So uh good day, everyone. Good day. Uh I am Shahan from India. I hope everyone is uh doing well to give a short introduction of myself. Uh I have been in the corporate sector for a few years now.I work as a senior infrastructure developer at Parkinson Technology Solutions, a multinational company in the information technology sector. Outside my work. I also ate start ups. And right now, I'm working with a start up called Save and Restore in partnership with Wise Power in the energy sector based out of Palo Alto, California as an energy growth strategist. Uh My areas of interest are energy management, business strategy and women in energy. So let's begin.

I hope you all are comfortable and won't fall asleep while I'm uh presenting right there. So this is a very interesting topic. I'm here to talk about growth. Uh What do you mean by growth? Evolving, improving? Yeah, all these terms are wonderful and relatable. But how do you understand the concept of truth? Let me start by giving you an example. My parents love gardening. Uh We live in a flat so we don't have a backyard, but we do have a balcony. A couple of years ago, they decided to grow a mango tree y in the balcony. Uh My dad bought a huge unused uh trash can and filled it with mud and manure and mango seed. Uh It took almost a year but the tree grew and uh we also were able to get a couple of mangoes out of it. Uh But in another 5 to 6 months, uh the size of the can start to bend and crack. The roots had overgrown because they did not have space. So my mom, a woman uh who is the epitome of love, kindness and care. She suggested that we cut open the camp and I remember her saying it's a living beam, it needs space to grow. Somehow, we managed to take it out and plant it in the back uh ground behind our building. So we humans function in a similar way. You know, that is how we understand and define the concept of growth.

If you have the necessary freedom, you have the environment to thrive, you will grow. We are also like a sunflower. If you notice it turns its head where there is sun. So we do need to find that sunlight and space to grow. So I will be covering three major sections here today. Uh Personal growth, professional growth and growth beyond 9 to 5. So let's begin, shall we personal growth? This section will focus on tapping that inner strength, you know inside you to grow in your personal life today.

Among all those who have gathered here, how many of you cook something to eat because your kids liked it. How many of you did not change the channel on your television and watch something boring because your partner liked it. How many of you said that? I don't care where the kids are today. I need this break. How many of you decided to let go of that sexist comment at work because you needed that client of thousands of women here right now. Hardly three poisoned women would have done that. What about the others? Now, your question to me would be. So what shouldn't we do all this? Should I lose my job? If I don't let go of certain things, I end up becoming a bad mother or a partner or daughter or colleague. Let me tell you something. Ladies, if you go to score drugs and did not come back for a week, then you're a bad person, then you're a bad mother partner or whoever. But if you go out for a walk for 30 minutes or paint once in a while without caring, what is happening around you, you're doing the right thing. The only step to reach that level of person growth is to draw a line. That's it. Draw a line. The greatest example I can give you right now from my life is my sister. She's an amazing person. She is packed with work every day and of course, helps around the house more than I do in fact.

But no matter how busy she is, she somehow manages to take out time for painting or recording a music video, practicing her singing or playing that ukulele. And when she does that, we don't bug her, we just leave her alone because she is somehow engulfed in that. And that gives us a feeling that we need to give her the space. She will tell, uh you know, you will uh tell me it's not like we don't want to do it. So we just don't have the time. Things are different when you have kids hanging on to you all day. I, you are not wrong, your neighbors, you, your friends, your family, you know what you would have to say to them, whatever is convenient to you find a way to uh not make your kids go away, but maybe just let them take care of them for 30 minutes a week. Is that so hard to ask? Is that too much to ask for yourself? If you have a goal, you will make time for yourself. This is uh like a greatest example right now. You wanted to attend this conference and you did. This is happening on a weekday. It's a Thursday. Many of us are attending this, you know, or giving a talk or gathered at a session right now, right in the middle of the week, right? Some of you decided to skip the laundry today.

Some of you decided to not, uh, wash the kitchen sink or maybe you took a half day off at work to attend this conference, didn't you? So, if you want to keep your hobbies and interests alive, you need to keep that as your priority task at least once a week or so. Only then you will be able to make time for something you love to do. You know, people say when you get a job or when you get married, you will have the freedom to do a lot of things. It might be true to an extent, but financial or social freedom is not personal freedom. You should have the space and freedom to choose your interests and hobbies. If you are choosing to do something in a way that it adjusts along with the your schedule for namesake, that is not good. That is you clamping an extra cough to your anger, giving time to everything is important. I get that too. Family time, work, parents, Children, partner, friends, colleagues. So you continue to act upon your hobbies in such a way that the remaining schedule aligns with your personal goal.

