Deepak Sethi on Mindfulness, Resilience and Self-Transformation

For Deepak Sethi, the most important part of leadership may happen long before the boardroom: in the mind. His career has taken him from India and Indian Oil to the United States, Penn State University, AT&T, Thomson Reuters and consulting, while his personal journey has led him deeper into meditation, psychology, spirituality and mindfulness. Today, his work centres on self-transformation and the practice of living mindfully.

Business Now spoke with him about the experiences that shaped his career, why mindfulness became central to his work, what setbacks taught him about resilience, and how understanding yourself can influence both personal growth and professional success.

Take us through your journey. What were some of the experiences that shaped you personally and professionally?

Deepak Sethi: I grew up in Bombay. I went to St. Xavier’s College for a year, then I went to Baroda Kalabhavan, MS University, for my engineering. After engineering, I worked for a couple of years for Indian Oil.

Then I got a Rotary Fellowship scholarship. I was based in Allahabad with Indian Oil when I competed for the Rotary Fellowship and was lucky to win. They funded my first year of MBA expenses and assigned me to Penn State University in Pennsylvania. I had to get my own admission, but I came as a Rotary Fellow.

It was a wonderful experience. I travelled, interacted with Rotary Clubs, gave a lot of talks and had a very good response. I was treated very well and had a great two years.

Then I worked at AT&T and the revered CEO Bob Allen presented me with a plaque of his portrait with a handwritten note thanking me for preparing future leaders of AT&T. I later worked with other large companies, including Thomson Reuters. Both were very good to me. I eventually did some consulting on my own.

It has been a fascinating journey because when you move to a new culture, then to a new company, and eventually work on your own, each is a wonderful experience and an opportunity to learn.

“Everything starts with the mind. The mind can either simplify things or complicate things.”

What led you toward mindfulness, and what made you want to write a book around it?

I have been into spirituality and psychology for a long time. I studied Albert Ellis and Rational Emotive Therapy. I used to travel two hours each way from my home to listen to him because I was so interested in his work.

From there, I moved into meditation, including Transcendental Meditation, and then became more interested in understanding the mind and noticing how everything starts with the mind and thoughts.

I reached a stage where I monitor my thoughts on an ongoing basis. If a thought is negative, my formula is to make it neutral and then move it toward a positive thought.

Many times I do it just by saying “Aum.” I have Jewish friends, and I tell them to say “Shalom.” To other people, I say use the word “Home,” because home is where love is, where you belong and where you feel safe.

So either Aum, Shalom or Home. That distracts you from whatever negative thought is coming into your mind.

The challenge is to control the mind that way and get into the habit of recognising your thoughts.

The planned book came from this interest. I wrote an article on mindfulness and it was very well received. I received encouragement from extremely respected people in different fields, including Indian and American celebrities, renowned authors, scholars, cardiologists, entrepreneurs and politicians.

When people who recognise the value of your work tell you, “You are onto something good. Do it. Do more of it,” it feels good and encourages you.

The purpose of the book is to make a difference. It is about self-transformation.

You emphasise “living mindfully.” How do you see mindfulness going beyond meditation and becoming part of everyday life?

One of the great things about mindfulness is that it encourages you to observe your breath. You observe your breath going in and going out. That is something that also comes through Vipassana.

I actually went to Nashik to look at Goenkaji’s institution, although he was no longer there by then.

You get into the habit of observing your breath. The magic of that practice is that you transfer it to observing your thoughts.

You may start by observing your breath for 20 minutes a day through meditation. But then you have to live mindfully. That is why my focus in the book is not just the art or practice of mindfulness, but also living mindfully.

Once you have mastered the art of observation, it becomes easier to observe your thoughts. Then you can recognise, “This is a negative thought,” and change your response.

There are many kinds of meditation. Some approaches are slightly different, but by and large, the common thing is that you manage your thoughts. In a brief chat, even the most renowned Mindfulness guru, Jon Kabat-Zinn, agreed with my approach.

“Once you manage your thoughts, you can manage your behaviour. It has to start with thoughts.”

That is what makes mindfulness powerful. Meditation should not simply be something you do for 20 minutes and then forget about. The real question is what you do with that awareness in everyday life.

Your career also included setbacks and moments when you were not promoted. What did those experiences teach you about resilience, credibility and understanding yourself?

One challenge that always comes up is credibility. When you are new to a situation, like a new country or a new job, you have to establish your credibility.

I graduated from Penn State – a great institution but does not have the same image as that of an Ivy League, so you need to work harder initially to demonstrate your capability.

What creates credibility? A lot of it is the way you treat people. People remember how you make them feel.

Communication skills, competence, language skills, the ability to convince people and persistence all contribute to credibility. Of course, results matter the most.

Persistence plays a big part in anything you do. I am a big believer in grit. Grit means perseverance and passion — being passionate about something and not giving up.

But everything has not been rosy. There were opportunities where I was not promoted and somebody else got the opportunity. At the time, I didn’t have the wisdom to not feel bad about certain things.

When something is not in your control and you lose it, feeling bad about it only makes you worse. It creates more negative thinking. It prevents you from rolling up your sleeves and saying, “What can I do next?”

That is an attitude I learned over time.

What advice would you give someone trying to build a career, recover from failure and stay connected to themselves?

The first thing is stepping back and asking, “What am I good at? What do I enjoy?”

You have to understand yourself honestly. If something goes wrong, analyse the situation and ask: What was my responsibility? What did I do wrong? What can I learn from it? What can I make sure I don’t do again?

You also have to look at your strengths. People are most successful and most happy in jobs where their strengths intersect with what they like doing.

I am an entrepreneur at heart. I like being an entrepreneur. I did not take the risk because I did not grow up in a family of entrepreneurs. If I were to live my life again, I would probably become an entrepreneur because there is a certain joy in it.

The other thing is that you have to think big and be bold and not be limited by your own limitations. Say, “I am going to do it.”

When you fall down, you can feel bad or you can say, “Okay, I’m getting up.” Even if you fall down again, you get up again.

“I am getting up. I am doing it. I am going to be successful.”

That determination is connected to mindfulness because the way you think influences the way you act.

And finally, build a network. Start developing your network as soon as you enter a field. You learn from people, attend conferences, give talks and create opportunities to help one another.

You have to invest the time and effort to develop a network. You have to cultivate people, get into conferences, give talks and be visible.

From visibility and networking comes a brand. You build your own brand. I have always been a thought leader in Leadership Development and have lately expanded and added to my brand to also include Mindfulness — especially Living Mindfully.

So develop your abilities, develop your network and develop your interpersonal skills. Public speaking, for example, is something you can learn and improve.

As for the AI age, “God knows what’s going to happen. Nobody knows.” The important thing is to continue learning and developing yourself.