"I don't know what I want to do with my life" Fellowship

It is hard to figure out what one wants to do with one’s life amidst the cacophony of everyday life complemented by our inner voice that seems to be running pillar to post at breakneck speed.

There is no formula for self-discovery. There have, however, been some attempts in the form of psychometric tests, algorithms and guided medical trials. No success stories so far but perhaps that isn’t such a bad thing. It will be a tad disappointing to know that our professional futures can be charted out by rudimentary algorithms. That said, are these rudimentary algorithms any worse than current ways of figuring out what next? Who knows..

We don’t want to make this a theoretical discussion. Let’s focus on figuring out what to do with this one crazy life that we have.

Most of life is a search for who and what needs you the most.

“Your goal in life is to find the people, business, project, or art

that needs you the most. There is something out there just for

you. What you don’t want to do is build checklists and decision

frameworks built on what other people are doing. You’re

never going to be them. You’ll never be good at being somebody

else.”

"I don't know what I want to do with my life" Fellowship

Whether you are a high school student, college senior, young graduate, mid-career professional, you will need to learn to reinvent yourself multiple times. It isn’t easy and you can’t do it alone. That said, it can be heaps on fun if you do it with a cohort of people you resonate with.

This age-agnostic fellowship will help you learn new things, read charming content, meet interesting people and discover what piques your curiosity. No one else can tell you what you should do. The decision needs to come from you but there are some proven techniques that can help figure out the problem that needs you the most. Isn’t that what your work should be about?

Category of One

As Utkarsh explains in his Harvard Business Review article, “The 21st century will be sprinkled with multiple disruptions in work and life. Reinventing ourselves will be the most valuable skill, but reinvention doesn’t necessarily mean recreation. Those who chase every hot new trend and compete for every outcome will be exhausted. Those who build a category of one and adapt will make a tangible impact and have fun doing so.”

Fellowship Structure

1. The first aspect of the Fellowship will be meeting interesting people doing interesting things.While we can’t cover every possible field, we will attempt to give you exposure to as many fields as possible. You will hear from top professionals from around the world. They won’t attempt to inspire you or tell you how amazing they are. Instead, they will focus on explaining the role of serendipity, planning, hard work (or the seductive illusion of it), networking etc. in their work life. This will be breadth-based exposure as we don’t want you to specialize in something without knowing why you are specializing. This “first become an engineer or an MBA and then figure your life” plan does not work.Remember that you can’t copy someone else’s playbook if you want to build your category of one but you can and should take inspiration from a tribe of mentors. No one is asking you to blindly follow their advice. You should lean in, critique them, debate with them and build a strong bond premised on a shared growth mindset.2. Read interesting books, research papers and articles.It is impossible to keep up with the sheer volume of content online. Someone asks you to network hard, other argues that networking is for losers, someone makes a case for extroversion, other argues that introverts run the world. Who is right? The short answer is that it is all contextual but you already know that. This fellowship will help you figure out what to read, what to ignore and propel you to read the ten odd books you must in order to smartly make sense of the world around. The Network Capital founder and employees are different. They read hundreds of books but you don’t need to go down that route if you don’t feel like it. Essentially never feel compelled to do something just because you feel you are supposed to.3. Listen and watch timeless content.Yes, there is incredible content online. We get immense joy in bringing the best teachers to create masterclasses and podcasts for you. In this fellowship we will pick some of our absolute top quality content and engage in long-form discussions with you. Simply knowing something is not the same as engaging in it. We will also discuss selected publicly available content so that we can internalize the key principles together. It is time for in-depth immersions, not perfunctory perusals.4. Work on projects.The second-last phase of this fellowship will be working on a short project. For example, if you find impact investing or product management interesting, we will assign a short project to you and have it evaluated so that you can figure out if you actually enjoy those fields engaging. Many times we are propelled by external factors, not genuine curiosity. We must avoid such situations.5. Get a certificate.

On successful participation and meaningful engagement, we will award certificates of completion that you can share on LinkedIn, put on your CV and talk about in your application to schools/scholarships.

We are excited to embark upon this journey with you. 

Afterthought: “If things were simple, word would have got around" — Jacques Derrida

Your INSIDER Team,

1. To signup for office hours, please use this link. It is free for all Insiders every day - no strings attached.

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3. If you are new to Insider, please read this and write to Aditi ([email protected]) for access to Network Capital TV, Insider Specific Groups, Job Board, Book Club, Interest Groups etc