From darkness to light: Honoring my mentor’s unwavering support ❤ Durai Praveen D
One has to reach certain stage of misfortune to be eligible for a certain extent of charity. And that (com)passion is celebrated for the eternity of life. Such is my debt to his consistent and the most qualified mentoring I have been blessed with. Thanks to you, Captain! (all rights registered only I call him Captain :P)
Known for his great poise, strong stoicism, and yet such welcoming and warm energy! He is probably the one of the few who has a singular life (unlike most people who have work life and personal life differently). Hands-down, the best at leadership qualities and professional communication. Of all, the top is his commitment to his strong ethics, values and purpose that hold true even in vacuum. As his WhatsApp status rightly says,
“Living life powerfully and a life I love!”
Mentoring is a great tool to live such purposeful and impactful life. All the influential people in my life (mostly teachers, professors, senior colleagues) impacted me through mentoring. They not only gave me hope, but they also gave me strength, validation, direction and motivation to grow.
An unsolicited hypothetical situation.
If I have to pick having a life-long partner vs having a mentoring relationship, I will always go for mentoring. Not stating that love is not great. I think I like the respectful distance and personally prefer a platonic bond that demands more selflessness.
Within these 1.5 years of journey with him, I went through two lay-offs, one most awaited rejection, getting out of the hopelessness black hole, a month-long hospitalization, and then a major career milestone, finding LOML following a devastating heartbreak, healing from all of the above, unlearning and relearning! AND some AMAZING breakfasts around the city of Hyderabad.
(Wow as I pen down, mentoring me must be a truly entertaining haha 🙎)
They say everything happens for a reason. For someone who went a lot of difficulties in variety of forms in life, encountering and connecting with such deep souls and great characters must be the real good reason for all of it!
Few things I remember from our mentoring journey:
- Duty First, Emotion Next (Eat even when you are sad. Duty for your body)
- “Fair” is a void word.
- Active living vs Passive Living. (Purpose makes living more meaningful.)
- Having Thoughts vs Thinking (Thoughts passes, Thinking stays)
- Are you truly listening? (Listening happens from outside)
- Am I empathizing or Am I thinking that I am empathizing?
- Don’t entertain the kitty (The mind kitty is mischievous).
….so many more as every breakfast we share marks as a great learning and exchange of perspectives.
Landmark leadership program.
He often mentions the influence of Landmark forum in his transformational journey which coincidentally, was also something I tried. This forum is attended by Business Leaders (Larry Pearson), Celebrities (Allu Arjun, Kajal Agrawal), Entrepreneurs, Scientists etc. Of course, it hasn’t impacted my life in such extent. (I was 17 and wasn’t truly ready).
When I met DP, I could see the power of the program and witness how epitome of it can be like.
It clearly shows why the right person at the right place can also attest to the true quality/potential of something.
His socials:
On that note, here are 3 good-to-read HBR articles about mentorship:
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — Afterword: — — — — -— — — — — — — — — — — —
It took me many days to pen down this article unlike the others, which take me roughly 15–20 minutes. The journey I travelled with DP is immense and is extremely difficult to make justice to the entirety of it with mere words. I am truly grateful for this life-changing interaction.
As DP continues serve his profound purpose of mentoring in order to bring great culture in organizations and their personal lives, I wish him all the power and luck to anyone who needs it and deserves it.
Thank you!
