Bijay Gautam – Take Your Career Advice From People Who Know the Industry

Mar 16, 2020

Ask episode

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

Bijay Gautam is the Co-founder of WYN Studio, a company that creates podcasts for brands.

He hosts one of the top podcasts in India, The Inspiring Talk. On this podcast, he chats with top entrepreneurs, best-selling authors, thought leaders, and celebrities about their journey.

As India’s first Podcast Coach and Consultant, he has coached over 100 people and helped over five organizations launch their podcasts. He has conducted podcast workshops and training across the country, reaching over 2,000 participants.

Bijay has been featured in various media and is a frequent speaker at conferences and events.

Before all this began, Bijay was working as a Research Scientist in a leading Pharmaceutical Company. He was losing motivation and drive in his life, and that’s when he started The Inspiring Talk. Within 15 months of starting his podcast, he quit his job to follow his passion for podcasting and inspiring people through his podcast.

“Don’t take advice from someone who has not walked the path that you want to walk.”

Bijay Gautam

Worst investment ever

A natural orator

Bijay was always that guy who loved talking and being in front of people. He’s the guy every club in high school wanted to emcee their event. Debate and public speaking clubs were his favorite. And so, naturally, Bijay knew that he needed to study communication and media and become a radio jockey, television presenter, or anything to do with putting his face out there and talking.

Seeking the best career advice

When Bijay completed high school and was preparing to join college, he spoke to a couple of people asking what they thought about media as a career. They advised him against it, claiming that media was going down and would have no secure career options. They told him that he’d not make a lot of money from it and he was better off picking a more popular course.

The interesting thing is that these people had no background in media and had no idea what they were talking about. But, Bijay looked up to them, and so he took their advice and enrolled for a course in pharmacy.

The ever-rising star

Bijay invested four years studying pharmacy. Even though he was doing well topping his class, getting scholarships, and also being awarded as the best student of pharmacy, in the back of his mind, he hated the choice he made. But he kept at it. He finished at the top of his class, and in the final year, he got placed at the top pharmaceutical company in India.

To the outside world, this was a huge success. Bijay had made it. His stellar performance continued even at his job. In the first year, he got recognized as the most promising candidate for his organization.

Quitting the act and staying true to his dreams

But even though he was a success, Bijay hated his job. After three years of working in a pharmaceutical company, he realized he was running a race and winning that race, but he wasn’t sure that was the race he wanted to be running.

After investing lots of tuition money, four years of college and three years of working, Bijay realized that he had made his worst investment by going into pharmacy instead of following his heart and getting into media. And so he quit, started a podcast, and he hasn’t looked back since.

Lessons learned

Take career advice from the right people

Your best career advice will come from someone who has walked the path that you want to walk.

Follow your gut

For the jobseeker choosing a career path, follow your gut without thinking about if you’re going to make a lot of money or if you’re going to make it big in this or not. You need to listen to your own heart and just go with it without listening to a lot of people.

Andrew’s takeaways

Break free from the sunk cost fallacy

Just because you’ve sunk time, money, and energy into something doesn’t mean that you have to keep doing it. To manage your risk, stop sinking further immediately. The reality is what is gone and done is already gone and done no need to keep doing it.

You can make your mark anywhere

Find a place that you enjoy what you’re doing and build your little area in that spot. Don’t worry about the overall industry.

A mantra can get you out of a negative mindset

Find a positive mantra and repeat it every single day several times until it creates a little radar in you. You’ll find that it does change your thinking, and it helps you to get out of a harmful environment.

Actionable advice

Stop and ask yourself one question; Is this the investment that I wanted to make? Whether that’s time invested in your relationship or financial investment in something. Whatever it is, ask yourself if this investment is going to help you to achieve your dreams or goals. If the answer is no, no matter how difficult it is, move on from that situation. It’s the right thing to do for your happiness and peace of mind.

No. 1 goal for the next 12 months

Bijay’s goal for the next 12 months is laying the foundation for WYN Studio so he can build a great company. He hopes to use WYN Studio to create amazing shows that people would want to listen to and hear some of the beautiful stories to share.

Parting words

“Don’t forget to ask yourself, ‘Is this the investment that I wanted to make?’”