be interested in you.
Ruchika Sikri 50:08
So find the books and or mentors and advisors who can help you get there, because not all of us have been given all the gifts, but we have gifts of people around us. So leverage that, lean on people read books, the book I mentioned is called "Get back."
Ruchika Sikri 50:26
I don't get any royalties from them, but I mentioned, to mention it in every call. So I'll share it openly as well. It's a beautiful book, you know, you can flip through it very engaging, and it helps you helps you get your story right.
Risto Kuulasmaa 50:42
Thank you. I think that's a perfect answer and perfect advice and a perfect ending for this Imperfect podcast. T
Risto Kuulasmaa 50:51
hank you so much Ruchika for being our guests today.
Ruchika Sikri 50:56
It's a delight. Such a beautiful conversation with your Risto.
Ruchika Sikri 50:59
Thank you for bringing this to the world.
Risto Kuulasmaa 51:01
Thank you so much.
Risto Kuulasmaa 51:03
Thank you for listening the talks of imperfection. The podcast is enabled by Edita Prima. Edita, Prima orchestrates automated customer journeys to perfection by making cherished ideas of imperfection data frame.
Risto Kuulasmaa 51:19
That's all folks. Thank you for listening. Please subscribe to the podcast. follow us in Instagram, and hold tight till the next episode.