You need that time. And each one of you here today knows its importance. We underestimate and push away those precious 30 40 minutes of our week to accommodate everybody and everyone else. Right? And at times, we just lash out because we are burnt out and then people are like, oh, she's gone crazy. She's lost it. No, we are not crazy. We are normal people descending into crazy trying to shut down our feelings and manage. Work more than we can imagine. We have all tried to wait for the other person to understand that we are burning out but it doesn't work, does it? Nobody will save you. You have to do it for yourself. And that is personal growth when you choose you for, if you cannot choose you for 30 minutes, why are you, why? What is the purpose of your personal life when you realize and make the change in your own life? That's personal growth. Now, before moving on to the next section, I want every one of you to uh write down right now when you are done for the day, you will just check the schedule for this week or next week. You don't have to do it every day, once a week or once a fortnight.

We do the job and move some things around to do something that will reboot your system, not something that will fit in with your current schedule, something that will alter your current schedule for your personal group. So next up on, we have a professional growth in this section.

I wish to cover the trick to finding the turning point in your career. How would you define career? I have a job. Does that count I love doing my work. I guess that's career. Right. I like what I'm doing, but I don't really like my workplace, although I'm happy about my financial independence. Does that count? No, no, to all of them. Having a job is just part of having a career, even if you're ok with the work. But you have no scope for growth in the organization, then you are just having a job. Your career is not particularly taking you places. Isn't it a place in your life where you love what to do? You know that you have a chance to stay at your current organization and learn many things and you have goals for the next 5 to 10 years is my definition of career. But let me remind you, everybody has their own definition. So you need to find out what is the current situation. One example I would again like to uh give from my personal life is uh my father, one of the most hard working people I have met in my entire life. He has been working for the past 30 years of his life. He was on his own by 16, left home, traveled across halfway across the country to start his career with a constant struggle to finish education and work.

Paraly, I remember him telling me he had changed about 14 jobs in the first two years of his career life before he found his current job. And he has been here in this job for over two decades. It's been 25 years. He started low, made his way to the top because he knew the possibilities and the opportunities of growth in his current organization. He is one of those men who loves what he's doing. I have never seen him complain about anything in life. He's tired. He's sometimes a little frustrated but never ever complaining. Not even about how packed he's at work works like 1214 hours a day or how people around him are constantly relying on him to, you know, get things done. His idea of having a career is to find that point in your life. It could be at 18, it could be at 38. There is no limit to that. When you feel that what you're doing is satisfactory, but it is not enough to be considered as fulfillment. That is your turning point. I repeat that again when you feel that it's satisfactory, but it is not fulfilling. Most of you right now are in a job where you either seem to be ok with the work or wish to transition into something better. I'm a huge example of that. My current work is in information technology, but to be honest by my, my passion interests background, they all lie elsewhere. Hence I'm in a constant effort to move forward towards into that field.

I have often heard people say life happens, shut up and sometimes you cannot change your path and sometimes you have to change path in ways that you can't imagine. So how could we find out that, you know, to any point to them? I will say it's good life happens, you know, it is good. My dream was to become a pilot, then a space scientist, then become a geotechnical consultant. Today, I want to become the best energy consultant and strategist in the world of policies. That is because life happened, we keep molding our dreams and interests and each streamlining them based on what life has to offer us. But that is the best thing about this, right? Because life just give us a liberty to choose if we wish to stay with the with whatever it has offered or do we wish to move on? Right? We we should change in something better. So I would say the trick to finding that turning point in your career is the power of having a choice. I repeat, it's the power of having a choice which everybody does in their life. Nobody can analyze your career uh situation right now except you. We will continue to have increased responsibilities in life as we grow older and that never goes away, but you don't have to stop growing because the back gets heavier. I wish to convey just one point before moving on to the next section.

Your idea of growth, whether that includes changing your job, changing your department or leaving the job and starting up something of your own comes from the power of choice to change something that isn't working for you right now and that isn't working in the favor of your career fulfillment paths right now.

