Identifying Superpowers in Others

“The world is a very big place and most of the time if we look at what changes we can make in this whole world, It can get daunting.”

Gaurav: You have a pretty big world. How do you manage that world? Because as you said that you cannot take care of the world, which could be really down daunting in your own world itself, how to take care of them?

Rajesh: I only remember the things that they think are important. For example, I don’t remember anybody’s birthday, anybody’s wedding anniversary because I really don’t care. Not because I don’t know them. Because their system event thing that happens every year. If LinkedIn, Facebook pops up, I’ll just send them a birthday note. Otherwise, they’re not expecting anything from me. Because I’m very disorganized. But I remember only two things. What do they care about? And what are their superpowers?

That’s all I remember. And then I always think, how can I show this person that I care about what they care about? And how can I bring something where they can use their superpowers to make some magic happen?

What I get in return is just looking at the possibilities, the joy of something being done, the joy of seeing a smile on somebody’s face, the joy of seeing them do magic, and just being more aware that they can do magic. That is priceless.

Gaurav: What does that bring to you? I’m a firm believer that anything that we do, we have a selfish interest in that. Being selfish is not wrong. When you are saying to see somebody happy, it gives you genuine joy. And my interaction with you has definitely validated and re-validated that you see happiness in people’s happiness. What’s your selfish interest?

Rajesh: My selfish interest is my own superpower, God has given me the superpower to see potential in others and then they can’t see that themselves. So, I have to bring it out. If everybody I touch discovers more of themselves, what will happen? They are already good people. They will do even more good things. The world is a better place anyway. And for me, if there’s even a small percentage of people that I helped, if I can tap into their brilliance, whatever projects I’m doing are a breeze. 

The purpose has always been to provide quality help. Anything that I’ve achieved in my life, I’ve done it effortlessly because if I have pushed better access to quality help from people that bring themselves to the party, then only 100% amazing things will happen. So, look at it, my projects are being done in an effortless way. Day in and day out I see people smile and discover for themselves more power than they thought they had.

About the Speaker

Rajesh Setty is a Silicon Valley-based serial entrepreneur and business alchemist. He has co-founded more than a half-dozen technology and publishing companies. He has been a member of the founding teams of various technology and publishing companies (10x) since 2000. A few have gotten out, a few have made it to the startup graveyard, and the remainder are making progress. Audvisor is the company’s newest initiative, a mobile audio streaming app with micro-podcasts from over 125 world-class specialists.

He has written and published various novels (18x) since 1983, with his first book being published when he was thirteen years old. Four murder mysteries, a collection of poems, a book on mathematics, six business books, and two books on how to get people to think are among the books available and has around 2,000 blog articles.

Since 2016, he has produced over 2500 Napkinsights (a napkinsight is an insight that fits on a paper napkin). Rajesh has also produced a package of 101 thank you cards with distinctive designs, two decks of playing cards with mini sagas (stories of exactly 50 words each), and more.