Making an action plan. It might not happen tomorrow or in a year because everybody has commitments at home, family or whatever the underlying reasons you are allowed to take calculated risks in life, not gamble. That's a part of a professional group. Don't let the group stop you because then you become a rock, right? Well, moving on to our final segment growth beyond 9 to 5. Now, this is the most important part, you know, when compared to both professional and personal, because those are two streamlined and this is a very vast section as the title suggests, I will be touching upon growth in our lives beyond what the 9 to 5 job has to offer. Your question would be, doesn't that come under personal brochure, sir? Anything beyond a 9 to 5 job is a personal life. So why a separate segment? Well, the major highlight for this would be networking. You know, women need to network, women need to get out there. I know women who have so who are so talented, who are so talented and yet they are not enough out in the field to you know, play the field. So networking is one of the major factors why I came up uh with this topic. So this final segment consists of an example, very specific to me. Uh Many people have painful stories where their surrounding conditions were worse and yet they have thrived.

So if you're not able to connect to this story, that is ok, you know, the mountains you have climbed along and you know, the ones you have to climb even more. Like I said before, my dreams kept changing eventually due to the variable circumstances in and around my environment. When I got into my university, when I was back to the university, I was enrolled, being a civil engineer, I knew the second day itself, I was very clear in my life, what I wanted to become, I wanted to become a geotech consultant. But unfortunately, while filling out the application form, I had given electrical as a preference over civil. So in a week when the space opened up, I was moved to electricity, I was devastated. I was like, why did I even choose that? I couldn't understand what went wrong. We all have that dark throat and mine was extreme at the time. Somehow I toiled through four years and graduated. I even managed to get a job right after I left the university. Some of them just couldn't make it. I was glad I changed jobs, of course. And I landed up where I am today. I'm fine with the job, but deep down I know this is not my calling.

So I am here creating a strategic action plan to transition into a field of my own choice that resonates with my passion and also makes use of my background as an electrical engineer. When you are in such a phase or not, you need a supportive network to help you transition better. Even if you do not wish to switch carriers, you will need that network to grow more in whatever field you are right now. I am building that network as we speak outside my working art. I'm learning extra skills and gaining market knowledge that will help me with the transition. When uh someone heard me talk about this the other day, they said, Shaha, you are walking the talk. I was happy to hear that glad too. But that comment was not going to stop me because I just somebody just put me on the 11th club because it's a never ending process. So my question to you whether or not your job fulfills the purpose of your career? What is stopping you from growing in that field beyond your work hours? What is stopping you? Are you networking enough with experts around the world in your field? Are you learning something new because you want to have that knowledge or because it's a mandatory skill at work?

Do you have a career mentor? If not, if you have many years of experience, are you mentoring someone who is just starting out in, in your field in their career? Are you following the latest news in your field of work. Are you part of any community sector attending webinars trying to give back to, you know, being a volunteer by being a speaker? Finally, do you think you are getting too comfortable in your zone of 9 to 5 job, family life that you are cut off from a world that may be, may find your intellect and expertise so useful and important. The moment you decide to choose to improve, engage and share what you have. You are choosing both. You do not have to be someone with experience or travel the world to work on a growth factor. You just need to have an open mind and a giving heart and the and you know, the will to lead a more purposeful life with the most important treasure, you possess your knowledge that is growth beyond 9 to 5. Now I know many women would be like. So you want us to have a great career, take out time for ourselves, manage family also do something beyond a 9 to 5 jobs for growth. What am I superwoman? No superwoman only has a job to save the world. You are doing everything else in the world.

So to that, I will say yes, you were born a woman. You did not have the choice in that. That's all right. But being a woman gives you the power and the unlimited strength to be able to live a full life. Given you take the ownership of what you, whatever your situation is right now in your life and go forward with it, that is growth year 9 to 5. And this brings us to the end of the session. But before I do, I do, I want to tell every woman sitting in front of the screen right now who has at least once in her life gone through a situation of disrespect or, you know, not getting enough credit phase that often you have heard the phrase you have to earn respect, not ask for it.

It is true. But there are times when you just because someone isn't disrespecting you doesn't mean that you did not try to gain their respect. Maybe they are not capable enough to respect you when you face such people, you would know the difference. So move forward and stay motivated. That is all the time I have today. I hope that in all the sections I covered today, I was able to motivate some of you to find the growth factor in your personal and professional domain. I used some examples from my people around me and you will find them around you too. You just need to find the right tap within you to grow. Thank you so much, everyone. And uh I guess we do have a couple of minutes or maybe the time is up. Uh So if anyone has any questions, you can put them in the chat box or reach out to me on linkedin or email. Thank you.